Boys soccer: Wheaton North's Baumgartner plays through pain to get game-winner

Call it rock, blister, game-winner.

The rock in Jarrett Baumgartner's shoe might have resulted in a blister on his foot that made it difficult and painful to run, but fortunately for Wheaton North it didn't force him out of the game.

A couple minutes after Baumgartner had asked to come out, he headed in the lone goal and the Falcons held on for a 1-0 DuKane Conference boys soccer victory on Tuesday at Glenbard North.

"Just two minutes before the goal Jarrett was begging to be taken out because of a rock in his shoe," Falcons coach Rob Stassen said. "He was dying out there and it wasn't a rock, it was just a blister."

Good thing that Baumgartner used his head rather than his foot to bury the game-winner.

"They were coming to take me off because my foot was hurting, so luckily I was still in," he said. "So I just scored with my head, which my coach said was a good idea. Honestly, I was lucky that I stayed in the game."

Graham Peterson's pass on the set piece to Baumgartner was picture perfect.

"Graham has got a foot that he can put a ball on a dime from anywhere," Stassen said. "He's been struggling with an injury and I did not want to play him today, but when the best player in the conference (Erik Rozanski) is out sick, unfortunately he had to step up and play and others had to step up."

If Rozanski hadn't been out sick, he likely would've been the one sending the kick pass to Baumgartner. Instead, some of the Falcons were texting Rozanski afterward about how Peterson delivered a gorgeous feed in his place.

"That was a disgusting ball," Baumgartner said. "You can't ask for anything better than that. That was a perfect ball coming from the midfield. That's just something that Graham does."

Stephenson praised the defensive effort by the Falcons and said they were just biding their time looking for the right moments to attack.

"We were playing well as a defensive unit and staying together," he said. "I just stepped up and saw we had an opportunity with Jarrett wide open so I just had to play it to him."

That all happened with 29:39 still to play so there was more than enough time for the Falcons to add insurance or for the host Panthers to net the equalizer but neither came to fruition.

Glenbard North (6-7, 0-3) actually had its best scoring chances early in the first half but failed to finish them.

"The first 10 minutes we had the opportunity to go up 1-0 or 2-0, and we've talked about how all season, with all the goals we've scored, that we've only scored one goal in the first 30 minutes of a game," Panthers coach Spero Mandakas said.

"So we talked about getting after them early and being able to capitalize and keeping a team down that is missing a few guys and playing on the road and not letting them hang around. But we let them hang around."

A few early chances from the Panthers were either mis-hit or denied by Falcons goalkeeper Ray Min.

"We missed some really easy ones that we usually finish in training," Mandakas said. "And then we kind of got away from it and were more direct and not moving the ball and not moving off the ball as much."

Wheaton North (8-3-1, 1-0-1) needed big minutes from its starters with Rozanski and Liam Lindsay out, and the Falcons still were able to subdue the quick and dangerous Panthers attack.

"We only played two subs today," Stassen said. "So to do that against a speed team like this says a lot about our team defense. That kind of gave us the momentum to move forward."