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Jack Hatton picked the best of times to score his only two goals of the season to date.
Hatton, the Geneva junior midfielder, doesn’t get the chance very often to put goals in the back of the net.
He finished his chances, though, to help spoil away an outright DuKane Conference title away from St. Charles North in a 3-1 Vikings victory on Tuesday.
Hatton got the Vikings on the board by converting a corner kick send-in by Reece Leonard with seven minutes left in the first half for the 1-0 Vikings lead. It capped off a busy first half for the Vikings that peppered North Stars standout goalie Alex Curtis with four close saves.
“It was a great feeling to beat them; especially [because] they were top of the conference, even though we didn’t win it” Hatton said. “We came out just ready to play. I mean, we were pinging the balls over and making runs in. We just dominated them in the first half in their side of the [field] and then we just continued to do that in the second half.”
“They definitely took it to us in the first half,” North Stars coach Eric Willson said. “I think this was…you know, you’re not looking to learn lessons at this point in the season, but if you have to, you have to. This is a lesson we’ve got to learn before it comes to the most important part in a week.”
Five minutes into the second half, Curtis abruptly left the game with an apparent, but unknown, injury; that forced junior Osman Ahmed into the game. Geneva standout forward Trent Giansanti then hammered home the insurance goal for the 2-0 lead minutes later.
“We’re going to have to see [on Curtis]. He was getting some work done at halftime, went out there and gave it a go and just wasn’t [healthy enough] to do it…but super tough spot for Osman to get into. I couldn’t have been more proud of just sitting there for most of the season, then get called upon in this opportunity and he goes running out there and ended up making a couple saves. I’m proud of that kid for what he did tonight.”
North Stars senior standout Walter DeLaPaz answered to cut the deficit to one with 17:43 left, but Hatton’s breakaway speed and skillful shot attempt to the bottom left-hand corner was all the Vikings needed to finish the job.
The North Stars (10-6, 5-2) had a chance to win the conference outright with a win over Geneva.
St. Charles East, who faced Wheaton Warrenville South also on Tuesday, entered tied with SCN in the conference standings at 5-1; their one loss coming to the North Stars on Sept. 21 in a 1-0 final.
However, thanks to a 1-0 victory over the Tigers via a forfeit, which was confirmed with St. Charles East coach Vince DiNuzzo via text, St. Charles East is the outright conference champion for the third consecutive season. The Saints finished with six victories to the North Stars’ and Vikings’ five apiece.
If both the North Stars and Saints both lost, Geneva (5-1-1) would’ve won the conference outright.
“When we come out and play with confidence, we can play with a lot of people,” Geneva coach Jason Bhatta said. “Even early on when we were playing Oak Park and stuff [earlier in the season] and we were hanging in games, I knew that when we play with confidence, it’s tough.”
“We’ve got a lot of kids who are technical enough to play good soccer. We’ve moved it around a lot; They had to switch up their formation and when you have teams reacting to you, that’s always helpful because that means you’re doing something well. All credit to the boys: They put a full 80 in and they played really well tonight.”
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