GENESEO — Carson Bohonek and her Bettendorf teammates learned on Friday night that there is no overtime in Illinois high school soccer matches.
They didn’t want Friday’s match at Geneseo to end in a tie.
Bohonek scored with just under eight minutes remaining, and the Bulldogs held off the Maple Leafs for a 4-3 non-conference win.
“I just knew that was our chance to score,” said Bohonek, who had a hat trick in Friday’s contest, her fourth of the season. “I saw it wide open in the box, and I knew I had to get a foot on that. We didn’t want to end in a tie.”
Bettendorf (11-2) scored first when Bohonek converted a penalty kick in the 17th minute. From there, Geneseo (13-4-2) tied the match three times before Bohonek put the Bulldogs ahead for good in the 73rd minute.
People are also reading…
Geneseo’s Katlyn Seamen knocked in Lily Taylor’s free kick in the 24th minute to tie the score. Bettendorf’s Audrey Scarlett scored her first goal of the season in the 29th minute to give the Bulldogs a 2-1 halftime lead.
A pass from Taylor Minnaert led to Hanna Reiner’s goal in the 48th minute, tying the match 2-2.
Bohonek lofted a shot over Geneseo’s keeper to give the lead back to Bettendorf in the 62nd minute, but the Maple Leafs answered three minutes later when Mia Kelly ran onto Johnna Fuller’s direct kick and put it into the net.
But Bohonek and the Bulldogs found a way to pull out the road win.
“The good thing about this team is we like to win,” Bettendorf head coach Allison Sanyi said. “They gut it out and grind it out. Geneseo kept coming, and we just kept putting in one more on them. Unfortunately, we kept giving them up, but if you’re on top at the end, that’s all that matters. This group of girls loves to win. They just ground it out.”
The Bulldogs have now won eight straight since falling to Pleasant Valley 3-1 at home a month ago.
“That game was a bit of motivation,” Sanyi said. “We learned a lot about ourselves and everybody individually. We watched a lot of film and corrected a lot of things. We’ve been on a run since. We’re improving every game, and I think we’re a better team every time we come out together. It’s a good time to be putting it together.”
Bettendorf is a little over a week away from opening the postseason. The Bulldogs will host Cedar Rapids Prairie in a Class 3A regional semifinal on May 23.
“(Geneseo is) a great team, and it was a good fight for us because we have substate coming up,” Bohonek said. It was a good match to play to get us ready for these big games that are coming up. We knew we had to bring it. We want to end with as many wins as we can.”
While the Maple Leafs closed the regular season with a home loss, head coach Harvey Morton said that the match will also help his squad get ready for postseason play. Geneseo will face Limestone in Tuesday’s Class 2A regional semifinal at Richwood High School in Peoria.
“We’ve got postseason next week, and we ended with three or four really solid games,” Morton said. “We played well, but didn’t come out on top tonight.”
