Geneva knocks off a feisty St. Charles East squad

By Darryl Mellema

There wasn't much separating Geneva and St. Charles East 17 minutes into the second half. In fact, the Saints had perhaps the better of the play in Wednesday's match at St. Charles North.

Then Brady Wahl hit a shot that was deflected straight back to Kevin Hilgart and Hilgart unleashed one of the goals of the season. The ball flew off Hilgart's right foot into the upper right corner of the net, the kind of goal soccer players dream of scoring.

If only the Vikings’ senior had put a lot of thought into the effort.

“Honestly, there was a lot of luck,” Hilgart said. “I struck it well and the placement was perfect. But I turned around after it went in and even I was kind of stunned.”

Asked if the intent was to hit the upper right corner with a laser beam, Hilgart chose the path of honesty over bravado.

“I'd like to say that I was, but I was not,” Hilgart said. “Charlie Lyon's a great goalkeeper for East. I was surprised to put any shot past him outside the 18.”

Hilgart's goal gave Geneva a 2-1 victory and bragging rights in the matches between Batavia, Geneva and the two St. Charles teams.

There is a garden decoration fox which goes to the team that fares best in the round-robin series of matches between the teams throughout the season. But as the matches do not form a tournament, the fox is just a symbol of domination and not a trophy. That didn't make Geneva's players any less pleased to tote the thing back home.

“We're happy to win it,” Hilgart said. “Batavia, Geneva, St. Charles North and St. Charles East – it's always a pretty good rivalry. I know a bunch of these kids on each of these teams from my club. We're all good sports about it, but we all want to win at the same time.”

In 24 hours, Geneva (14-3-2) has all but cinched the Western Sun Conference title and earned local bragging rights among Tri-City teams. The Vikings were 3-2 victors over Glenbard South on Tuesday, with Hilgart scoring all the team's goals in that match.

“My teammates have been setting me up well.” Hilgart said. “(Against Glenbard South), they pretty much put it on my foot.”
The fact that Geneva was in position to win the match was thanks to a penalty kick call with 10 minutes to play in the opening half, when a Geneva player was ruled to have been pushed in the penalty area. Wahl stepped up and put that kick away.

“We like the momentum and that we can get a result against good teams,” Wahl said.

Despite a good string of results, Geneva coach Ryan Estabrook said there are still areas in which to improve before next week's state playoffs begin.

“I don't feel like we've played well the last two games,” Estabrook said. “I don't feel like we played well or defended well. What we have done well is we've finished and we've kept the other team from scoring, and that's important. Championship teams find ways to win games even when they're not playing well.”

St. Charles East (8-7-1) more than played its part in the match. The Saints were arguably the stronger squad in the first half and took a lead within five minutes when Jesse Nagelberg put away a short shot after a scramble.

“They have some great players out there,” Estabrook said. “For large stretches of the match, they did outplay us, so we definitely need to improve.”

And the Saints continued to play well in the second half after falling behind. They saw their best chance to equalize just miss when Nagelberg rattled the crossbar with five minutes to play.

Man of the match: Brady Wahl

By Darryl Mellema

Geneva has worked to knit its midfield together, searching for greater continuity and strength even in the final matches of the regular season.

The Vikings showed great resiliency in defeating St. Charles East on Wednesday. Much of that came from the passing and tackling of Wahl.

“The practices have been pretty intense,” Wahl said. “Guys have been getting on each other. You always get that sense when it's about to be playoff time, though. Everything seems to be coming together nicely so we might be able to make a run.”

Geneva starts a pair of freshmen in midfield though the nature of high school soccer substitutions means there are a variety of players in those four positions for the Vikings at any given time.

“You have to be aware of the different styles everyone brings when they're in there,” Wahl said.

“We do a pretty nice job of that. I think we need to be a little more tight defensively when we have substitutions and guys come in off the bench. The communication's there. So as long as we stay focused there, I think the whole team will work off of that.”