Sloan's spark gets Geneva rolling

Geneva's Jeffrey Williams and Oswego's Ryan Stransky battle for possession.
(Donnell Collins/For the Beacon News)

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Yellow practice vest draped over his royal blue and white No. 11 game jersey, Geneva's Shawn Sloan offered some last-minute tips to fellow senior Kendal Spurgin, said a few words to coach Ryan Estabrook then walked back to the bench.

Sitting on top of a cooler as his team kicked off its season at Oswego wasn't exactly the place you'd expect to see Geneva's four-year varsity starter.

"I missed a day of tryouts because I was out of town (for a family wedding)," Sloan said following Geneva's 3-1 nonconference victory. "It's coach's policy you have to sit out."

So after pacing the sidelines and witnessing 40 minutes of scoreless and mostly uninspired soccer by the Vikings, Sloan needed all of 51 seconds in the second half to put his stamp on Tuesday's season-opener. His pinpoint cross to Seamus Kaminski led to a save by Oswego senior goalkeeper Ryan Miller, but it was one of, if not the best, scoring opportunity Geneva had up until that point.

"His first three of four touches on the ball were pretty dangerous," Estabrook said. "On the sideline I could tell our bench was into it. We knew something special was going to happen."

It did less than two minutes later as Sloan weaved his way through three defenders and was tripped up in the box. Sloan converted the penalty kick as he took two steps and fired a right-footed laser into the bottom left corner past Miller.

"I didn't think the intensity was there at the beginning, so in the second half we picked it up," said Sloan, who scored 15 goals as a junior. "We just went at them."

In the 53rd minute, Sloan one-touched it with his right foot to a streaking Kaminski, who notched his varsity goal to put the Vikings up 2-0.

"(Shawn) puts the ball around a lot and he gives us a lot of chances," Kaminski said. "He's really a playmaker."

After starting at defender, Kaminski, a 5-foot-7 sophomore, moved up in the second half and tucked in his second goal with 18:33 remaining off a rebound from a John McSpadden corner kick.

"(Kaminski) fits in at defense for us, but when we put him up top, you saw what he could do," Sloan said. "He's a good player and we really connected out there. That's a dude that could do some damage this season."

Senior Matt Bermes scored from 40 yards out in the 72nd minute for the Panthers.

"First half the energy level and intensity were nice," said Oswego coach Travis Carlisle, whose team travels to Naperville Central on Saturday. "But we got way too flustered off a PK. We lost our focus for a good eight or nine minutes after that. We have some veteran players -- you expect a little more composure, but like I said, it's the first game."