Falcons can't find finishing touch against Huskies

By Curt Herron

While he obviously would have preferred to see a different outcome, Bryce Cann wasn't too disappointed with his squad's performance on Wednesday.

That's because his Wheaton North team was able to put up a good battle throughout during its DuPage Valley Conference matchup at Naperville North.

The 4-0-4 Huskies managed to get a goal from Evan Trychta just 4:59 into the second half to account for the squads' only scoring for the evening.

That score offset a fine effort in the net by Falcon keeper Nick Barry, who matched an equally-strong showing turned in by Huskie keeper Mike Wiest.

Both goalies came up with a series of nice saves to complicate matters for the two teams on a night where offensive chances weren't easy to come by.

"It was back and forth and both teams had their chances so it came down to simple little things," Cann said. "They did a better job of finishing off their tackles on some of those plays.

"That showed on their goal where we broke down and didn't finish off a couple of tackles. You can only ask your goaltender to make so many saves and he was in a tough spot on that play.

"We had an open net in the final minutes and if we had that again, our player knows what he'd have to do differently. At some point you have to step up and make plays and they did that."

But while the Falcons coach wished that his squad had been able to finish better, he certainly liked what he saw from his defense and with Barry in goal.

With Kyle Rezabek leading that unit along with Barry, Cann also pointed to the play of guys like Bobby Edwards, Kyle Conrad, Andy Lee and Vito Muilli.

Although they came up short on Wednesday, the Falcons haven't allowed more than one goal in a match so far this year and have yielded just seven goals.

"I'm encouraged by our defensive play, where we've been pretty solid all year," Cann said. "Nick has been very good in the net and him and Kyle have done a great job of being really vocal.

"Those two guys are chatting the whole time and that makes my life a lot easier since a lot of our organization comes from them. We also got solid efforts from Bobby, Kyle, Andy and Vito.

"When you watch us play you realize that we're not flashy back there, we don't have a guy who'll wow you. But they cover and work for one another so that's why we don't give up many shots."

The Falcons had a few opportunities on offense, but their best tries were stopped By Wiest, resulting in the fourth time they were blanked this season.

Jordan Richert, Jacques Ntahoturi, Josh Bennett, Zak Gudanik and Andy Lee also had good shot attempts but couldn't get the ball past the Huskie keeper.

Meanwhile, some of the Falcons' most dangerous shots came on a series of well-placed free kicks which were served up from various spots by Pat Langan.

The defeat ends a four-match unbeaten streak for Wheaton North, which had claimed 2-1 wins over Leyden and Glenbard North during its last two matches.

"It was definitely an even battle but we have to finish our chances and that's what it usually comes down to," Langan said. "We've had a little bit of trouble but have started to step up.

"This is always a really intense game and they always bring a good squad and we knew that coming in. I thought we stepped up and played pretty well and it was a good learning experience.

"I like the fact that we're able to come together as a team when we need to. We can link the passes when it counts and we're never out of a game since we've shown that we can come back."

Falcons starters vs. Naperville North

2009 Falcons schedule