By Chris Steele, chrissteele@qconline.com

More photos from this shoot

Photo: John Greenwood Geneseo players go up to attempt a goal as Moline try to defend their goal during first half action Wed. evening in Geneseo. The Maple Leafs took the win 4-1.

More photos from this shoot

Photo: John Greenwood Geneseo's Kelsey Nystrom goes down on one knee while handling the ball as Moline's Rachel McGuire (5) and Emily Knight attempt to regain control during the first half of play Wed. in Geneseo. Geneseo took the win 4-1.

After suffering a sprained ankle, Geneseo's Jade Mariman characterized her first two games back for the Maple Leafs girls' soccer team as not her best.

However, Wednesday night's outing was a different story for Mariman.

The senior midfielder felt ready for contact again, and was back at the top of her game. She scored twice and added an assist in the Maple Leafs' 4-1 win against Moline (12-6).

In the 30th minute, Mariman won a rebound off the hands of Moline keeper Rachel Holt in front of the net and put the Maple Leafs (15-1-1) on the scoreboard.

"I just saw the open spot and knew that if I didn't score my coach (Ian Kline) was going to be mad," said Mariman with a laugh. "I'm notorious for putting those shots over the crossbar, but I made sure that I used good technique and went at it hard."

In the first two minutes of the second half, Mariman was at it again. She distanced Geneseo further after her pass across field ricocheted off a Maroon defender into the net for a 2-0 lead.

After a 1-0 loss to DeKalb last week, Kline thought something was still lacking in the Leafs' 5-0 win against Rock Island Saturday. However, Tuesday's game against Moline was the kind of effort he wanted to see our of his team.

"What happened in the DeKalb game is that we never shot the ball like we should have," Kline said. "If you don't shoot the ball, you can't score, and if you don't get shots, you can't get rebounds. We have been stressing on getting good shots and having good rebounds and staying in position and getting good opportunities."

Mallory Wirth's score in the 48th minute gave Geneseo some insurance, but Moline showed life after Bre Hughes scored on a header into the back of the net off Kelsi Smith corner kick in the 59th minute.

Geneseo's Kelsey Nystrom answered with a late score in the 73rd minute to cap the Geneseo victory.

While Moline coach Rick Sanchez hoped his team would build off the weekend's championship win at the State Line Challenge, he remained confident after the nonconference loss that his team would be prepared for the postseason challenges in the coming weeks.

"It's a matter of playing consistent and minimizing mistakes," Sanchez said. "We had a couple of opportunities. We took advantage of one, but we dug ourselves a deep hole that we couldn't get out of."