Struggles continue for North Stars in WV defeat

By Darryl Mellema

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At this point of the season, wins are important but the manner of the results also matters.

There isn’t a team that hasn’t looked at its schedule and noticed that the midpoint is near or has just passed. And so the idea of building toward the playoffs is becoming a common thread.

Waubonsie Valley got a positive result in Thursday’s 4-2 home victory over St. Charles North but there were still moments within the match where the Warriors did not look nearly as fluid as coach Angelo DiBernardo would have liked.

Certainly the Warriors (6-6-1) had their pass-and-move style of play working well during the match, but DiBernardo knows how much more his team is capable of.

“That’s the style of play we want to play,” DiBernardo said. “We want to play a possession game. Honestly, I’m not happy with the level of our possession. At times the opposition doesn’t have to work very hard to get the ball – we give it up on our own passes.”

Still, the Warriors were solid enough to handle a St. Charles North team (4-7-2) that is going through struggles of its own. The largest of those struggles concerns a defense that has allowed 19 goals.

“The entire 80 minutes was tough for me to watch,” North coach Eric Willson said. “As a competitor. As a coach. I think since I’ve been here that we’ve prided ourselves on ‘defense first.’ That to me, is a tradition that our players should want to uphold. I didn’t see any of that tonight.”

The opening half provided the perfect response for the Warriors following a 6-1 defeat to East Aurora. Waubonsie is still seeking some consistency after opening the season 4-0-1 before losing its next five matches.

“We came out with a different mindset,” Waubonsie senior Frankie Saiz said. “We started the season strong and we want to get the energy back. So we started off with high pressure and we were working more as a team.”

Saiz scored a pair of goals for the Warriors while Casey Bucz scored the other two. Saiz opened the scoring after 12 minutes from a Gytis Savukynas pass.

“We were just working on finding the open spaces and working off each other,” Saiz said. “It was more hustle that helped us do it. So the more we worked, the better we were at it.”

North rallied and tied the match again four minutes after Saiz’s goal. The North Stars Kyle Swanson passed to Sebastian Gostynski for the goal.

Savukynas assisted on Waubonsie’s second goal after 19 minutes of play. Savukynas fed Bucz with a right-to-left pass.

Saiz extended the Warriors’ lead with eight minutes left in the half. John Chapman took an initial shot which was partially saved with the rebound falling to Saiz at the far post.

“I’ve got to thank my team,” Saiz said. “On the one, it was a great shot by (Chapman) and I was in the right place. The other, it was a great ball to me by (Savukynas.) All I had to do was tap it in.”

The North Stars refused to quit and drew to within 3-2 when Simone Sperarti hit a long-range shot into the net following attacking work by Justin Stanko. The ball was partially cleared to Sprerarti 30 yards from goal and his shot rifled into the net.

“Offensively, we created some chances,” Willson said. “We did a few things. But it’s hard to get away from how we defended tonight.”

Bucz concluded a frenetic half when Saiz snatched a non-cleared ball in the North Stars penalty area and had a shot deflected off the North Stars keeper. Bucz then scored from the rebound.

“Scoring the goals was good, but we gave up two goals and that can’t happen,” Saiz said. “We put them back in the game due to some lapses and obviously we’ve got to be better.”

DiBernardo echoed Saiz’s comments about “mindset” in discussing the attacking focus the Warriors had throughout the match.

“At least today we were putting numbers in the box,” DiBernardo said. “This is probably one of the best games we’ve had in regards to putting numbers in the box and attacking. There were some good things and some things that we still have to work on.”

North has had struggles of its own and has not put together more than two consecutive wins this season.

Despite the comprehensive nature of the result, the visitors had chances. The North Stars hit the crossbar twice.

Given those opportunities, Willson was surprised his team did not push harder to close the gap.

“We came out after probably our worst first half of the season and we were kind of emotionless,” Willson said.

“You need somebody on the field to take on a little more of a leadership role and say ‘let’s go! Let’s get an opportunity to get back into the game. It seemed we were unwilling to do that.”

Seeing his crossbar rattled twice and knowing how that could have changed the match left DiBernardo less than pleased afterward.

The second of those shots was a solid, dipping effort by Phillip LeGare with 20 minutes left to play. Had that shot gone into the net, the North Stars – despite everything – would have been within a goal with a quarter of the match to play and they would have been able to press for an equalizer.

Time in increasingly not on the side of teams trying to make improvements. There is still time to make changes, not time to make significant alterations.

“You always want to improve,” DiBernardo said. “But we have a good core of players here, over 12 or 13 of them, who have played varsity for the last three years.

“Right now we are underachieving, as far as I’m concerned, and I hope that they feel the same way. We need to have the confidence and belief in each other to play to our potential, which I don’t believe we have, so far.”

Willson feels the need for his team to start putting things together in the remaining matches before the IHSA playoffs begin.

“It’s time to start moving in a positive direction,” Willson said. “And we’re going in the wrong way right now. But what can you do?

“You can decide to shut it down or go to training (Friday) and try to get better. That’s the message we’re going to try to send, is that we’re going to go and try to get better and we’re going to try to win on Saturday.”

St. Charles North hosts Leyden in an 11 a.m. match on Saturday while Waubonsie Valley does not play until Tuesday’s 4:30 p.m. match at South Elgin.