Falcons' early goal stands up against Streamwood

Lightning can strike fast in soccer, and the lone goal scored in Saturday’s game between host Wheaton North and visiting Streamwood came just 58 seconds into the contest.

North senior Joey McKinley sent in a corner kick that went past one of teammates, who tried to get a head on it inside of Streamwood’s penalty area, to no avail.

Luckily, Falcons’ senior Robert Jaimes was waiting on the other side.

“I saw it going over him, and I just really wanted it,” said Jaimes, who located the ball on the ground and buried it to the back netting from 10 yards out.

“We thought we could score on a restart, and that was a brilliant shot by Robert,” Wheaton North (1-0-1) coach Bryce Cann said. “We think we have a couple of guys who can help us finish on restarts this year.”

The game’s next 79 minutes saw a Streamwood (1-2-1) team with quickness and great touch possess the ball well through the midfield. The Sabres tested the Falcons’ back line on Saturday, but the boys in back were up to the test.

Senior defender and captain Gareth Phillips and company forced Streamwood to take shots from distance for much of the day, and didn’t allow the Sabres to get behind their defense.

“We’ve got a couple new guys in back but they’ve been doing real well this year. They’ve been stepping up,” Phillips said.

Those “new guys” on the Falcons’ back line are Kevin Rezabeck and Nathan Robinson, who have joined veterans Phillips and Brooks Joy towards keeping Wheaton North’s reputation as a solid defensive team in tact.

“It’s a new (defensive) system and communication in back might have been a little slipshod at first this year, but it’s getting better real fast,” Phillips said.

One of the unsung heroes of the day for Wheaton North was sophomore goalkeeper A.J. Biebergall, who played a solid second half of soccer in preserving the shutout that senior keeper Colin Schmid started in the first half.

Schmid has been rock-solid between the pipes for Cann thus far, and he took himself out of action at halftime due to a nagging injury.

“(Schmid) made some incredible saves in our last game, and A.J. played great today,” Phillips said.

“I thought we organized better in the second half. We did a much better job of keeping (Streamwood) in front of us,” Cann said. “If your goalkeepers have to come up big once or twice a game, that’s what you expect and that’s what we got from Colin and A.J. today.”