Boys soccer: North Stars' DelaPaz scores late to tie WW South
Eric Willson feels confident whenever Walter DelaPaz stands over the ball.
With his St. Charles North boys soccer team trailing by a goal with just under six minutes to play Tuesday in Wheaton, DelaPaz stared at a free kick from 20 yards out and let it fly.
“It's not where I was aiming, honestly,” DelaPaz said.
Willson and the North Stars don't care as they saw his shot drill the top left corner of the net. The goal enabled St. Charles North to earn a 1-1 road draw at Wheaton Warrenville South to begin DuKane Conference play.
After struggling to equalize for most of the second half after Tigers forward Jason Weisheit's penalty kick conversion in the half's opening five minutes, Willson will gladly leave Wheaton Warrenville South with a draw.
“Without question, you come on the road against a quality conference opponent after falling behind 1-0, I think we're pretty happy to get the equalizer,” Willson said. “Any time you can get [Walter] on a free kick at that stage of the game, we'll take that chance.”
“That's a great quality and caliber team over there,” Tigers coach J Guy Callipari said. “I think we weathered their pressure for much of the game and they capitalized on an opportunity we gave them. That's a great free kick, but a good result and good battle for both sides tonight.”
Weisheit's penalty kick came after a strong start to the second half for Wheaton Warrenville South (2-1-2, 0-0-1) after a fairly even first 40 minutes.
The Tigers forced North goalkeeper Max Montgomery to make a few saves, in the first few minutes following the break, before Weisheit was taken down in the box.
He calmly stepped up and beat Montgomery to give the Tigers the advantage.
“I think, overall, it was a pretty strong start to the conference season,” Weisheit said, “St. Charles North is always a strong opponent and you can't give them late opportunities like that. I think the more games we play together, the more chemistry we will develop.”
“I think [North's] goal comes off of a miscommunication by us,” Callipari added. “I think we did a lot of things well tonight, but I think we got a little over aggressive. Normally you take that from your team, but it hurt us a little bit tonight.”
DelaPaz's set piece came after two Wheaton Warrenville South defenders ran into each other and a hand ball was called.
Coming off of four games in the St. Charles Invite in which the North Stars (2-0-3, 0-0-1) had trouble in stretches to find the back of the net, the sophomore midfielder DelaPaz came to the rescue in a big way to salvage the draw in a tough road conference game.
“I think we were struggling a little, but we just kept our heads about us,” DelaPaz said. “We kept our composure and it led to the goal… I just wanted to get the ball on target and knew something good would happen. I think we can get a lot better from a game and a result like this. Just continuing to learn to never give up and good things can happen.”
The Tigers continued to pressure in the game's final minutes, but were unable to get anything past Montgomery and the North Stars.
Montgomery finished with five saves for North, while freshman Jared Ferreya (two saves) and Owen Haas (three saves) each played a half in net for the Tigers.