Caleb Kelly was having a slight case of deja vu to Geneva’s first goal of the season.

As a corner kick from Chase Marquardt came soaring into the box, the senior found himself all alone near the far post, ready to head the ball whenever it came in.

On the team’s first goal of the season against Marmion, Kelly headed the ball right to junior Gabe Barwiolek, who buried it in on a header.

But this time around, Kelly wasn’t looking to get another assist. He was looking for the back of the net.

“I just wanted to get the ball in,” Kelly said. “It felt really good, especially on senior night, too. I haven’t been looking forward to this day, but it was fun to celebrate everyone.”

Kelly’s goal ended up being the cherry on top to end the Vikings’ regular season, securing a 2-0 victory over St. Charles East on Tuesday.

“I mean, we’ll take it,” Vikings coach Jason Bhatta said on Kelly’s goal. “We were dangerous on set pieces once again, and those kinds of things, especially in the playoffs, are the things that can change games and can give you a goal.”

The win not only ended the regular season on a high note for Geneva (15-5-2 overall, 5-1-1 DuKane), which secured a second-place finish in the DuKane Conference behind Lake Park, but also helped secure the Fight for the Fox, which is the battle between the two winners of the Tri-Cities night games.

And after settling for a tie in last season’s Fight for the Fox against St. Charles North, Kelly was more than happy to win it outright this time around.

“The game felt a lot of the same as it did last year,” Kelly said. “They sat back a lot, so we just tried to play our own game and play through the lines. I don’t even know the last time we won two in a row against East, so it feels really good.”

Ben Murphy ended up breaking the scoreless tie in the 68th minute of play off another set piece. After Marquardt threw the ball in to Alex Graham, the senior grabbed a pass from him before burying a laser into the top corner of the net to give the Vikings the advantage.

“Murphy did a great job reacting and putting one away there,” Bhatta said. “And then from there, I think everyone took a sigh of relief and we king of settled in for the rest of the game.”

The Saints (11-4-4, 3-1-3) did manage to keep it close for the majority of the contest, even with injuries keeping forwards Connor Sychowski and Huxley Kapoor out of the game. And it did show a bit in their offense, which recorded only one shot on goal in the contest.

Despite being shorthanded, Saints coach Vince DiNuzzo said he was happy with the effort his team put out in the game.

“With the players we had available, we kind of had to change how we played,” DiNuzzo said. “It was just trying to manage the game and limit dead balls, and they capitalized on two dead balls at the end.

“I was proud of our kids for keeping it tied for that long. It took some guts, and a lot of kids played a lot of minutes that they don’t typically play. So it’s good experience for them, but not the way we wanted to end conference play.”