Storm defeats Hawks in UEC Valley opener

By Seth Hancock

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With the early scoring output of South Elgin clearly shown, Bartlett’s defense knew that it had its work cut out for themselves.

Despite the Hawks’ strong effort in the back, the visiting Storm was able to claim a 2-1 victory in Upstate Eight Conference Valley Division play on Tuesday night at Millennium Field in Streamwood.

South Elgin (4-1, 1-0) had a clear advantage on possession in the first half, but the game went into halftime scoreless.

However, less than eight minutes into the second half Phil Saccameno started the scoring with Quinn Uveges picking up an assist.

“Quinn hit a cross through the box that got deflected around,” Saccameno said. “I just waited for it to pop out, and when it did I ripped it.

“We knew, eventually, if we kept attacking we were going to get one in. We were moving the ball real well up to that point, and it was only a matter of time.”

The Storm made it 2-0 about six minutes later. Jose Hernandez held the ball in the middle of the box looking for a shot, but he found Spencer Scott to the right and he put the ball past goalkeeper Justin Busch with 26:52 left on the game’s clock.

Despite the loss, the Hawks (0-3, 0-3) gained some confidence by scoring a goal with 8:31 left to play. Bartlett had been shutout in its previous two games, making it the first Hawks’ goal of the season.

“It’s good for these guys,” said Bartlett coach Ben Beary. “We’ve been working on possession and have been getting better each game, and I’m happy we’re not going into our fourth game seeking our first goal of the season.

“We have a young defensive-oriented team that is looking to find some offensive chemistry. We might have found a nice combination there at the end of the game.”

Andrew Gott had taken an initial shot on goal which Storm keeper Tyler Shipon blocked, but Dylan Zlotnik was there to finish and put the Hawks on the board. It was the first varsity goal for the sophomore midfielder.

“It felt really good,” Zlotnik said. “We’ve just been keeping positive, and it felt good to get us on the board.”

The Hawks offense had their best scoring chances late in the game. A nice combination of Mike Parzy passing to Zlotnik led to a strong shot on goal with 22 minutes left to play.

And Juan Garcia crashed the net on a Gott free kick with 11:50 left on the clock which nearly led to a Bartlett goal.

With 10:20 left to play, Garcia took the Hawks’ only corner kick of the game which Matt Seidl headed on goal but was met with a Shipon save.

The Storm, in contrast, had five corner kicks in the game with the first leading to South Elgin’s best scoring chance of the first half.

With 24:00 left on the clock in that half, Alberto Bustamante took the corner kick which Uveges headed towards the top of the net but Busch was able to leap and punch the ball away before it went in.

South Elgin had four of its five corner kicks in the first half, and the Storm kept up a strong attack through the first 40 minutes despite not finding the net.

“We played a wonderful first half,” Saccameno said. “We were moving the ball well, but we just couldn’t get one in.”

“We did a good job of possessing the ball,” Storm coach John Uveges said. “We missed out on some scoring opportunities early on, but we kept the pressure.

“We just stayed focus on our short possession game and kept attacking the corners very effectively.”

The Storm did suffer a blow in the second half when Bustamante, one of the team’s three captains, went down with a knee injury. Uveges feared that it might be a tear but does not know as of yet.

Bustamante had several strong scoring chances in the game. Tyler Piszczek, Christian Perez, Matt Padron, Isaac Perez, Jacob Hicks, Kristoph Mikhail and Fabian Bahena each had solid scoring chances in the game.

Shipon and Busch each had six saves for their respective teams.

Scott and Owen Bott both came up with big defensive plays for the Storm in the game to stop breakaway chances by the Hawks.

Carlos Avina, Adam Jones and Gott each had solid defensive plays for the Hawks to stop scoring threats from the Storm.

The Hawk defense has been the highlight for the team in their first three games, which also includes Chris Kibler.

“The defense is trying to help us out and helping us get to the ball,” Zlotnik said. “They’re really stepping up and motivating us.”