Hawks hope to learn from first loss

By Curt Herron

Things seemed to fall into place rather well for Bartlett during its first two games of the campaign.

The Hawks claimed victories over Plainfield North and first-year school Plainfield East to open the week.

But Bartlett got a bit of a reality check on Thursday when it took on the host school in the West Aurora invite.

While the Blackhawks have a veteran squad with plenty of talented players, the Hawks are more of a junior-oriented team.

New Hawks coach Ben Beary watched his squad lose at their own game as West Aurora had the upper hand on offense and defense.

But even though Bartlett couldn't find the net it also only allowed one goal and wound up dropping a 1-0 decision n Aurora.

With the setback, the Hawks not only suffered their first defeat but also saw their hopes of winning the tournament slip away.

"Some times you're not the best team on the field," Beary said. "West Aurora is very strong and it has a lot of veterans and it shows. This is an experience that we're going to grow from.

"This was our first real challenge and it's good to have a challenge like this early. It will bring us back down to earth a little bit and let us focus on improving the way we play soccer."

Although not happy to see West Aurora dominate in possession, the first-year Hawks coach was pleased with how his team battled.

"West Aurora beat us in the possession game in both the first and second halves," Beary said. "Our strength is possession and they beat us at possession and they also beat us in the game.

"We need to get better but I'm proud of my guys and proud of the way that they played in the second half. I told them that they had to play harder and they gave me everything that they had."

Bartlett only had a few decent scoring opportunities against a 3-0 West Aurora squad that registered its third straight shutout.

One came with about seven minutes left in the first half when Charlie Sordini got free but the effort was broken up by Henrry Perez.

Another happened with 25 minutes left in the match as Alex Ortiz got open in front of the net but his close-range shot went wide.

Meanwhile, West Aurora put plenty of pressure on Hawks keeper Jeff Gal, who made several nice saves to keep his team's hopes alive.

Bartlett's defense, featuring Brett Palmer, David Wade, Brett Dini and Fabio Aiello, managed to keep the talented Blackhawks in check.

Despite falling short for the first time this season, the Hawks hope that the outcome against a good squad helps them down the road.

"We did a good job by playing our hardest throughout the game," co-captain Dini said. "But we learned that we need to keep the ball in our possession longer and also to keep the ball moving.

"I like how everyone is staying together and playing hard. We've done pretty well so far and hopefully we'll keep learning from our experiences and move on and win the next couple of games."