Tigresses down, but not out after loss to Geneseo

Princeton keeper Molly Harmon tries to make a first-half save on goal for the Tigresses Thursday. (BCR photo/Mike Vaughn)

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TISKILWA — The mighty Maple Leafs of Geneseo flexed their muscles in a NCIC girls' soccer showdown at Tiskilwa Thursday evening, defeating the host Princeton Tigresses 4-1.
 
The Leafs may have handed the Tigresses their first loss of the season in eight matches, but they can’t keep them down. The eternally optimistic PHS coach Ed Young told his team to keep their heads up because they gave a very good effort against a very good Geneseo team — the best Geneseo team he’s seen in 10 years, playing within 2-1 for the first 60 minutes of the match.
 
“We revealed our character. There was never any quit or letdown or slowdown or give-up,” Young said. “That’s a great team. I expect to see them down at state in 2A. It’s really nice to hang with a quality team that long ... I don’t feel like we got beat up. The score looks like we got beat up, I think, but I don’t think we got beat up.”

Senior captain Tara Bonucci said it was a good learning experience for the Tigresses.
 
“We didn’t give up; we kept trying. That definitely helped us to see we can be down, but can still hold our heads high at the end of the game because of the way we played,” she said.

“I think we all realized this is one of the hardest competitions we’re going to see all year. I think seeing how we played against them, we know we can play like this against any team, and we’re going to keep coming out strong. I don’t think we want another loss.”
 
Princeton (6-1-1) cut into Geneseo’s 2-0 halftime lead with a goal at the 25:53 mark of the second half. Senior Lyndsay Nguyen took the second carom off a penalty kick by teammate Paige Woolley and sneaked it past the Geneseo keeper to make the score 2-1.
 
Geneseo missed out on a penalty kick at 21:41, but came back less than a minute later for a goal on a wide open PHS net by Jordan Wagner.
 
Wagner scored once again to take control of the NCIC race, handing PHS its first loss in eight matches.
 
Young said the difference in the match was his team’s breakdowns on defense and Geneseo’s speed. He didn’t expect his defensive backs to struggle as much as they did with Geneseo’s speed.
 
“They’d get the ball through. We’d have a breakdown, and they have the speed to take advantage of it,” he said. “They’re quality players that can put it in the back of the net with their skill.”
 
Young also didn’t expect Geneseo to play long balls over the top as much as they did.
 
“We definitely didn’t react. Yeah, we kind of watched,” he said. “We expected them to ... dunk and play combinations to get through us. Nonetheless, you should be able to adapt and adjust to the ball.”
 
Despite his pick-me-up talk after the game, Young knows the loss was tough to take, especially a match so important for conference.

“They’re wearing their hearts on their sleeve right now. They wanted a conference championship and knew it went through Geneseo,” he said. “We just got to continue to play good soccer and remember what the main mission is, and that's to get to state. (We have to) mark that up as a learning experience and what level we have to play to.”
 
Tiger tales: The Princeton JV (6-0) took a big step toward its conference championship with a 1-0 win on a second-half goal by Jasmine Kunkel. It was PHS’ first win at the F/S level over Geneseo, Young said. However, the moment was bittersweet for Kunkel, who was injured  on the play and sustained a broken tibia ... Kaitlyn Ebarb scored both first-half goals for the Lady Leafs. ... Nyguen and Geneseo’s Alexandria Radue became a meeting of the No. 5s with a late second-half collision. Nyguen walked off under her own control; Radue was attended to by PHS trainer Rich Everett and helped off the field ... The Tigresses will travel to Winnebago for a 11 a.m. kickoff Saturday. They will return home for two straight NCIC matches against Dixon and Sterling.