It’s amazing what one victory can do for a team’s confidence.

Wheaton North came into Tuesday’s DuPage Valley Conference game at Glenbard East on a frustrating seven-game winless streak and in a seemingly irreversible offensive funk.

Then the Falcons get two goals from defender Natalie Waterman to knock off the Rams 2-0 and the future suddenly seems rosy.

“It felt awesome,” Wheaton North midfielder Tiffany Traxinger said. “We’ve been losing pretty badly for a while, but today we broke it so I’m pretty sure we’re going to be on a winning streak for a while. I think we all just encouraged each other, pumped each other up and realized that we don’t want to lose another game, let’s go.”

Traxinger and Waterman made the visitors go. Waterman came up with a huge play on defense in the sixth minute, coming from behind to knock the ball away from Glenbard East freshman Sadie Moore in the box, then went to work on offense.

Waterman gave the Falcons (8-9-2, 3-3) a 1-0 lead when she headed home Traxinger’s free kick from the right corner with 29:25 remaining in the first half. The play was a shortened version of a corner kick and Traxinger served the ball over the heads of several Rams to the back post, where Waterman rose up to nod it under the crossbar.

“On corner kicks, (Waterman has) been on that far post a lot lately,” Wheaton North coach Tim McEvilly said. “Sometimes she’s been trying to do too much with the ball, trying to pound it in or drill it on the ground.

“She knows where to make the run to and all she did tonight was got her body up, reached her highest vertical point and just redirected it and it was a great finish.”

And a great relief to Waterman, whose only previous goal this season came on a penalty kick.

“I’m at defense so I don’t have many opportunities, so it feels good,” Waterman said. “We’ve had probably four or five times it’s happened, like perfect balls from Tiff coming right to me and a couple of them just kind of went into other people and they bobbled them out and then I had two that went right over the crossbar. So it was really frustrating because I’ve those opportunities a lot, so it was good to finally get it in.”

Waterman scored again with 28:18 to go in the second half, converting a penalty kick after Glenbard East (9-7-3, 2-4-1) was called for a hand ball in the penalty area. It gave Waterman the first two-goal outing of her career and put the Rams in a hole too deep to climb out of, as Wheaton North’s back line of Waterman, sophomore Madie Fagan, junior Sarah Weatherred and Anne Denz were solid in front of freshman goalie Emily Barry, who made seven saves in recording her sixth shutout.

But the Falcons could have had more. Traxinger was dangerous throughout, hitting the left post on a 28-yard free kick and forcing Rams goalie Veronica Fairbairn to make two diving saves.

"I just tried to hit it to the crossbar because most goalies our age can’t get to the crossbar because they’re too short or they just can’t jump, so I just tried to hit it there,” Traxinger said. “When I hit the post I was almost there and then (on others) I just try to hit someone’s head.”

The Falcons have changed their offensive strategy as they head into the postseason, which begins next Tuesday when they host St. Charles East in a regional semifinal contest. Wheaton North is the ninth seed at the Class 3A St. Charles East Sectional while the Saints are seeded eighth.

“I think that the thing that’s been a big thing for our team is we’re looking to get it up to the corner flags and having our outsides run onto it,” Waterman said. “Before we were trying to find feet, which doesn’t always work because of bad touches or (defenders) are there, but when we’re playing it over and running onto it, it seems to be working a lot better.

“We had lots of crosses. No finishes, but it’s working. Since we’re going into the regionals we needed a confidence booster and this will definitely boost it up.”

Traxinger, for one, is optimistic about the Falcons’ postseason chances.

“We want to get to state so we’re going to push hard and I have a feeling we’re going to beat a lot of people,” the junior said. “We’re going to be the underdog, but we’ll get there.”

The result was a downer for the Rams, who had won three straight matches and seven of their last nine and need just one more win to finish above .500 for the first time since 2007.

“We knew what they were going to try and do against us,” Glenbard East coach Kent Overbey said. “We did foul on the first goal. We gave them a weak foul and they capitalized and put it in. We didn’t follow our marks. That was just a mental lapse and then we didn’t feel that was a PK, but the ref’s got a tough job and that’s why we play.

“Frankly, we had some chances and we didn’t capitalize. We left a lot of chances out on the field and felt like we could have taken advantage of them and didn’t, so we can’t really complain the two goals against us.”

The Rams did have their share of chances, getting 11 shots off. Moore was dangerous but missed wide on two shots and had another, a nine-yard in front, stopped by a diving Barry with 9:05 to go in the second half. Jess DeJong was thwarted by Weatherred on a play in the crease and Jessie Grumstrup missed high on a one-timer in the first half.

“It’s been a story of our season,” Overbey said. “We’re getting a lot of good chances but have been having trouble finishing. Last week we put four goals in against West Aurora and seven against Romeoville and felt like we were finishing better, but tonight it just didn’t happen, which is unfortunate."

East is the 13th seed at St. Charles East and will open the playoffs Friday against No. 20 seed Elgin in a regional quarterfinal game at Lake Park. A victory in that contest will send the Rams into Tuesday’s regional final against fourth-seeded Geneva in search of the first regional championship in school history.