Second half separates SCE from Geneva
Fighting Saints respond to intermission urging in 6-1 win
By Bob Narang
Geneva’s Morgan Rudowicz did not downplay the significance of the Vikings achievement on Tuesday night.
The sophomore midfielder and her teammates celebrated the first half goal against St. Charles East in grand style, running around the field and jumping up and down in glee.
This was no ordinary, run-of-the-mill regular-season goal. This was a tally against the undefeated Fighting Saints, who have posted 11 shutouts in their first 14 games, including a 6-0 result against the Vikings on April 29.
In fact the Saints, who are the no. 1 team in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25 for a third-straight week, entered the DuKane Conference game allowing just four goals this spring.
So, when Rudowicz knocked in her shot from 10 yards inside the far right post midway through the first half, the Vikings savored the moment, which tied the game.
“It felt great,” Rudowicz said. “I was so excited afterward. Everyone ran to me, it was crazy. Everyone was so happy. I couldn’t believe that I scored a goal against (St. Charles) East, it was crazy.
“I thought at that point the game was really equal, scoring that goal was crazy, but we still had to be very intense. The defender was very close to me, but I was lucky to get that shot off to the corner.”
The Vikings’ elation lasted just about 40 seconds.
That's when St. Charles East scored the go-ahead goal that sparked a turnaround in the game. The Saints added four goals in the second half to post a 6-1 win over the Vikings at Scott Burgess Field in Geneva.
Geneva coach Megan Owens said her young team showed a lot of heart after losing 6-0 to the Saints earlier this season.
The Vikings competed Tuesday but couldn’t sustain their momentum. Mini-lapses of intensity were pounced upon by the uber-talented Saints, especially in the second half.
Geneva freshman goalie Jordan Forbes finished with eight saves. She played strong before the Saints caught fire in the last 17 minutes.
“All of their goals came on set pieces against us, which is definitely fixable,” Owens said. “We’re just young and had a couple of mistakes. We had to switch up our backline, and they did well.
“We played really well. We matched their intensity and threatened the whole game and the final score doesn’t reflect that.
“We’re finally getting some of our injured players back, and that showed tonight. We had two kids back from quarantine. It was a very tight first half. I’m happy with our effort, especially because we’re starting four-to-five freshmen. I’m seeing a lot of good things. We scored on them.
“Our youth and inexperience showed tonight. We had some mistakes that they capitalized on. We had a very solid showing and can look to be dangerous in the postseason.”
With the win, St. Charles East (15-0-0, 11-0-0) remains on track to set a number of program records. If the Saints can beat St. Charles North on Thursday, St. Charles East coach Vince DiNuzzo said it will be win no. 600 for the program and secure the conference championship.
The Saints, who have won eight state championships from 1990-2000, have mirrored the best starts in their storied program history. St. Charles (before it split in the 2000-2001 school year) finished with an undefeated record en route to state titles in 1994 (27-0-1), 1997 (26-0-2) and 1998 (29-0-1).
Maybe that’s why DiNuzzo chose not to downplay the potentially historic importance of the Saints’ games against Geneva and St. Charles North at the start of the week.
The Saints got the message after a stern but encouraging halftime talk from DiNuzzo. Senior forward Hannah Miller, who scored a second half goal, said the Saints needed a wakeup call following their lackluster first half effort.
“We were little down after the first half, because we knew we could do a lot better,” Miller said. “We beat them before, so we wanted to keep that going, and not do any less than before.
“Coach wasn’t yelling a lot. He was really encouraging, because he knew what we could do. He was encouraging us to do better and keep playing and work harder.”
The Saints bunched their four second half goals into a 13-minute span. Megan Stout and Miller scored before Jenna Sitta closed out the game with back-to-back goals four minutes apart.
The senior midfielder’s brace raised her season goal total to 16, but she preferred to focus on the team’s ability to bounce back in the second half.
“Obviously, we were little disappointed in the first half, so we wanted to come out strong,” Sitta said. “We’ve played this team before, so we knew we could play with them. We were happy to finish strong. We knew we could do it, and just had to execute it.
“Coach knew we could play better in the second half, and wanted us to do it. We want to finish the season out strong.”
Miller said the Saints can finally look ahead to Thursday’s 7 p.m. home game against the North Stars. St. Charles East recorded a 3-0 win over St. Charles North (9-3-2, 8-2-1) on May 1 to end a six-game series losing streak to their neighborhood rivals.
“We’re very excited to play them, especially after beating them last time,” Miller said. “We want to push hard, expect a good game and just have to keep working hard.”
Lindsey Rzeszutko set up two goals with an assist in each half to spark the Saints. The senior defender said the Saints showed some fortitude handling the wet conditions against a motivated foe.
“I think we picked up the energy a lot, and we worked hard and looked for each other’s pass more and started talking a lot more in the second half,” she said. “Right now, everyone’s really excited for Thursday. (St. Charles) North is always a really big game for us, so the energy going from a big win like this will carry over to that game which is helpful.”
DiNuzzo said the Vikings represented a good wakeup call for his team. The lack of big tournaments and playing a limited amount of nonconference games provided a shield of sorts for his team, DiNuzzo said.
“Anytime we play (St. Charles) North it’s a big game, but then take in the fact that conference is where it is, and how good they’ve been playing,” he said. “It’s obviously a game we’re looking forward to, and hopefully we play to our ability.
“We made some adjustments, in terms of the way we played and executed in the final third against Geneva which helped. I thought we created a ton of chances in the first half, but they defended well and made it difficult for us. We all felt it would open up for us, and it did, The girls movement off the ball had to be better. It was better in the second half.”
Geneva’s Schokora, a freshman midfielder, played a big role in the Vikings’ lone goal. She provided an excellent pass from near midfield that traveled roughly 20 yards to the racing Rudowicz near the sidelines. Schokora said the young Vikings weren’t able to sustain the momentum from the first-half goal.
“We brought the intensity, and once we got that goal, we all knew we could play,” she said. “We had them for awhile, but we did drop our intensity level. Next time, we have to keep the intensity up, to keep that lead going.”
Geneva freshman defender Lilly Coats said her team is slowly starting to gain big-game experience as the regular-season nears a close.
“It was challenging to play with a team like that,” Coats said. “It’s really great that we were able to get one in the back of the net, because teams are having a hard time scoring against them.
“Our problem was we dropped that intensity. We have to remember to be more focused. We’re hoping we can carry that for an entire game and keep the intensity high.”
Starting lineups
St. Charles East
GK: Sofia Iori
D: Lindsey Rzeszutko
D: Anna Champine
D: Jessica Stepien
D: Megan Stout
M: McKenna Gahagan
M: Ashley Stellon
M: Yasmine Martinez
F: Hannah Miller
F: Megan Sreniawski
F: Jenna Sitta
Geneva
GK: Jordan Forbes
D: Addyson Mitchell
D: Morgan Slagle
D: Isabella Walls
D: Lilly Coats
M: Kelly Anderson
M: Julianna Drew
M: Evyn Schokora
F: Olivia Rawls
F: Rilee Hasegawa
F: Grace Belanger
Chicagoland Soccer MVP of the Match: Jenna Sitta, sr., F, St. Charles East
Scoring summary
First half
SCE: Gahagan (Rzeszutko) 13’
G: Rudowicz (Schokora) 21’
SCE: Sreniawski (Stellon) 22’
Second half
SCE: Stout (Miller) 63’
SCE: Miller (Stellon) 61’
SCE: Sitta (Rzeszutko) 72’
SCE: Sitta (Brusven) 76’
Fighting Saints respond to intermission urging in 6-1 win
By Bob Narang
Geneva’s Morgan Rudowicz did not downplay the significance of the Vikings achievement on Tuesday night.
The sophomore midfielder and her teammates celebrated the first half goal against St. Charles East in grand style, running around the field and jumping up and down in glee.
This was no ordinary, run-of-the-mill regular-season goal. This was a tally against the undefeated Fighting Saints, who have posted 11 shutouts in their first 14 games, including a 6-0 result against the Vikings on April 29.
In fact the Saints, who are the no. 1 team in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25 for a third-straight week, entered the DuKane Conference game allowing just four goals this spring.
So, when Rudowicz knocked in her shot from 10 yards inside the far right post midway through the first half, the Vikings savored the moment, which tied the game.
“It felt great,” Rudowicz said. “I was so excited afterward. Everyone ran to me, it was crazy. Everyone was so happy. I couldn’t believe that I scored a goal against (St. Charles) East, it was crazy.
“I thought at that point the game was really equal, scoring that goal was crazy, but we still had to be very intense. The defender was very close to me, but I was lucky to get that shot off to the corner.”
The Vikings’ elation lasted just about 40 seconds.
That's when St. Charles East scored the go-ahead goal that sparked a turnaround in the game. The Saints added four goals in the second half to post a 6-1 win over the Vikings at Scott Burgess Field in Geneva.
Geneva coach Megan Owens said her young team showed a lot of heart after losing 6-0 to the Saints earlier this season.
The Vikings competed Tuesday but couldn’t sustain their momentum. Mini-lapses of intensity were pounced upon by the uber-talented Saints, especially in the second half.
Geneva freshman goalie Jordan Forbes finished with eight saves. She played strong before the Saints caught fire in the last 17 minutes.
“All of their goals came on set pieces against us, which is definitely fixable,” Owens said. “We’re just young and had a couple of mistakes. We had to switch up our backline, and they did well.
“We played really well. We matched their intensity and threatened the whole game and the final score doesn’t reflect that.
“We’re finally getting some of our injured players back, and that showed tonight. We had two kids back from quarantine. It was a very tight first half. I’m happy with our effort, especially because we’re starting four-to-five freshmen. I’m seeing a lot of good things. We scored on them.
“Our youth and inexperience showed tonight. We had some mistakes that they capitalized on. We had a very solid showing and can look to be dangerous in the postseason.”
With the win, St. Charles East (15-0-0, 11-0-0) remains on track to set a number of program records. If the Saints can beat St. Charles North on Thursday, St. Charles East coach Vince DiNuzzo said it will be win no. 600 for the program and secure the conference championship.
The Saints, who have won eight state championships from 1990-2000, have mirrored the best starts in their storied program history. St. Charles (before it split in the 2000-2001 school year) finished with an undefeated record en route to state titles in 1994 (27-0-1), 1997 (26-0-2) and 1998 (29-0-1).
Maybe that’s why DiNuzzo chose not to downplay the potentially historic importance of the Saints’ games against Geneva and St. Charles North at the start of the week.
The Saints got the message after a stern but encouraging halftime talk from DiNuzzo. Senior forward Hannah Miller, who scored a second half goal, said the Saints needed a wakeup call following their lackluster first half effort.
“We were little down after the first half, because we knew we could do a lot better,” Miller said. “We beat them before, so we wanted to keep that going, and not do any less than before.
“Coach wasn’t yelling a lot. He was really encouraging, because he knew what we could do. He was encouraging us to do better and keep playing and work harder.”
The Saints bunched their four second half goals into a 13-minute span. Megan Stout and Miller scored before Jenna Sitta closed out the game with back-to-back goals four minutes apart.
The senior midfielder’s brace raised her season goal total to 16, but she preferred to focus on the team’s ability to bounce back in the second half.
“Obviously, we were little disappointed in the first half, so we wanted to come out strong,” Sitta said. “We’ve played this team before, so we knew we could play with them. We were happy to finish strong. We knew we could do it, and just had to execute it.
“Coach knew we could play better in the second half, and wanted us to do it. We want to finish the season out strong.”
Miller said the Saints can finally look ahead to Thursday’s 7 p.m. home game against the North Stars. St. Charles East recorded a 3-0 win over St. Charles North (9-3-2, 8-2-1) on May 1 to end a six-game series losing streak to their neighborhood rivals.
“We’re very excited to play them, especially after beating them last time,” Miller said. “We want to push hard, expect a good game and just have to keep working hard.”
Lindsey Rzeszutko set up two goals with an assist in each half to spark the Saints. The senior defender said the Saints showed some fortitude handling the wet conditions against a motivated foe.
“I think we picked up the energy a lot, and we worked hard and looked for each other’s pass more and started talking a lot more in the second half,” she said. “Right now, everyone’s really excited for Thursday. (St. Charles) North is always a really big game for us, so the energy going from a big win like this will carry over to that game which is helpful.”
DiNuzzo said the Vikings represented a good wakeup call for his team. The lack of big tournaments and playing a limited amount of nonconference games provided a shield of sorts for his team, DiNuzzo said.
“Anytime we play (St. Charles) North it’s a big game, but then take in the fact that conference is where it is, and how good they’ve been playing,” he said. “It’s obviously a game we’re looking forward to, and hopefully we play to our ability.
“We made some adjustments, in terms of the way we played and executed in the final third against Geneva which helped. I thought we created a ton of chances in the first half, but they defended well and made it difficult for us. We all felt it would open up for us, and it did, The girls movement off the ball had to be better. It was better in the second half.”
Geneva’s Schokora, a freshman midfielder, played a big role in the Vikings’ lone goal. She provided an excellent pass from near midfield that traveled roughly 20 yards to the racing Rudowicz near the sidelines. Schokora said the young Vikings weren’t able to sustain the momentum from the first-half goal.
“We brought the intensity, and once we got that goal, we all knew we could play,” she said. “We had them for awhile, but we did drop our intensity level. Next time, we have to keep the intensity up, to keep that lead going.”
Geneva freshman defender Lilly Coats said her team is slowly starting to gain big-game experience as the regular-season nears a close.
“It was challenging to play with a team like that,” Coats said. “It’s really great that we were able to get one in the back of the net, because teams are having a hard time scoring against them.
“Our problem was we dropped that intensity. We have to remember to be more focused. We’re hoping we can carry that for an entire game and keep the intensity high.”
Starting lineups
St. Charles East
GK: Sofia Iori
D: Lindsey Rzeszutko
D: Anna Champine
D: Jessica Stepien
D: Megan Stout
M: McKenna Gahagan
M: Ashley Stellon
M: Yasmine Martinez
F: Hannah Miller
F: Megan Sreniawski
F: Jenna Sitta
Geneva
GK: Jordan Forbes
D: Addyson Mitchell
D: Morgan Slagle
D: Isabella Walls
D: Lilly Coats
M: Kelly Anderson
M: Julianna Drew
M: Evyn Schokora
F: Olivia Rawls
F: Rilee Hasegawa
F: Grace Belanger
Chicagoland Soccer MVP of the Match: Jenna Sitta, sr., F, St. Charles East
Scoring summary
First half
SCE: Gahagan (Rzeszutko) 13’
G: Rudowicz (Schokora) 21’
SCE: Sreniawski (Stellon) 22’
Second half
SCE: Stout (Miller) 63’
SCE: Miller (Stellon) 61’
SCE: Sitta (Rzeszutko) 72’
SCE: Sitta (Brusven) 76’