Hawks fall flat at Streamwood in 2-0 loss
By Gary Larsen

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For a skilled possession team like Streamwood, in a perfect world, every 15-pass sequence ends in a quality shot that blisters the back netting.

But sometimes it takes the kind of play in the final third that the Sabres’ Ivan Rosales showed on Tuesday.

Rosales saw space and attacked it on the dribble in the second half of the Sabres’ 2-0 win over rival Bartlett, dribbling 20 yards up the heart of the field and deking two defenders before ripping off a shot with authority. Hawks keeper Justin Busch got a piece of Rosales’ blast, but the ball had enough on it to roll over the goal line.

“In those one-on-one situations, you have to be selfish,” Rosales said. “I was looking for a pass but I saw a defender wasn’t standing in a good spot, so I was a little selfish. But we came out and showed our best today. The team worked hard and gave it all we can, and we got the 2-0 win. We always have good possession and we worked well as a team today. “

Streamwood coach Matt Polovin’s side is unselfish to a fault, but even the prettiest soccer means nothing without a bit of “me-first” in the final third.

“Sometimes you’ve got to be selfish in the box, and not give up the ball one last time. Take the shot,” Polovin said. “Especially with the wind at your back, like it was for us today in the second half, if you drive it low and hard it’s either going to go in the goal or take a bounce off the goalie.

“I wanted a few more shots on goal in the second half and we finally got that one good rip on goal by Rosales. Today it wasn’t the prettiest game, but it wasn’t a bad game for us.”

Streamwood (6-4) went into the game on the heels of a 1-0 shootout loss to Wheaton Warrenville South. The Sabres led 1-0 over Bartlett at halftime on a Alejandro Avalos goal.

For Bartlett (0-9), the baptism by fire continued on Tuesday. The Hawks are young and learning but coach Ben Beary has been happy with the effort and development his boys have showed this season.

Until Tuesday.

“We have to put out a hundred percent of what we have,” Bartlett senior Matt Seidl said. “Coach Beary doesn’t care about the result, as long as we try the entire game. When we don’t, he gets mad, and today he deserves to be mad.

“We have a young team and they’re going to learn, and everyone should learn from this today.”

Beary’s lads have stayed positive and played with intensity as they acclimate to varsity soccer, but they struggled with both endeavors against Streamwood.

“Today was not an acceptable effort, or acceptable in any way, shape, or form,” Beary said. “And they know it. The effort, the intensity, the attitude they showed for the first time this season – it just wasn’t acceptable.

“I’ve been very happy with them up until today. But some of the attitude problems they showed out there today that are really weighing on me right now.”

Streamwood possessed well into the wind in the first half and led 1-0 when Avalos romped up the left side on the dribble. Avalos nearly reached the endline before firing at the near post to put the Sabres up 1-0 at nine minutes.

“It was nice to get that one goal playing against the wind,” Polovin said. “Alejandro Avalos did all the work on that one.”

Bartlett had two good scoring chances in the first half, one on a Seidl head shot that Streamwood keeper Phil Lewy tipped off the crossbar, 12 minutes into play. The Hawks nearly tied the game one minute before the half when Miguel Ceballos crashed the net and went just wide on a follow-up shot at the post.

“We’re finding a few chances but we’re just not built that way. We’re a team that’s going to get four or five chances,” Beary said. “And when we send our chances fifty yards over the goalpost whenever we get a chance, we’re not going to win that many games. We need to get those chances on frame, which we’ve been unable to do that very often. We have to find a way to make our four or five chances count.”

With a good wind at its back in the second half, Streamwood applied steady pressure on Busch and defenders Chris Kibler, Carlos Avina, Adam Jones, and Alex Smith. Busch stayed aggressive off his line and made a few quality saves to keep his side within one goal of tying the game.

Rosales blasted a shot off Busch’s hands to a corner kick at 62 minutes, but scored his goal four minutes later to make it 2-0. Mario Rodriguez tested Busch a few times in the second half, while Sabres midfielders Nestor Ascencio, Oliver Huerta, and Christian Vences stood tall in the midfield all game long.

Huerta is on the mend from an injury and he showed flashes of what his coach hopes he’ll bring to the table by season’s end.

“Oliver is getting back and he’s almost the Oliver I remember from last year. He’s so smooth on the ball and if we can have him in the midfield with Nestor and Christian Vences and have him back at hundred percent by regionals…”

Holding mid Ascencio’s skills and smarts stood out the way they do in every Streamwood game, and the Streamwood defense posted its third shutout of the season. After giving up nine goals in their first three games of the season, the Sabres have only given up four goals in their last seven games.

“Ever since the Maine West game (a 5-0 loss on Aug. 22), we changed formations and we’ve been solid in back,” Polovin said. “I moved Angel (Guterirrez) to sweeper and I thought he would be the perfect person back there. He’s one of the smartest, toughest players we have, he doesn’t panic, he gets the ball and finds someone right away. He’s really got an awareness on the field.”

Streamwood will travel to East Aurora for a Thursday contest and then play Saturday in final-round Pepsi Showdown play at Lyons Township.

Bartlett will travel to Lake Zurich on Thursday before joining Streamwood at the Lyons’ soccer complex. Seidel and company will put Tuesday’s poor showing behind them, and a team that has struggled to score will keep working to find hard shots on frame.

“I think it might be because everyone is so nervous when they get the ball in those situations, but I think it will come in time,” Seidel said. “We had three or four returners from last year but no one else has played varsity. So I think everyone is just a little nervous. So it has to start coming soon.

“I’d rather play good at the end of the year than at the beginning, and I think everyone thought we might struggle at the beginning of the year. But we need to start playing better. We need to put some goals in the back of the net, and we’ve had good games and then a drop-off game like this. But we have to keep building towards the end of the year.”