Cougars get the job done against Wheaton North

By Gary Larsen

Conant went 12-3 last season and returned 7 starters to this year’s team. The addition of a handful of players that played club soccer last fall has Cougars coach Jason Franco fully embracing the most universal and wise preseason approach among the coaches of potentially top-shelf teams.

“Cautiously optimistic,” Franco said, after his side’s 2-1 win over Wheaton North upped the Cougars’ record to 1-0-1.

This year’s Cougars have team speed, skill spread around the pitch, and a pair of solid goalkeepers in Bobby Potratz and Hugo Gonzalez. Gonzalez played club soccer last fall before joining this year’s squad.

In Thursday’s game, Conant showed a quality that they exhibited throughout last season.

“We tend not to let up and towards the end of games last year we surprised some teams,” Cougars’ senior forward Shivam Patel said. “And the chemistry is definitely good this year. We need to get a little tougher in the air, on fifty-fifty balls, but I like our chemistry. On and off the field, we’re really close.”

Trailing 1-0 at halftime on a goal by the Falcons’ Mark Carlson, Conant applied pressure right from the opening whistle of the second half. The pressure paid off with a Nathan Cornell shot tucked inside the post after a restart, and two minutes later when Joe Bosco buried a shot from 14 yards out that Wheaton North keeper Nick Barry had no chance on, sending it whistling under the crossbar to the back netting.

Five minutes into the second half, Conant had a lead it would never relinquish.

“The last few years we’ve been sneaking out of here with 1-0 wins but felt like we didn’t deserve it, but today I think we felt like we definitely deserved to win,” Patel said.

Conant (1-0-1) went into Thursday’s game on the heels of a 1-1 tie on Monday against Maine West. Thursday’s game against Wheaton North was Conant’s first as part of this year’s Lancer Classic tournament, hosted by Lake Park.

The Cougars will play a ranked and rugged Downers North team on Saturday before rounding out tournament play against Streamwood, Lake Park, and Glenbard East.

Then it’s four consecutive Mid Suburban League games, against Fremd, Hersey, Hoffman Estates, and Elk Grove.

“We came into the season optimistic, knowing we can be one of the top contenders in the conference,” Patel said. “That’s definitely one of our goals, to win the conference.”

The Mid Suburban League could be truly up for grabs this season. “It’s funny, at the (MSL) meeting people usually talk about their teams but this year nobody really said anything,” Franco said.

“But I think Fremd will be good, Barrington will be better than last year, and there’s Prospect on the other side. And Hersey tied New Trier this week. Palatine lost a ton of seniors but they’ll have a guy that can throw the ball 40 yards, and they’ll be tough.”

I think we can compete for the MSL title, but you never know. We’ll find out how good we are Saturday when we play Downers (North), and when we play Neuqua (Sept. 17) at our place.”

Against Wheaton North, Conant showed a continuation of what helped the Cougars build a fine season last year.

“We don’t get broken down very often in the run of play. Our biggest weakness has been defending set pieces, and that’s what they scored on,” Franco said. “Otherwise, it’s hard for teams to really get good looks against us.

I thought Shivam (Patel) played much better today than he did on Monday, and all our center mids played well today,” Franco said of Bosco, and Tristan and Zach Conrad.

“Then in the back I thought Billy Belmonte, our outside right back, and Mike Zentner, our left center back – those guys started last year and they really keep it clean.”