Rams top Wheaton North 1-0
By Matt Le Cren

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Eduardo Diaz scored the only goal of the game but it was Carlos Urbina who deserves a large chunk of the credit for Glenbard East’s 1-0 victory over Wheaton North on Tuesday night.

Diaz’s goal, his first of the season, came off a perfect assist from Urbina with 25:58 left in the first half of the DuPage Valley Conference match in Lombard and allowed the host Rams (2-7, 1-2) to snap a four-game losing streak.

“We deserved the game,” Urbina said. “We’ve been playing really good lately but during the games we haven’t really been playing to our full potential. Today we finally played as well as we should have.”

Urbina’s play to set up the goal was a textbook example of why you should never give up on the ball. Coaches could not have created a better video of how to teach kids to go full throttle than the replay of Urbina’s effort, in which he battled a Wheaton North defender for possession while both raced up the right wing and into the Falcons penalty area.

Just when the defender appeared he would be able to shield the ball from Urbina while it rolled over the endline, the two players collided and both fell out of the bounds. The ball, meanwhile, came to a stop on the line.

Urbina was the first to regain his feet, got to the ball and dribbled twice before sliding a pass to a streaking Diaz, who ripped a 12-yard shot past Wheaton North goalie A.J. Bibergall.

“I wanted him to get the ball and I was praying for him to get the ball, so when he did I was like, ‘Yes,’” Diaz recalled. “So then I started running forward and I saw he had two guys over him and I saw that wide seam, so I asked for the ball and he gave it right to me and that’s when I scored.”

Urbina said his hustle was a result of his team’s philosophy.

“One of our goals for the season is to be one of the hardest-working teams, so we’re not supposed to give up on balls and I knew that if I worked hard I would get to the ball and I did,” said Urbina, who now has three assists. “And I saw Eduardo making the run and I just passed it. It was a nice finish.”

On that point there was no disagreement, even from Wheaton North coach Bryce Cann, whose team suffered its’ third 1-0 loss of the season.

“It was a real weird play,” Cann said. “I’m not sure exactly how everybody ended up on the ground, but when the ball came out we didn’t do a good job of closing the space and (Urbina) did a nice job of exploiting.

“I had a great look at the finish. It was a great finish; a very poised finish. Unfortunately, that ended up being the deciding moment of the game and it was real early on.”

Glenbard East coach Josh Adler was happy to see it.

“We’ve been talking to the boys about you have to be high-energy,” Adler said. “You’ve got to have a high work rate up there and you can make things happen just from your presence and energy on the field.”

The Falcons (1-5-2, 0-2) had plenty of energy and didn’t lack for scoring opportunities. Cann made a good argument that his side had the better of the play and controlled more of the action, especially in the second half, but the visitors had nothing to show for it.

“I know where the bulk of the play was, especially in the second half, and even the first 20 we were all over them,” Cann said. “Really what’s annoying is we probably had four or five golden opportunities and didn’t stick it in. That’s really it. We gave them one, maybe two.

“When you’re beating up a team and you’re going at them you’ve got to finish them.
I give a lot of credit to Glenbard East because they stuck together and never really got too disorganized or anything like that. They were able to gut it out.”

Indeed, after being done in repeatedly by a leaky defense most of the season, the Rams never let the floodgates open in this one. The back line of Cesar Infante, Nick DeJong, Trevor Cook and Mike Baitz bent at times but never broke in front of senior goalie Seth Quam, who made three saves and several decisive punch-outs to record his second shutout.

“Our defense played really strong,” Urbina said. “They did a lot. They kept us in the game.”

“We were able to step in and win some 50/50 balls and made us get at least some counterattacks in and stop their play into our defense,” Diaz noted.

Wheaton North had two great scoring chances in the first half. The first came with 19:45 left when Shelton Thompson volleyed a 40-yard free kick from Brooks Joy just wide of the left post. An even better opportunity came two minutes later when DeJong sent a wicked 30-yard free kick dipping just under the crossbar, but Quam leaped to knock it down with two hands before securing the ball.

Quam thwarted DeJong again early in the first half, stopping a one-timer from six yards out, and midway through the period Sam Mason broke free in the box but fired wide left from eight yards away.

So while Diaz’s goal turned out to be the difference, it wasn’t like the game was over at the point.

“I thought that one play didn’t sink us,” Cann said. “We certainly generated a lot of opportunities after that. We had every opportunity to win the game. I thought the kids responded well and didn’t let up. So we’ll regroup and we’ll come back.

“I thought we played well enough to win, so I’m not overly disappointed from that regard, but this is the time of year when you’re in conference, you’ve got to get wins. That’s what it comes down to.”

And that’s what the Rams got in winning a one-goal game after dropping three such decisions, including a 2-1 loss Saturday to a tough Rockford Boylan squad.

“It kind of started on Saturday,” Adler said. “It was 1-1 game until the final 15 minutes.
We finally kind of found a way to get forward and attack in numbers.

“We got opportunities but we were talking about how we need to be more quality with the opportunities. I thought we did that.

“Another part of it was we’ve given up a lot of goals and we said we’ve got to do a better job of defending and that was a big focus yesterday in training. It’s been good, steady progress in the last two (games). I’m hoping this is a nice little catalyst for us to jump forward.”