Warriors capture 2-0 victory over Sabres in season opener

By Eddie Burns

It might be only one match, but coach Angelo DiBernardo was pleasantly surprised with Waubonsie Valley's 2-0 win against Streamwood on Tuesday night in Aurora.

"It is still too early to make judgments, but I liked some of what I saw out there tonight," DiBernardo said
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Sam Bell is one key returnee who will look to make strides in his second season at the varsity level and Bell was right on target when he helped create Waubonsie's first goal.

Bell played a beautiful ball over the top of the Streamwood defense, which allowed sophomore Frankie Saiz to chase it down and rip a shot past Sabres' goalie Jose Resendiz.

"It started with a pass back from Sam," Saiz said. "He opened up a great ball over the top to me and I just finished one time. I had a couple of chances before, so it felt good to put that ball away."

Saiz is one of seven sophomores on the roster. Bell, also a sophomore, was the only player who played varsity as a freshman last season. The six current sophomores on the varsity squad only lost one match last season at the freshmen level and that came in penalty kicks.

"We might lack experience when it comes to the varsity game, but we're confident in our abilities," Saiz said. "We'll take some lumps, but we have to be able to learn from them when they occur."

The Warriors (1-0) caught the Sabres (0-2) snoozing shortly after their initial goal and quickly made it 2-0 before halftime when junior Tyler Yanisch put home a rebounded shot off Yvan Foonde's foot.

Resendiz managed to get a hand on Foonde's shot, which ricocheted off the bar to Yanisch, who put the ball in the back of the net.

"We strung together some great passes and Foonde had the ball up top and their goalie made a big save off of the post and I just followed it in," Yanisch said.

The Warriors had two potential goals waved off by the officials, both of which were debated calls according to the Waubonsie coaches.

Despite their successful debut, the players are aware plenty of work still needs to be done.

"We need to have more communication after the first touch," Saiz said. "We were a little bit sloppy in the beginning of the match, but things picked up once we got going."

Streamwood did manage more scoring chances in the second half.

"We were sluggish in the second half and we can't afford to allow lapses like that to occur," Saiz said. "We have to give the same effort on both halves."

Waubonsie was solid in the back. Senior goalie Sean Elvert made four saves and midfielder Jason O'Brien dominated the midfield and won a significant number of 50-50 balls.

"I think a big reason that we couldn't generate anything tonight was because of O'Brien's play in the midfield," Streamwood coach Matt Polovin said. "He was up and on top of every ball it seemed."

The Warriors will look to continue to grow when they travel to St. Charles North on Thursday.

"We're young and playing well together," Yanisch said. "We're a pretty good group all around and defensively we're pretty strong and up top we’ve been finishing our chances, but we need to be more consistently overall.