By Matt Le Cren

Wheaton North’s inability to score this fall has almost become comical.

You feel like if Falcons coach Bryce Cann were to appear on Wheel of Fortune that he’d tell Pat Sajak, “I’d like to buy a goal, please.”

The Falcons came into Monday’s home game against Wheaton Academy having been shut out in their last four matches. For the longest time, it appeared that streak would reach five.

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Robert Jaimes and Sam Klatt came to the rescue.

Jaimes won a loose ball 40 yards from the Wheaton Academy net and quickly led Klatt with a pass up the right wing.

Klatt made a nifty touch to get around Warriors goalie Jesse Carmody and slid a short shot into the net with 9:21 remaining in the second half.

It was the second goal of the season for Klatt and just the fifth for Wheaton North, which used it to procure a 1-1 tie in a game that Wheaton Academy probably should have won.

“It felt great,” Klatt said. “Not getting a lot of goals this year has been tough for us, but we need to take advantage of what we get. We should have better opportunities. We work hard at practice, we work hard in games, but when that’s there you’ve got to take advantage of it.”

Wheaton Academy (6-4-2) had taken a 1-0 lead on a penalty kick by Josh Urban 3:36 into the contest and had plenty of chances to increase that cushion. When the Warriors weren’t able to do so, the Falcons (1-6-3) gained confidence.

Klatt remembered last year’s 1-0 loss to the Warriors, who won that game on a penalty kick, and vowed not to let it happen again. With the assist from Jaimes, he didn’t.

“[The pass] was great,” Klatt said. “He’s always where he needs to be. I was where I needed to be on that play, but really he opened up the field when he made that pass.”

Cann was jubilant with the goal, just the third his squad has scored in the past nine matches.

“Sam got a nice ball,” Cann said. “It was a great pass, a good turn and run onto it and just a real good finish from Sam.

“We needed something good to happen. We had seen a lot of things not go our way, calls and bounces not go our way, so to finally get one that did was kind of refreshing.”

The draw extended the Falcons’ winless streak to eight games but it felt more like a victory for the hosts.

“When you’re down 1-0 and you’re under 10 minutes, to snatch a tie out of it, that is a win,” said Cann, whose team has been in most of its matches.

“With everything else, what I’ve been impressed with is that the guys keep finding a way to come out and compete. We go through spurts and spells, but considering everything, you just have to find a way.

“I was really pleased with the way we played the second half. We still had a couple of nice chances at the end.”

Indeed, the Falcons made the Warriors sweat, as Jaimes took a free kick from deep in the right corner with :03 to go.

His serve into the middle went straight to Michael Marquez, whose shot was blocked by the defense as time expired. While a win would have been nice for the Falcons, Klatt was happy with the tie.

“[A good result] is what we needed,” Klatt said. “We haven’t won a lot of games but it’s steps at a time, just keep taking steps forward.”

To Wheaton Academy, it felt like a step back. The vibe in the Warriors’ postgame huddle was one of stunned frustration.

“Credit to Wheaton North for fighting and [the persistence to] keep bringing numbers forward,” Wheaton Academy coach Jeff Brooke said. “We’re just frustrated because we continue to pop up and take a lead and then give it away.

“We’ve had some adversity happen on the team, we’ve had to move some people around and I think where we stand right now is just a frustration of continuing to give up [leads]. We feel like we’ve done well enough to potentially earn a victory.”

The Warriors were deserving. They outshot North 13-9 but beyond that they controlled most of the flow of play, consistently getting around the edges and putting pressure on the Falcons.

But Cann was pleased with the effort of central defenders Brooks Joy and Isaac Roberts, as well as senior goalie Collin Schmid, who again kept his team in the game, coming up with 10 saves.

“Schmid is playing great,” Klatt said. “He’s where he needs to be, [a] big guy who’s 6-3 and he’s getting up there and that’s perfect. He is the most improved player we have and right now is the best thing we’ve got right now.”

Urban, who now has four goals, four behind team leader Mark Rougas, acknowledged Schmid’s effort.

“We had opportunities all the way through, [including] a couple of 1 v 1s with the keeper and just couldn’t put it away,” Urban said. “We really felt like we didn’t finish the game like we could have, so that was very disappointing for us.”

It was especially disappointing for Brooke because Klatt’s goal was the only clear-cut scoring chance the Falcons had.

“That’s the story of our year right now,” Brooke said. “As many chances as they get, it seems like that’s how many goals they get against us. No offense to our goalkeeper; we’re giving up very, very dangerous opportunities.”

That has led to a three-game winless streak for the Warriors, their first since early in the 2009 season.

“We’re trying to piece together some things,” Brooke noted. “We graduated a lot last year so we knew we’d hit some stretches against really good competition. We just feel like we’re doing the things to get the job done and it’s just not finishing with the result that we want.”

But Urban, who along with Rougas, Brian McLean, Andrew Luetkehans and Daniel Bergquist are all playing new positions this fall, said the results will come.

“We have a lot of young talent on this team and we have a lot of potential,” Urban said. “It just has to be coming out every game, just putting the past behind us and playing to the best of our potential and not thinking about the past couple games. Hopefully we can learn from our losses and get all this out before the playoffs and really hit our peak.”