St. Charles East rallies
for draw with Geneva
Saints come from behind twice to take home 2-2 tie
By Chris Walker
ST. CHARLES – Prior to the Upstate Eight Conference championship game last fall, St. Charles East hadn’t experienced losing.
The 2013 Saints also had only three ties, so they only had a few opportunities when they had to rebound from a loss or tie.
This year they’ve had more chances to learn from less-than-dominant performances. They dropped a 1-0 game to Batavia in the middle of September. Most recently, on Thursday, they fell 3-2 game to Class 2A powerhouse Wheaton Academy. They had another tough one on Tuesday -- although they survived Geneva’s upset bid during an Upstate Eight Conference River Division game at St. Charles North, as part of the annual Tri-Cities festivities.
The Saints never led. They fell behind 1-0 before scoring late in the first half to draw even just before half, and responded again in the second half on a late penalty kick to escape with a 2-2 tie.
“I thought it was a subpar performance for us,” Saints coach Paul Jennison said. “Even though I thought we had 90 percent of the possessions, we never really got that big break that we needed, and they got their two shots on goal.”
St. Charles East (13-2-1, 4-1-1) has been at, or near, the top of the various state rankings throughout the season, but Jennison knows that means nothing in the grand scheme of things.
The Saints' players from last year’s team know that after dominating opponents all season before losing at Metea Valley in the Upstate Eight title game, and then dropping a sectional title game 1-0 to Lake Park, which went on to finish fourth in Class 3A.
“We haven’t put two or three solid games in a row this year since the first week of the season,” Jennison said. “We have to get back to that, and we’ll work on it. We had an excellent result against (St. Charles) North on Saturday (5-1), but we fell off a lot today.
“If we played tonight like we played on Saturday, I think we win this this game quite comfortably, but unfortunately we didn’t. Not losing is our positive. Teams aren’t going to back down and step back and just let us win games.”
Expectations for the Saints are high, and they’ve been that way these past few seasons. Nothing’s changed this year, and they know that.
Jennison wants “the lads” to continue to collect wins, obviously, but he’s willing to cope with some of these minor setbacks along with way, so long as they ultimately pay off with a lengthy postseason run.
“If we’re still playing in a month’s time, I’d like to say I’d be fine with it,” he said. “It’s not a case of moving the ball around and looking pretty; it’s getting on the end of the cross. I don’t want to make too much of it. Tonight wasn’t the result we were looking for, and hopefully we’ll get a positive one against Wheaton Warrenville South (on Thursday).”
Geneva’s Jason Lagger, who was chosen Chicagoland Soccer's Man of the Match, helped the Vikings take an early 1-0 lead when he assisted Matthew Waldoch in the ninth minute.
“We talked about Jason putting enough spin with his left foot for me to split into a gap and get a right-foot touch,” Geneva's Matthew Waldoch said. “It worked.”
St. Charles East hasn’t been down very often this season. The Saints seem to answer when someone scores against them and Tuesday wasn’t any different, although the scorer was someone who has been absent recently.
Senior Zach Manibog, who missed games against Wheaton Academy and St. Charles North due to a hamstring injury, collected a Taylor Ortiz pass and redirected it into the net with less than four minutes left before the halftime break.
“Taylor had a nice flick on that one,” Manibog said. “I was just trying to beat the defender who was on me, and I got it past their keeper.”
Lagger displayed why he was deserving of recognition as “Man of the Match” when he perfectly executed a corner kick to Drew Klaus very early in the second half to help his squad regain the lead. The lanky Klaus used his size to head in the goal that gave the Vikings a 2-1 advatange.
“That was a brand-new play that we just worked on in practice,” Lagger said. “We tried it on the first corner, and those corners are weird because they go down, and they divot. I just ran it to Klaus because he’s 6-foot-4 and just towers over everyone, and he put it in.”
The Saints got a debatable penalty kick awarded to them with 14:32 remaining and Jordan Moore took advantage of the opportunity to make it a 2-2 game.
“Knowing we were down and only had so much time, I knew I had to score,” he said. “I relied on some positive mental reinforcement telling myself I would score.”
Geneva coach Ryan Estabrook sounded as if he thought the call might have been iffy.
“From my angle I couldn’t see, but talking to some other people from that end, they thought it was a pretty harsh penalty,” Estabrook said. “But that’s the game of soccer, you leave the result. While we might not agree with the call, it was the call that was made and we’re not going to complain about it.”
Still, he had was happy with how Geneva battled the Saints.
“I think obviously with our record compared to their record, I’m very pleased with the outcome,” Estabrook said. “We came out and really fought for 80 minutes, and we scored twice on a very good team.
“We had to defend a lot, but that’s a lot because they’re so dynamic offensively, and they generated a lot of opportunities.”
Receiving a great effort in goal from 6-foot-6 Duncan Turnbull also helped the Vikings deny the Saints as he used his size and movement to thwart nearly all of St. Charles East’s chances.
“Duncan played huge for us tonight,” Estabrook said. “Definitely his best game. I was encouraged we were able fight such a good team, and hopefully can go forward now.”
St. Charles East also fought, but weren’t nearly as successful as they were Saturday.
“Hopefully a tie like this can help (motivate) us in the playoffs,” Saints senior Christian Memije said. "Hopefully we can learn from this and it helps us later.”
Starting lineups
Geneva
GK: Duncan Turnbull
D: Drew Klaus
D: Matthew Luetzen
D: Matt D’Onofrio
D: Matt Sweet
MF: Ryan Anderson
MF: Canan Ciesielski
MF: Calen Colbert
MF: Jason Lagger
MF: Derik Rush
F: Matthew Waldoch
St. Charles East
GK: Steven Owens
D: Kyle McLean
D: Ryan Stackhouse
D: Brandon Villanueva
D: Robert Wolak
MF: Jared Brown
MF: Evan DiLeonardi
MF: Christian Memije
MF: Taylor Ortiz
F: Tyler Robbins
F: Collin Sheehan
Man of the Match: Jason Lagger, Geneva
Officials: Gene Mroz, Bret Richter, Dean Palmateer.
for draw with Geneva
Saints come from behind twice to take home 2-2 tie
By Chris Walker
ST. CHARLES – Prior to the Upstate Eight Conference championship game last fall, St. Charles East hadn’t experienced losing.
The 2013 Saints also had only three ties, so they only had a few opportunities when they had to rebound from a loss or tie.
This year they’ve had more chances to learn from less-than-dominant performances. They dropped a 1-0 game to Batavia in the middle of September. Most recently, on Thursday, they fell 3-2 game to Class 2A powerhouse Wheaton Academy. They had another tough one on Tuesday -- although they survived Geneva’s upset bid during an Upstate Eight Conference River Division game at St. Charles North, as part of the annual Tri-Cities festivities.
The Saints never led. They fell behind 1-0 before scoring late in the first half to draw even just before half, and responded again in the second half on a late penalty kick to escape with a 2-2 tie.
“I thought it was a subpar performance for us,” Saints coach Paul Jennison said. “Even though I thought we had 90 percent of the possessions, we never really got that big break that we needed, and they got their two shots on goal.”
St. Charles East (13-2-1, 4-1-1) has been at, or near, the top of the various state rankings throughout the season, but Jennison knows that means nothing in the grand scheme of things.
The Saints' players from last year’s team know that after dominating opponents all season before losing at Metea Valley in the Upstate Eight title game, and then dropping a sectional title game 1-0 to Lake Park, which went on to finish fourth in Class 3A.
“We haven’t put two or three solid games in a row this year since the first week of the season,” Jennison said. “We have to get back to that, and we’ll work on it. We had an excellent result against (St. Charles) North on Saturday (5-1), but we fell off a lot today.
“If we played tonight like we played on Saturday, I think we win this this game quite comfortably, but unfortunately we didn’t. Not losing is our positive. Teams aren’t going to back down and step back and just let us win games.”
Expectations for the Saints are high, and they’ve been that way these past few seasons. Nothing’s changed this year, and they know that.
Jennison wants “the lads” to continue to collect wins, obviously, but he’s willing to cope with some of these minor setbacks along with way, so long as they ultimately pay off with a lengthy postseason run.
“If we’re still playing in a month’s time, I’d like to say I’d be fine with it,” he said. “It’s not a case of moving the ball around and looking pretty; it’s getting on the end of the cross. I don’t want to make too much of it. Tonight wasn’t the result we were looking for, and hopefully we’ll get a positive one against Wheaton Warrenville South (on Thursday).”
Geneva’s Jason Lagger, who was chosen Chicagoland Soccer's Man of the Match, helped the Vikings take an early 1-0 lead when he assisted Matthew Waldoch in the ninth minute.
“We talked about Jason putting enough spin with his left foot for me to split into a gap and get a right-foot touch,” Geneva's Matthew Waldoch said. “It worked.”
St. Charles East hasn’t been down very often this season. The Saints seem to answer when someone scores against them and Tuesday wasn’t any different, although the scorer was someone who has been absent recently.
Senior Zach Manibog, who missed games against Wheaton Academy and St. Charles North due to a hamstring injury, collected a Taylor Ortiz pass and redirected it into the net with less than four minutes left before the halftime break.
“Taylor had a nice flick on that one,” Manibog said. “I was just trying to beat the defender who was on me, and I got it past their keeper.”
Lagger displayed why he was deserving of recognition as “Man of the Match” when he perfectly executed a corner kick to Drew Klaus very early in the second half to help his squad regain the lead. The lanky Klaus used his size to head in the goal that gave the Vikings a 2-1 advatange.
“That was a brand-new play that we just worked on in practice,” Lagger said. “We tried it on the first corner, and those corners are weird because they go down, and they divot. I just ran it to Klaus because he’s 6-foot-4 and just towers over everyone, and he put it in.”
The Saints got a debatable penalty kick awarded to them with 14:32 remaining and Jordan Moore took advantage of the opportunity to make it a 2-2 game.
“Knowing we were down and only had so much time, I knew I had to score,” he said. “I relied on some positive mental reinforcement telling myself I would score.”
Geneva coach Ryan Estabrook sounded as if he thought the call might have been iffy.
“From my angle I couldn’t see, but talking to some other people from that end, they thought it was a pretty harsh penalty,” Estabrook said. “But that’s the game of soccer, you leave the result. While we might not agree with the call, it was the call that was made and we’re not going to complain about it.”
Still, he had was happy with how Geneva battled the Saints.
“I think obviously with our record compared to their record, I’m very pleased with the outcome,” Estabrook said. “We came out and really fought for 80 minutes, and we scored twice on a very good team.
“We had to defend a lot, but that’s a lot because they’re so dynamic offensively, and they generated a lot of opportunities.”
Receiving a great effort in goal from 6-foot-6 Duncan Turnbull also helped the Vikings deny the Saints as he used his size and movement to thwart nearly all of St. Charles East’s chances.
“Duncan played huge for us tonight,” Estabrook said. “Definitely his best game. I was encouraged we were able fight such a good team, and hopefully can go forward now.”
St. Charles East also fought, but weren’t nearly as successful as they were Saturday.
“Hopefully a tie like this can help (motivate) us in the playoffs,” Saints senior Christian Memije said. "Hopefully we can learn from this and it helps us later.”
Starting lineups
Geneva
GK: Duncan Turnbull
D: Drew Klaus
D: Matthew Luetzen
D: Matt D’Onofrio
D: Matt Sweet
MF: Ryan Anderson
MF: Canan Ciesielski
MF: Calen Colbert
MF: Jason Lagger
MF: Derik Rush
F: Matthew Waldoch
St. Charles East
GK: Steven Owens
D: Kyle McLean
D: Ryan Stackhouse
D: Brandon Villanueva
D: Robert Wolak
MF: Jared Brown
MF: Evan DiLeonardi
MF: Christian Memije
MF: Taylor Ortiz
F: Tyler Robbins
F: Collin Sheehan
Man of the Match: Jason Lagger, Geneva
Officials: Gene Mroz, Bret Richter, Dean Palmateer.