It was a tale of two games in Thursday’s Tri-Cities Night at Batavia.

On one side, it a goal by sophomore Anthony Sanfilipo that proved to be the difference maker to help St. Charles East to a hard-fought 3-2 victory over St. Charles North.

On the other, Geneva was powered by five goals in the second half to lift it to a 6-0 victory over Batavia.

In the first match, Sanfilipo got his chance in the 68th minute. With the game knotted at 2-2, the sophomore found himself on the receiving end of a deflected shot from junior Huxley Kapoor, and he headed it in easily to give his team the advantage.

“I was just waiting for the rebound in the box,” Sanfilipo said. “I do that a lot, and I just had a little tap in there. I was definitely very nervous at the time and in the game in general. But in that moment, I knew I had to run up, get the rebound and try to get one in.”

The goal was the only one that was not immediately followed by another goal. The Saints (7-3-2 overall, 2-0-2 DuKane) tied the game 1-1 in the 16th minute on a penalty kick from junior Sam Arville, while junior Dylan Carey gave them an advantage in the 52nd minute off of a header from a freekick before the North Stars tied it just four minutes later.

“I couldn’t breathe for those final minutes,” Saints coach Vince DiNuzzo said. “We’ve been on the wrong end of games like this three or four times this year where we create chances and make chances. But for our kids’ confidence, we showed some grit and resilience by coming back instead of just being complacent with the tie going for the three points.”

It was a stark contrast from the Saints’ effort at the event a season ago, where they suffered a 3-0 defeat to the North Stars on their home turf. And for guys like Kapoor, it’s a much better feeling to be on the winning side.

“Last season was rough, especially with all of the starters mostly being sophomores last year,” Kapoor said. “During the offseason, all we did was practice, and we just worked hard, and it really showed in this game.”

Senior Wicho DelaPaz gave the North Stars (5-4-2, 2-1-1) their sole lead in the 15th minute, slinking a penalty kick past the East goalkeeper. Junior Max Dzioban also found the back of the net, ringing out a 30-yard strike to tie the game at 2-2 in the 56th minute.

“The effort was certainly there, there’s no question about that,” North Stars’ Eric Willson said. “We had a couple opportunities that we should have finished a little better early, and sometimes you need those to win games like these. We’re certainly capable of doing some good things offensively, it just needs to be a bit more consistent on our end.”

In the nightcap, the Vikings (8-4-2, 1-1-1) ended up scoring three times in the first 10 minutes of the second half to put the game away.

And after only scoring one goal in the first half, Vikings coach Jason Bhatta was very happy with the response.

“We just told the kids at halftime to finish their chances when they come and to put the game away when we need to put it away,” Bhatta said. “Getting the goal early really deflates games, so I think doing that consistently helped us out a lot.”

Junior Gabe Barwiolek had the team’s only goal in the first half in the 11th minute. He then got the scoring going in the second half with assists to junior Ben Raby and senior Chase Marquardt within the first five minutes. Senior Caleb Kelly also scored in the 49th minute, shortly before the Vikings began pulling their starters.

“We knew it was a slow start to the second half, but we knew we had to come out strong,” Barwiolek said. “We knew they were still in the game, but we put them away really early into the half, just like we said we wanted to.

“It was just a great performence.”

Also scoring for the Vikings were seniors Ryan Myatt and Spencer Meservy, who each found the back of the net within a minute of each other in the 68th and 69th minutes of play.

Despite the shutout, Batavia coach Mark Gianfrancesco was happy with how the Bulldogs (1-9, 0-3) came out defensively against the Vikings, limiting them to a lone goal in the first 40 minutes of play.

“We were solid in the first half,” he said. “They’ve got a good team, there’s no doubt about it. We knew the set pieces were a big deal for them. But for the most part, to come out of the half 1-0, that was very solid. We just didn’t match their intensity to start the second half.”