Storm uses strong start to get past Falcons in opener

By Curt Herron

New South Elgin coach John Uveges was definitely concerned about how well his squad would be able to go toe-to-toe with Wheaton North in both teams' season opener on Monday.

After all, the Storm only have three seniors on their roster, which also consists of 11 juniors as well as six sophomores.

But after scoring a pair of goals within 98 seconds just past the midpoint of the opening half, visiting South Elgin showed that it was up to the challenge.

The Storm struck again during the first two minutes of the second half and then held off a spirited comeback effort by the Falcons to claim a 3-2 nonconference victory.

Bryan Irwin and Bret Musnicki scored first half goals to give the Storm (1-0) the early advantage against Wheaton North.

Coach Bryce Cann's Falcons (0-1) found themselves facing a very unusual 3-0 deficit after Mike Kozielek connected shortly after the break.

But to North's credit, it didn't toss in the towel following the early adversity and eventually gave the Storm all that they could handle.

Jacques Ntahoturi connected with just over 24 minutes left and Sam Klatt made it a 3-2 score just over seven minutes later.

Wheaton North, which also graduated plenty of key players from last year's sectional finalist squad, kept the pressure on the remainder of the match.

Even though the hosts made things interesting down the stretch, Uveges was pleased to walk away with a hard-fought victory in his Storm debut.

Click to hear coach John Uveges interview

After getting several good shot opportunities during the first 20 minutes of the match, the Storm finally converted twice in quick fashion to stun the Falcons.

Irwin, a junior who is one of his team's captains along with senior Ryan Piszczek and juniors Bret Hildebrandt and Kozielek, struck first for South Elgin.

With 17:58 remaining before the break, sophomore Phil Saccameno sent a pass forward to Irwin, who connected to give the visitors a 1-0 advantage.

It wasn't long before South Elgin was back on the scoreboard as senior Musnicki found the net with 16:20 left in the opening half.

Click to hear Bryan Irwin interview

Wheaton North had one of its best scoring chances of the initial half just before the break but senior Jordan Richert was stopped on a shot from close range.

The Storm added to its lead just 1:55 after the intermission when Kozielek connected on a short attempt to give them a 3-0 advantage.

They kept the pressure up as Hildebrandt lined a free kick over the net a short time later and Piszczek was halted on a line drive.

Despite the long odds, North kept up the fight, however, and its efforts paid off when it finally found the net with 24:04 remaining.

Ntahoturi, one of nine seniors on the Falcons' roster, took a pass from senior Zac Gudanik and knocked in a short shot for his team's first goal.

About a minute after South Elgin junior Danny Fry saw his attempt from close range denied, the Falcons struck again to close to within one score.

Klatt, a junior, knocked in a loose ball from in front of the following a pass that was served up by Gudanik which junior Brandon Silva got a touch on.

While encouraged by his squad's strong finish, the Falcon was obviously unhappy with how the Falcons performed for the majority of the match.

Click to hear coach Bryce Cann interview

South Elgin's other senior is David Velazquez while EJ Hernandez, Andrew Perry, Dan Rielle, Ben Rodriguez, Jarod Schueler, Vince Szalay and Jeremy Weber are other juniors.

The other sophomores on the Storm roster are Alberto Bustamante, Tyler Piszczek, Spencer Scott, Quinn Uveges and Miguel Valle.

Additional seniors on Wheaton North are Zack Andor, Nick Barry, Andrew Carlburg, Mark Carlson, Justin Giuliano and Dan O'Malley.

Other Falcon juniors are Robert Jaimes, Michael Marquez, Joey McKinley, Isaac Oberlin, Gareth Phillips, Danny Salas and Collin Schmid and Brooks Joy is the lone sophomore.

South Elgin returns to action today when it hosts St. Charles North at Millennium Field while Wheaton North entertains Conant on Thursday in Lake Park's Lancer Classic.