Geneva, St. Charles North get resounding victories over rivals during Tri-Cities Night

ST. CHARLES – It was a Tri-Cities Night to remember for Geneva’s Ben Murphy and St. Charles North’s Diego Torres on Sept. 26.

Murphy had a season-high five assists to help the Vikings to a 6-1 victory over Batavia.

Torres scored a goal and almost had a second one in helping the North Stars to a 3-0 victory over St. Charles East.

In the first game of the night, Murphy had assists on both goals in the first half and three of the four scores in the second half to bring his season total to 11, which leads the DuKane Conference.

“I’ve been doing well with assists all season, but it just all clicked tonight,” Murphy said. “My teammates were making all the runs they needed to and I was able to execute and put the ball where it needed to be.”

Two of Murphy’s assists went to Alexander Graham, who scored the go-ahead goal with 24:58 left in the first half after getting a foot on a through ball. Graham got his second goal 10 minutes in the second half after Murphy sent a corner kick right to his head. Graham easily found the back of the net.

“He’s been having a really good season,” Graham said of Murphy. “He’s been on fire and he just finds everybody.”

Also having a multi-goal performance for Geneva was Caleb Kelly, who opened the scoring for the Vikings within the first five minutes of the game. Kelly added another goal with 14:12 left in the game – the only goal in the match without an assist.

Evan Reynolds and Peyton Friedman also had goals for Geneva (7-3-1, 3-1) in the second half.

Geneva coach Jason Bhatta said getting a win against big rival Batavia is a huge confidence boost.

“We just needed to come out and play like we normally play. I knew if we could do that, we would be fine,” Bhatta said. “We were just a little too comfortable heading into the game, especially since a lot of the players have friends on the team. But after they tied it up, I knew if we got the next one, then (the opposition’s) heads would go down and we could take care of business.”

Batavia (0-12-1, 0-4) tied the game at 1-1 with 32:27 left in the first half when Gabriel Diaz found Gregory Bell on a through ball that he lofted over the goalkeeper. Bell’s goal was the Bulldogs’ first in four matches, but they couldn’t find the net again in the game.

“It’s just another game down. We’ve just got to move onto next week.” Batavia coach Mark Gianfrancesco said.

In the second game, the North Stars got out in front early. With seven minutes gone, Torres got his head on a ball and sent it past the St. Charles East goalkeeper. Isaac Piper came rushing in to score the goal with a knee shot.

“My first thought was that the ball was probably not going to score a goal, but to give it a flick to give someone else a chance on the back post,” Torres said. “I thought the ball was going in, but I was very OK with Isaac securing that goal rather than them potentially getting a goal-line clearance.”

Early goals are a topic that St. Charles North coach Eric Willson has talked about plenty with his team. The North Stars achieved a similar feat in a match against Wheaton Warrenville South this season, but gave up an equalizer a few minutes later.

This time, Willson said he wanted to make sure his team never gave up the lead.

“To be able to stay dialed in in that first two minutes after scoring is an important part of being able to control the game,” Willson said. “So that was just a good response after our goal.”

Torres had to wait until the second half to get another shot at the net. After a long free kick from Casey Kriz found his feet, Torres flicked the ball up and into the net to extend the lead to 2-0. The goal was his first against the crosstown rival.

“It was pretty exciting,” Torres said. “It’s always a good rivalry game against East and so to get my first goal against them, it felt great. And I loved having the fans here, too. It was a pretty good atmosphere.”

Cameron Betteni added a goal later in the half for the North Stars (5-3-2, 0-1-2) after a one-touch on a throw-in from Jack Suliman.

For the Saints (1-9-2, 0-1-2), the loss continued a tough stretch for the team that reached the supersectionals last season. The Saints are winless over the past five matches. St. Charles East coach Vince DiNuzzo said the team is better than its record indicates and hopes a trip to Iowa for a tournament will give it the break needed to find its identity.

“They just capitalized on every mistake we made,” DiNuzzo said of St. Charles North. “We gave them a lot of opportunities and we have to clean up the way we defend on dead balls. Hopefully the kids learn from this because we still have nine games left in the regular season and we’ll try to turn the page.”