Geneva keep conference hopes alive

Updated: March 22, 2011 5:30PM

Knowing a tie would knock them out of the conference race, the Geneva Vikings' late push paid off with just 2:34 remaining as Andrew Walton used Brady Wahl's set-up for the match-winner in a 2-1 thriller Thursday.

Of course, beating longtime rival Batavia was the icing on the cake as Geneva picked up a sixth straight victory to improve to 8-6-1 overall and 4-1-0 in the Upstate Eight Conference's River Division race.

"You'd like to be able to cruise to a 3-0 win, but that wouldn't be as exciting," Geneva coach Ryan Estabrook joked. "I'm really proud of how we fought. We knew we had to win to stay in the conference race because a tie just wouldn't do it. We also knew Batavia just hung a seven in the second half of its last game, so give Batavia credit because they did a nice job of answering the bell again. After they scored, it took us awhile to get our focus back."

Geneva scored first when Matthew Butz headed home a seven-yarder 15:40 into the match thanks to a cross by Wahl. The senior co-captain has either a goal or an assist in all eight Geneva victories and his two setups gave him team-bests of eight for both goals and assists.

Batavia needed just 1:22 of the second half to come up with the equalizer as Cody Balogh raced down the right side and blasted a 14-yarder inside the left post.

"I called for it and saw the keeper was a little off center, so I just aimed for the left post," Balogh said. "As much as we kept pushing, Robbie (Johnson) is a very good defender and it's tough to get it past him. We just needed one more touch on a couple other opportunities."

That went both ways as each team had near-goals throughout the second half as the clock was ticking down.

"You don't want to give up a goal late or at any time. We had some great ball movement and had opportunities that just missed," Batavia coach Mark Gianfrancesco said. "Actually this was one of the more complete matches we played, and Geneva is a good side."

While Batavia keeper Ben Steskal came up big in stopping Wahl with 3:39 to go, there wasn't much anyone could do when Wahl worked around him to the left side and crossed the ball back to Walton.

"Brady dribbled to the corner and drew the defender and it was just a great ball by him and I just had to finish it," Walton said. "It was intense, Batavia's a big rival, so it definitely feels great."

While Batavia's records dipped to 7-6-2 and 2-2-0, the Vikings have to take care of business Monday against Larkin to set up the showdown on Tuesday at St. Charles East.

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