Sabres' 3-game win streak ends at Schaumburg

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By Jonathan Jones

Streamwood remedied much of its early season struggles after winning four of their last five games.

The Sabres entered Gary Scholz Stadium with a three-game winning streak to play Mid-Suburban League West leader Schaumburg in a battle for Schaumburg Road supremacy.

In a sloppy, wind-gusted rainy game that began with a full rainbow appearance across the sky, Schaumburg blanked the resurgent Streamwood Sabres 2-0.

A pair of Schaumburg seniors in midfielder Joey Faleni and forward Jake Savino provided the goals in their victory. Faleni added an assist on Savino’s late-game score.

“Schaumburg has a nice team,” said Streamwood coach Matt Polovin. “We can match them for speed. The wind and rain had a lot to do with our control touches and passes. (Schaumburg’s) defense didn’t help anything.”

“When we took shots (Schaumburg’s) ‘D’ was swarming on us with two or three guys. It was tough to maneuver out of danger. We did what we could, but it just wasn’t our game.”

Streamwood (5-12-1, 1-3) went in a 1-0 hole early as Savino caromed a lead pass from Faleni. Savino booted his shot passed the diving Streamwood senior keeper Jose Resendiz after six ticks passed on the scoreboard.

Streamwood, showing fashion statements since their Lake Park win last Thursday 3-0, continued to keep their bright pink socks in the wardrobe. The pink socks were to bring awareness for breast cancer, and Streamwood picked up a winning streak while wearing the garb. It looks as if the socks are here to stay.

“We’ve been confident since the fashion change,” Resendiz said. “We’ll probably wear it for the rest of the year as we prepare for the end of the season.”

Streamwood hasn’t been shut out since a September 15 loss to Lake Zurich.

Although Streamwood displayed no problems recently with scoring, their shooting woes reappeared as Schaumburg out shot Streamwood 7-1 in the first half. Streamwood showed no signs of quit in them as they viciously attacked the goal box throughout the game.

At the 22-minute mark, Schaumburg senior keeper Ben Beard left the goal to punch the ball out of bounds during a Streamwood attack. Beard’s attempt to save the ball was futile as Streamwood midfielder Ivan Rosales dribbled past the diving keeper. However, the Schaumburg defense collapsed toward the empty goal and cleared the ball to stop the Streamwood scoring threat.

Streamwood went into the break trailing 1-0.

“We’ve been able to come back from a one-goal deficit before,” Resendiz said. “(Thursday) it didn’t happen.”

Streamwood features 11 underclassmen and nine seniors. With a young speedy team, the 2011 campaign is finally coming together for the Sabres.

“We’ve cleaned up a lot of things in the past couple weeks,” said Streamwood junior forward Mario Rodriguez. “We took time out to have a long talk with the underclassmen before the Lake Park game. We pretty much told them as long as you play your game, you’ll be fine.”

The second half, Streamwood didn’t lose any intensity. The Sabres came away with many more 50-50 balls resulting in eight fouls by Schaumburg (10 overall).

The Sabres seized opportunities to score. A lead pass from Streamwood senior forward Jacob Wiatrak was sent to Rodriguez, who legged out a wide-open shot for the Sabres. Nevertheless, the ball was passed on the wrong side of Rodriguez and resulted in a goal kick.

Another opportunity arose on a Streamwood kick following a Schaumburg foul. The kick soared to Rosales who managed to get a head on the ball, but the ball went off the post and out of bounds.

With 8:25 remaining, Schaumburg grabbed the lead for good. After Faleni stole a Streamwood pass, the Schaumburg midfielder mustered all of his strength into his shot and it sailed over the head of Resendiz 22-yards away.

Resendiz ended the match with 11 saves.

“We have a young team and the streak helped their confidence grow,” Polovin said. “The loss (Thursday) won’t deter them tonight. We lost by two goals to a good Schaumburg team. We will focus on a good St. Charles North next week.”

The Sabres play in consecutive and important Upstate Eight matches against St. Charles North and Batavia. Streamwood completes the regular season in a non-conference match-up with Burlington Central.