Familiar scene goes Wheaton North's way

Whatever the result of Wednesday's Class 3A regional semifinal, Wheaton North knew it wouldn't be a blowout.

"This is the 21st game for us, and of that 16 games have been decided by 1 goal, so we're pretty accustomed to that," Wheaton North coach Bryce Cann said.

That's the way it was again Wednesday. The Falcons found a goal in the 57th minute, then made it stand for a 1-0 victory over Lake Park at Wheaton North.

"The first thing I said to them at halftime was, we've been here before," Cann said. "We played in this all year long."

"We don't play a fancy defense," Falcons senior forward Josh Bennett added, "we just play simple and get it to our forwards' feet and have them turn."

The goal came following an injury delay. Senior midfielder Vito Miulli took a long free kick out of the back, and Pat Langan flicked it on to Bennett, making a strong run to the right of the Lancers' net. Bennett caught up to the ball on the run, and his shot went inside the far post.

"He's got a pretty good leg, so I knew it was going to go far, and Pat called it, said I'm giving it to you," Bennett said of his sixth goal of the season. "It was a perfect ball, and I just put it home."

Bennett took advantage of a little lax marking, finding himself with plenty of space.

"I saw two guys out of the corner of my eyes and I knew I had them beat," Bennett added.

The goal put the Lancers in a difficult position. Shorthanded because of illness, concussions and disciplinary reasons, they didn't have the reserves to pull a goal back, and they haven't been that kind of team anyway.

"We kind of struggled to score all season," Lancers coach Norm Hillner said. "We got a lot of goals on dead balls and things like that."

Still, the Lancers (10-5-4) battled, pushing forward for the equalizer and forcing Falcons goalkeeper Nick Barry to make some tough saves to earn the shutout.

"That's when they start pushing and pressing a little bit more," Cann said, "and we just need to be careful about not getting caught in a position where we're numbers down and not putting Nick in too difficult a position."

"I think our effort was greater tonight than it's been in a long time," Hillner said, "but yet the state tournament has a way of doing that."

It was a typically hard-fought game for these two teams, who played to a 1-1 draw earlier in the season.

"Space was limited for part of the match," Cann said. "It started to open up at times for both of us, but by and large it's about what we expected, especially when you get to postseason."

"The goal was scored on a set play. That's typical of postseason games. It's just nice to be able to put ourselves in a position where we can be successful."

The Falcons (6-10-5) advance to the regional final against Bartlett on Saturday afternoon.