Geneva's forward moves trip up Lake Park
Vikings various offensive schemes aid 2-1 win
By Jared Birchfield
GENEVA – A halftime performance by Geneva’s Class AA 2021 state champion dance team was an added highlight for the Vikings finale against visiting Lake Park on Thursday night at Burgess Field.
So was impromptu footwork the boys demonstrated before the match while everyone waited for a late-arriving assistant referee.
Although the players steps were not as entertaining or as well choreographed as the dancers, the Viking had enough moves to outmaneuver Lake Park for a 2-1 DuKane Conference victory.
With the win, the Vikings took third in the league with a 6-3-5 conference mark and finished 7-4-6 overall. The Lancers completed the season 3-6-6 overall and ranked fifth in the league at 3-6-5.
Geneva coach Jason Bhatta switched back and forth between three and two forwards in his team’s attack and subbed in all senior back-ups to ensure they played in the last match of season. One of the last lineup changes, with 10 minutes left to play and a 1-goal lead, was replacing starting freshman goalkeeper Hayden Vostal with senior backup Cal Parise.
“It was a little dicier than I wanted it to be, but I wanted to give Parise a chance to finish out his senior year and get back in there and play,” Bhatta said of the keeper switch. “But I knew he was ready for it. He's been in big games before. He played in our regional last year.”
Geneva dominated in the first half with seven shots on goal. Lake Park sophomore keeper. Andrew Swacha stopped four of them and two were off mark.
In the 20th minute, a Trent Giansanti header off a cross from Ryan Leake found the back of the net to put Geneva up 1-0.
“My teammate Ryan had the ball He saw me. It was a perfect ball right to my head, and I smashed it home,” the sophomore forward said of his seventh goal of the season.
Lake Park’s best chance to score in first half came on a corner kick in the 31st minute, but the serve was headed away by the Vikings.
“It was difficult for us to get into the rhythm in the first half,” said Lake Park coach Sean Crosby. “We weren't keeping the ball in the attack enough, and they played pretty quick through the midfield, so we were off rhythm.
“We also gave up too many fouls (in the first half). That was tough, and it also slowed the clock down for us. We didn't have enough time with the ball.
(Geneva) was also working their numbers up-top a lot. It looked like they went through a couple of different numbers up-top, three at times, two at times, so a lot of movement up front,” Crosby continued. “For the most part I thought we handled it well.”
Geneva had to work around a major omission in its lineup.
“We’ve been missing (junior forward) Christian (Diaz) for the last two weeks due to an ankle injury. It's been tough, so we needed to be creative with who we put up-top and who's going to get some rest,” Bhatta said of his formation strategy. “Sometimes, we play with two forwards and more of a playmaker underneath them, and sometimes we play three forwards depending on personnel and subbing rotations. Sometimes we push one guy up, so we get some of the other guys rest.”
Lake Park came out of the intermission with more energy, and the play was evenly split between the teams.
Geneva went up 2-0 with 16:43 to play on senior Joe Carli’s penalty kick. His strike settled in the left corner of the net.
“I think everyone played their butts off to get that goal and to be in that spot to get that PK is great,” Carli said.
“I usually just kind of decide right as I go in whether to go right or left and you just got to stick with it,” said the junior midfielder about his spot-kick strategy.
“He’s a machine in the middle and gives us energy. He's the heartbeat of the team,” Bhatta said about Carli, who earned Chicagoland Soccer’s Man of the Match honor.
Lake Park cut Geneva’s lead in half, 2-1 on a free kick in the 68th minute. Anthony Bartlett’s shot from 26 yards was corralled in the box by Max Panek who then headed it in past Vostal.
“It took us awhile to bounce back in the second half,” Crosby said about the Lancers’ second half effort. “We had a lot of pace and a lot of energy. We moved the ball better. We worked together as a team, and we combined with each other.
“We stayed positive. I know it's tough to go down one when the play is not going our way. It's hard to get over. It takes some time and energy to get over.”
Bhatta was proud of his team’s effort.
“We controlled a lot of the game. I told the boys at halftime that this is one of the best games we played. We moved the ball well in possession and kept it,” he said.
Bhatta also felt the squad learned a lesson from Tuesday’s match, when the Vikings fell 4-3 to Wheaton North after leading by two goals.
“I think what helped was the Wheaton North game on Tuesday. We were pretty disappointed after that one giving up the lead. We were up 2-0 at half and then giving up the winning goal with 24 seconds left. We kind of fell apart there at the end,” said Bhatta. “So, it was a lesson learned, and today they were able to come out finish the game.”
Bhatta had high praise for Parise.
“Cal has been awesome this year. He played for us last year as a junior. He was second string but played a lot, because our starting goalie had shoulder issues, but towards the end he came back so Cal stopped playing,” Bhatta said. “Cal started off in goal this year and then Hayden the freshman has just been stepping up, so we got a good run of games from him, about half the season.
“I know Cal is disappointed, but I know his positive attitude, his leadership towards Hayden and the way he responded in that situation was top class,” the Geneva coach continued. “I couldn’t ask for anything more to see a senior like Cal who took Hayden under his wing.”
“It was nice to get a little bit of time at the at the end of the season,” Parise said about ending his high school career patrolling the net.
He echoed the sentiments of many teams about the short season.
“It’s little bit frustrating, but I think we were glad to get a season in and glad to be out here,” he said.
And the tardy official had a good excuse for being late.
“He had an Arlington Heights game at 4:30 p.m.. There's no way he's going to make it here on time,” Bhatta said.
Starting Line ups
Lake Park
GK: Andrew Swacha
D: Max Panek
D: Anthony Magner
D: Logan Pobloske
D: Xander Riter
M: Jakub Zych
M: Anthony Bartlett
M: Luca Leuzzi
F: Anthony Doughty
F: Patrick Fleming
Geneva
GK: Hayden Vostal
D: Grant Havertine
D: Evan Horvath
D: Landon O’Donoghue
D: Braeden McPheron
M: Luca Hip
M: Joe Carli
M: Dominick Peri
F: Ryan Leake
F: Dominik Barwiolek
F: Trent Giasanti
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Joe Carli, sr., MF, Geneva
Scoring summary
First half
Geneva: Giansanti (Leake) 20 minutes
Second half
Geneva: Carli (PK) 64 minutes
Lake Park: Panek (Bartlett) 68 minutes
Vikings various offensive schemes aid 2-1 win
By Jared Birchfield
GENEVA – A halftime performance by Geneva’s Class AA 2021 state champion dance team was an added highlight for the Vikings finale against visiting Lake Park on Thursday night at Burgess Field.
So was impromptu footwork the boys demonstrated before the match while everyone waited for a late-arriving assistant referee.
Although the players steps were not as entertaining or as well choreographed as the dancers, the Viking had enough moves to outmaneuver Lake Park for a 2-1 DuKane Conference victory.
With the win, the Vikings took third in the league with a 6-3-5 conference mark and finished 7-4-6 overall. The Lancers completed the season 3-6-6 overall and ranked fifth in the league at 3-6-5.
Geneva coach Jason Bhatta switched back and forth between three and two forwards in his team’s attack and subbed in all senior back-ups to ensure they played in the last match of season. One of the last lineup changes, with 10 minutes left to play and a 1-goal lead, was replacing starting freshman goalkeeper Hayden Vostal with senior backup Cal Parise.
“It was a little dicier than I wanted it to be, but I wanted to give Parise a chance to finish out his senior year and get back in there and play,” Bhatta said of the keeper switch. “But I knew he was ready for it. He's been in big games before. He played in our regional last year.”
Geneva dominated in the first half with seven shots on goal. Lake Park sophomore keeper. Andrew Swacha stopped four of them and two were off mark.
In the 20th minute, a Trent Giansanti header off a cross from Ryan Leake found the back of the net to put Geneva up 1-0.
“My teammate Ryan had the ball He saw me. It was a perfect ball right to my head, and I smashed it home,” the sophomore forward said of his seventh goal of the season.
Lake Park’s best chance to score in first half came on a corner kick in the 31st minute, but the serve was headed away by the Vikings.
“It was difficult for us to get into the rhythm in the first half,” said Lake Park coach Sean Crosby. “We weren't keeping the ball in the attack enough, and they played pretty quick through the midfield, so we were off rhythm.
“We also gave up too many fouls (in the first half). That was tough, and it also slowed the clock down for us. We didn't have enough time with the ball.
(Geneva) was also working their numbers up-top a lot. It looked like they went through a couple of different numbers up-top, three at times, two at times, so a lot of movement up front,” Crosby continued. “For the most part I thought we handled it well.”
Geneva had to work around a major omission in its lineup.
“We’ve been missing (junior forward) Christian (Diaz) for the last two weeks due to an ankle injury. It's been tough, so we needed to be creative with who we put up-top and who's going to get some rest,” Bhatta said of his formation strategy. “Sometimes, we play with two forwards and more of a playmaker underneath them, and sometimes we play three forwards depending on personnel and subbing rotations. Sometimes we push one guy up, so we get some of the other guys rest.”
Lake Park came out of the intermission with more energy, and the play was evenly split between the teams.
Geneva went up 2-0 with 16:43 to play on senior Joe Carli’s penalty kick. His strike settled in the left corner of the net.
“I think everyone played their butts off to get that goal and to be in that spot to get that PK is great,” Carli said.
“I usually just kind of decide right as I go in whether to go right or left and you just got to stick with it,” said the junior midfielder about his spot-kick strategy.
“He’s a machine in the middle and gives us energy. He's the heartbeat of the team,” Bhatta said about Carli, who earned Chicagoland Soccer’s Man of the Match honor.
Lake Park cut Geneva’s lead in half, 2-1 on a free kick in the 68th minute. Anthony Bartlett’s shot from 26 yards was corralled in the box by Max Panek who then headed it in past Vostal.
“It took us awhile to bounce back in the second half,” Crosby said about the Lancers’ second half effort. “We had a lot of pace and a lot of energy. We moved the ball better. We worked together as a team, and we combined with each other.
“We stayed positive. I know it's tough to go down one when the play is not going our way. It's hard to get over. It takes some time and energy to get over.”
Bhatta was proud of his team’s effort.
“We controlled a lot of the game. I told the boys at halftime that this is one of the best games we played. We moved the ball well in possession and kept it,” he said.
Bhatta also felt the squad learned a lesson from Tuesday’s match, when the Vikings fell 4-3 to Wheaton North after leading by two goals.
“I think what helped was the Wheaton North game on Tuesday. We were pretty disappointed after that one giving up the lead. We were up 2-0 at half and then giving up the winning goal with 24 seconds left. We kind of fell apart there at the end,” said Bhatta. “So, it was a lesson learned, and today they were able to come out finish the game.”
Bhatta had high praise for Parise.
“Cal has been awesome this year. He played for us last year as a junior. He was second string but played a lot, because our starting goalie had shoulder issues, but towards the end he came back so Cal stopped playing,” Bhatta said. “Cal started off in goal this year and then Hayden the freshman has just been stepping up, so we got a good run of games from him, about half the season.
“I know Cal is disappointed, but I know his positive attitude, his leadership towards Hayden and the way he responded in that situation was top class,” the Geneva coach continued. “I couldn’t ask for anything more to see a senior like Cal who took Hayden under his wing.”
“It was nice to get a little bit of time at the at the end of the season,” Parise said about ending his high school career patrolling the net.
He echoed the sentiments of many teams about the short season.
“It’s little bit frustrating, but I think we were glad to get a season in and glad to be out here,” he said.
And the tardy official had a good excuse for being late.
“He had an Arlington Heights game at 4:30 p.m.. There's no way he's going to make it here on time,” Bhatta said.
Starting Line ups
Lake Park
GK: Andrew Swacha
D: Max Panek
D: Anthony Magner
D: Logan Pobloske
D: Xander Riter
M: Jakub Zych
M: Anthony Bartlett
M: Luca Leuzzi
F: Anthony Doughty
F: Patrick Fleming
Geneva
GK: Hayden Vostal
D: Grant Havertine
D: Evan Horvath
D: Landon O’Donoghue
D: Braeden McPheron
M: Luca Hip
M: Joe Carli
M: Dominick Peri
F: Ryan Leake
F: Dominik Barwiolek
F: Trent Giasanti
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Joe Carli, sr., MF, Geneva
Scoring summary
First half
Geneva: Giansanti (Leake) 20 minutes
Second half
Geneva: Carli (PK) 64 minutes
Lake Park: Panek (Bartlett) 68 minutes