Batavia brings home
conference title, trophy
St. Charles North gains tie, nearly outfoxes Bulldogs
By Chris Walker
ST. CHARLES – Busy? Yep.
Batavia certainly has been just that in the past few days as the state series approaches.
Challenged? Definitely.
After hosting a very good Wheaton Academy squad on Saturday, the Bulldogs went to Waubonsie Valley on Monday, a team they haven’t had much success against recently. They earned a tie on Saturday and enjoyed a 4-0 win over the Warriors before arriving at St. Charles North on Tuesday for a 7 p.m. game against the host North Stars.
The prime-time matchup was both an Upstate Eight Conference game and the nightcap of Tri-Cities night, the annual gathering of the four area conference foes that culminates with the most successful team taking home the fox traveling trophy.
The Bulldogs were unable to leave St. Charles victorious, but they did secure a conference title with the 1-1 tie and took home the fox trophy, snagging it away from St. Charles East, which had held it for the past two seasons.
“They may not have been happy with or satisfied with the tie, and I’m glad they’re not satisfied, but they won conference and we get to keep the fox (trophy),” Bulldogs coach Mark Gianfrancesco said. “We did accomplish some of the things we set out to do at the beginning of the year, so we had to celebrate that.”
Batavia (14-1-2, 6-0-1) was aiming for a perfect finish in conference play, so the tie will tarnish that dream. The Bulldogs knew it wouldn’t come easy, especially with St. Charles North playing at home and a sizable crowd on hand.
“They were very physical and like to play more direct,” Batavia senior Ian Larson said. “One thing we didn’t expect was for them to come out with more intensity. They wanted it more than us, and by halftime we had regrouped and matched their intensity.”
St. Charles North (8-5-4, 3-1-2) really struggled on Saturday in a 5-1 loss at St. Charles East. To rebound so quickly was a surprising turn of events for the North Stars because they hadn’t really beaten themselves this year, but did against the Saints. Although they only had Monday to review what transpired on Saturday while preparing for the Bulldogs, whatever they did in a short period of time seemingly worked wonders.
“We just wanted to come out (on Tuesday) and work for each other and get the result we needed,” North Stars senior defender Nick Graham said. “You always should be motivated to play, but especially when you’re at home and going against a team like Batavia.”
Neither team could help their zero on the scoreboard enjoy a metamorphosis to a one or more during the first half.
Finally, Graham delivered. He scored on a penalty kick with 27:52 left in the game after teammate Chris Watson, who was named Chicagoland Soccer's Man of the Match, drew a foul in the box.
“Chris gives us something dynamic on the outside and he’s got a lot of pace,” Watson said. “He was able to give us some things offensively again.”
It was a huge momentum swing, albeit a short one, for the North Stars.
“Coach was saying how Batavia is one of the best teams in the state, so that gave us a lot of confidence,” Watson said. “We weren’t able to win, but we outplayed them for a lot of the game. That’s something we can feel good about and build going into the playoffs.”
Probably before any North Stars fans could utter, “Can we really hold on and shut them out?,” Batavia netted the equalizer.
It was no surprise that Larson was the culprit, delivering a goal just 62 seconds after the penalty kick from Graham. He curled a free kick away from North’s wall, and just like that it was 1-1.
“We were really doing our best to stand guys up and not dive in,” St. Charles North coach Eric Willson said. “We couldn’t afford to let Larson have too many opportunities in the back of the net.”
Larson has victimized teams time and time again this year, either delivering go-ahead and game-winning goals or coming up with the key assist. The North Stars didn’t shut him down, but they limited him, which was crucial.
“I thought defensively, we were really solid,” Willson said. “When you have a kid who is at such a different level than everyone else it’s tough, but I thought we did a real nice job with either Hanson Hagemann or our center mids.”
Playing for the third time in four days, the Bulldogs may not have been at their best, especially with no time to practice after games on Saturday or Monday. Still, they were able to finish strong and disallow the North Stars from earning what would have been considered a big upset.
“We’re not used to being down, so seeing us pick it up like that and going strong was nice to see,” Gianfrancesco said. “I liked the chances we had over the final 15 minutes, and it was a still a nice reaction by the boys. It was the first time we had been scored on in a while, so it helped answer the question, ‘How do you react to that?’ ”
You could say they responded pretty darn well.
Sure, they didn’t get to celebrate a win on the short ride home, but they did put the finishing touches on a conference title as well as earn the right to possess the fox trophy for approximately 365 days.
Isn’t that worth celebrating?
“It feels great to come out of here and win conference,” Larson said. “What we’ve been able to achieve so far this season says a lot about our team and how if we set our minds to something we can achieve it.”
Life and giving were also celebrated.
The Tri-Cities doubleheader (St. Charles East and Geneva tied a 2-2 in the earlier game) served as a fund-raising event for Drew Hahn, who was diagnosed with cancer.
Drew, a 13-year-old eighth-grader at Kaneland Middle School, is the son of Geneva baseball coach Matt Hahn. Check out a followup notebook on the Tri-Cities Challenge that includes more details about Hahn.
Starting lineups
Batavia
GK: John Faraone
D: Joe Jorgensen
D: Nick Konopacki
D: Daniel Zagoren
MF: Matt Allen
MF: Erik Faessler
MF: Adam Heinz
MF: Ian Larson
MF: Luke Laurich
MF: Mason Parlatore
F: Kevin Collins
St. Charles North
GK: Zack Norton
D: Nick Graham
D: Garrett Morgando
D: Brandon Stricker
MF: Alex Amro
MF: Luke Denson
MF: Hanson Hagemann
MF: Zach Morgando
MF: Ryan Olson
F: Lorenzo Estrada
F: Chris Watson
Man of the Match: Chris Watson, St. Charles North
Officials: Michael Bissman, Scott Lichtfuss, Bret Richter
conference title, trophy
St. Charles North gains tie, nearly outfoxes Bulldogs
By Chris Walker
ST. CHARLES – Busy? Yep.
Batavia certainly has been just that in the past few days as the state series approaches.
Challenged? Definitely.
After hosting a very good Wheaton Academy squad on Saturday, the Bulldogs went to Waubonsie Valley on Monday, a team they haven’t had much success against recently. They earned a tie on Saturday and enjoyed a 4-0 win over the Warriors before arriving at St. Charles North on Tuesday for a 7 p.m. game against the host North Stars.
The prime-time matchup was both an Upstate Eight Conference game and the nightcap of Tri-Cities night, the annual gathering of the four area conference foes that culminates with the most successful team taking home the fox traveling trophy.
The Bulldogs were unable to leave St. Charles victorious, but they did secure a conference title with the 1-1 tie and took home the fox trophy, snagging it away from St. Charles East, which had held it for the past two seasons.
“They may not have been happy with or satisfied with the tie, and I’m glad they’re not satisfied, but they won conference and we get to keep the fox (trophy),” Bulldogs coach Mark Gianfrancesco said. “We did accomplish some of the things we set out to do at the beginning of the year, so we had to celebrate that.”
Batavia (14-1-2, 6-0-1) was aiming for a perfect finish in conference play, so the tie will tarnish that dream. The Bulldogs knew it wouldn’t come easy, especially with St. Charles North playing at home and a sizable crowd on hand.
“They were very physical and like to play more direct,” Batavia senior Ian Larson said. “One thing we didn’t expect was for them to come out with more intensity. They wanted it more than us, and by halftime we had regrouped and matched their intensity.”
St. Charles North (8-5-4, 3-1-2) really struggled on Saturday in a 5-1 loss at St. Charles East. To rebound so quickly was a surprising turn of events for the North Stars because they hadn’t really beaten themselves this year, but did against the Saints. Although they only had Monday to review what transpired on Saturday while preparing for the Bulldogs, whatever they did in a short period of time seemingly worked wonders.
“We just wanted to come out (on Tuesday) and work for each other and get the result we needed,” North Stars senior defender Nick Graham said. “You always should be motivated to play, but especially when you’re at home and going against a team like Batavia.”
Neither team could help their zero on the scoreboard enjoy a metamorphosis to a one or more during the first half.
Finally, Graham delivered. He scored on a penalty kick with 27:52 left in the game after teammate Chris Watson, who was named Chicagoland Soccer's Man of the Match, drew a foul in the box.
“Chris gives us something dynamic on the outside and he’s got a lot of pace,” Watson said. “He was able to give us some things offensively again.”
It was a huge momentum swing, albeit a short one, for the North Stars.
“Coach was saying how Batavia is one of the best teams in the state, so that gave us a lot of confidence,” Watson said. “We weren’t able to win, but we outplayed them for a lot of the game. That’s something we can feel good about and build going into the playoffs.”
Probably before any North Stars fans could utter, “Can we really hold on and shut them out?,” Batavia netted the equalizer.
It was no surprise that Larson was the culprit, delivering a goal just 62 seconds after the penalty kick from Graham. He curled a free kick away from North’s wall, and just like that it was 1-1.
“We were really doing our best to stand guys up and not dive in,” St. Charles North coach Eric Willson said. “We couldn’t afford to let Larson have too many opportunities in the back of the net.”
Larson has victimized teams time and time again this year, either delivering go-ahead and game-winning goals or coming up with the key assist. The North Stars didn’t shut him down, but they limited him, which was crucial.
“I thought defensively, we were really solid,” Willson said. “When you have a kid who is at such a different level than everyone else it’s tough, but I thought we did a real nice job with either Hanson Hagemann or our center mids.”
Playing for the third time in four days, the Bulldogs may not have been at their best, especially with no time to practice after games on Saturday or Monday. Still, they were able to finish strong and disallow the North Stars from earning what would have been considered a big upset.
“We’re not used to being down, so seeing us pick it up like that and going strong was nice to see,” Gianfrancesco said. “I liked the chances we had over the final 15 minutes, and it was a still a nice reaction by the boys. It was the first time we had been scored on in a while, so it helped answer the question, ‘How do you react to that?’ ”
You could say they responded pretty darn well.
Sure, they didn’t get to celebrate a win on the short ride home, but they did put the finishing touches on a conference title as well as earn the right to possess the fox trophy for approximately 365 days.
Isn’t that worth celebrating?
“It feels great to come out of here and win conference,” Larson said. “What we’ve been able to achieve so far this season says a lot about our team and how if we set our minds to something we can achieve it.”
Life and giving were also celebrated.
The Tri-Cities doubleheader (St. Charles East and Geneva tied a 2-2 in the earlier game) served as a fund-raising event for Drew Hahn, who was diagnosed with cancer.
Drew, a 13-year-old eighth-grader at Kaneland Middle School, is the son of Geneva baseball coach Matt Hahn. Check out a followup notebook on the Tri-Cities Challenge that includes more details about Hahn.
Starting lineups
Batavia
GK: John Faraone
D: Joe Jorgensen
D: Nick Konopacki
D: Daniel Zagoren
MF: Matt Allen
MF: Erik Faessler
MF: Adam Heinz
MF: Ian Larson
MF: Luke Laurich
MF: Mason Parlatore
F: Kevin Collins
St. Charles North
GK: Zack Norton
D: Nick Graham
D: Garrett Morgando
D: Brandon Stricker
MF: Alex Amro
MF: Luke Denson
MF: Hanson Hagemann
MF: Zach Morgando
MF: Ryan Olson
F: Lorenzo Estrada
F: Chris Watson
Man of the Match: Chris Watson, St. Charles North
Officials: Michael Bissman, Scott Lichtfuss, Bret Richter