Geneva bowls its way to WSC title

After receiving all sorts of preseason notoriety, Geneva's boys soccer team failed to bolt out of the gate.

In fact, the Vikings seemed as though they were left at the line in the opening third of the season. Geneva started a less than inspiring 3-4-2 and a very talented group of players started at the prospect of a very average 2007 season.

So did the Vikings have heart-to-heart discussions, more intense practices and hear about their lackluster play from coach Ryan Estabrook?

Yes.

But the Vikings also went bowling, and an evening's worth of pin-crushing fun may have been worth all those other things combined.

"It was just an idea to go bowling, wear some goofy costumes and just get some team-bonding going on," Geneva senior Brian Holbrook said. "It turned the team chemistry around."

In those opening nine games, Geneva played like just what they were -- very talented players, many of whom were stars with their club teams. But merging that talent into a group that wanted to work for each other was another matter entirely.

"A lot of guys on the team hang out and everything," Holbrook said. "But the chemistry wasn't there and there was some bickering going on in the team. We got together outside of school and we made it a fun time. It was the turning point."

The result couldn't have been more impressive and might lead struggling teams to the lanes for an evening seeking strikes and spares.

Geneva is 12-1 since its bowling night and culminated the resurgence with a wind-blown 5-4 Tuesday victory at Sycamore -- a win that gives the Vikings the Western Sun Conference title.

"I think we refocused on why we like high school athletics," Estabrook said. "It reinforced to all of us why we like to be on a team. It was a nice bonding experience. We had a lot of fun and I think we've had a lot of fun through our games and practices since that time."

Estabrook put the teams together, putting players who might not normally associate with each other together. Players came dressed in an exaggerated manner of the "unique" style of assistant coach Joe Krachala.

"We just put it together," Holbrook said. "We started winning some big games. We had a win against Waubonsie Valley and it clicked."

Tuesday's victory was a perfect example of how well the bowling night worked. When the match was tied 2-2 and later 3-3 in the second half, the Vikings didn't resort to a series of disjointed solo runs at the Spartans goal.

Instead, multi-player passing moves were the norm, and the result was a stretched Sycamore defense. The Vikings worked into the gaps and continued to score very good goals.

The best of the day came with 23 minutes left, when Adam Cornwell sent a left-wing cross into the penalty area for Dan Miller to knock in.

Shortly after, Andy Filipiak passed to Shawn Sloan, who completed a hat trick by chipping the goalkeeper.

Sycamore narrowed the margin with 18 minutes left, but once again, Geneva resorted to team play to shut down the contest. Twice in the final quarter-hour of play, the Vikings help possession for nearly 1 minute.

And when the final whistle blew, the Vikings celebrated together, as if they'd knocked down 10 pins as one unit, proving one more time the benefit of that seemingly long-ago night.

The postseason awaits -- and it's possible the bowling alley also awaits.

"There's a possibility we'll have another team activity," Estabrook said. "We'll talk with the captains about what we want to do and we'll get a good focus going into the playoffs."