GENEVA – A lot of things have changed in Christian Diaz’s young life in just a couple of years.

He went from graduating from middle school in Batavia two years ago, to moving into a new home in Geneva and enrolling in a new school, his old town’s biggest rival. He made new friends, and earned a spot on the varsity squad for the Vikings.

Oh, and he’s grown about six inches ine one year.

One thing that hasn’t changed are Diaz's skills on the soccer field, although it wouldn’t be surprising if he’s gotten even better in that regard too.

Diaz’s skills were on display on Tuesday night. He scored twice in his varsity debut to lead the Vikings to a 3-0 non-conference victory over Marmion.

It was the first time the two teams have played in 13 years.

“My mom says I keep on growing,” said Diaz, a sophomore. “It doesn’t change how I play my game. I know I have to just stay confident. I’ve been playing club at a high level for a while so I’m used to playing the game.”

Geneva controlled the pace, never really allowing the Cadets to muster much on the attack. Marmion played without two of its top players from last year, seniors Tyler Laurich and CJ Sowers.

“We do have a solid foundation, but obviously not having those two guys on the field, who are such a big presence, makes a big difference,” Cadets coach Jimmy Romano said. “But this was still good for us to see who we are as a team and kind of how we jell and mesh and kind of learn from that.”

Marmion started sophomores Adrian Ruiz, Matthew Silva, Gilberto Sixto and Nathan Sowers and freshman Harley Karner.

“The younger kids didn’t look that bad and we’ve got a bunch of new players this year that got some minutes which was nice to see,” Marmion junior Joseph Lagman said. “We have to work out some kinks and figure out how to play with each other but I think we’ll eventually get there.”

Marmion is coming off a sectional championship, although the Cadets graduated Kane County Chronicle Player of the Year James Serrano and his 32 goals from last year.

Geneva created a handful of early scoring chances, but didn’t see its hard work pay off until the Vikings got a little help from the Cadets. Joshua Eiss’ cross was deflected for an own goal midway through the first half.

The Cadets didn’t help themselves either when the Viking connected again, this time on a header with 11:26 left before halftime. The ball bounded around players from both teams near the sideline and eventually settled in front of Geneva junior Dominick Peri, who quickly crossed it into the box where Diaz was waiting.

“He took a touch and crossed it just like we’ve been practicing and coach has been showing us,” Diaz said. “And I was in the middle because I’m a nine, and went up for the ball and got it with my head.”

Diaz added his second goal a little more than midway through the second half when senior Shun Yonehara found him on a corner kick.

“[Diaz] just works hard, does his job and is happy to be here, and we have a lot of good attitudes on this team,” Vikings coach Jason Bhatta said. “Guys want to step up and prove their worth and hopefully we can build on this.”

Last year it took Geneva eight games to finally get a victory.

“I knew we’d be stronger than last year and that we’d have a good core coming back,” Bhatta said. “We were inexperienced last year with five sophomores starting consistently. So they came back as juniors and a lot of experienced, stronger juniors from last year have come back now as seniors, and we have sophomores stepping up.”