Waterman, Wheaton North finish strong

Updated: May 10, 2011 10:26PM

Wheaton North has been searching all season for a consistent finisher.

The Falcons found one Tuesday from an unexpected source. Senior defender Natalie Waterman scored two goals – one in each half – to lead Wheaton North to a 2-0 DuPage Valley Conference victory over host Glenbard East in Lombard.

It was the first two-goal of Waterman’s career and enabled the Falcons (8-9-3, 3-3) to snap a seven-game winless streak.

“I’m at defense so I don’t have many opportunities, so it feels good,” Waterman said.

“I think the biggest thing about this win is we had a big losing streak, so since we’re going into the regionals we needed a confidence booster and this will definitely boost it up.”

Waterman, whose only previous goal this season came on a penalty kick, gave Wheaton North a 1-0 lead with 29:25 left in the first half when she headed home a free kick from the right corner by Tiffany Traxinger. Traxinger’s cross went over the heads of several Glenbard East defenders and Waterman rose up on the far post and nodded the ball 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.”

The goal was a relief for Waterman, who like many of her teammates has struggled lately to finish chances. The Falcons had scored only six goals during their 0-5-2 skid.

“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,” Waterman said. “So it was really frustrating because I’ve had those opportunities a lot, so it was good to finally get it in.”

Traxinger was dangerous throughout. The junior midfielder hit the left post on a 28-yard free kick with 3:40 to go in the first half and twice forced Glenbard East goalie Veronica Fairbairn to make diving saves.

Waterman made it 2-0 at the 28:18 mark of the second half, scoring on a penalty kick after the Rams (9-7-3, 2-4-1) were whistled for a hand ball in the penalty area.

Glenbard East, which had won three straight games and seven of its last nine, had the early edge in play but couldn’t take advantage. Freshman Sadie Moore got free in the box six minutes in but Waterman knocked the ball away from her and Wheaton North goalie Emily Barry broke up another chance by Jess DeJong.

Barry, a freshman, finished with seven saves, including a diving stop on Moore with 9:05 left to preserve her sixth shutout.

“Frankly, we had some chances and we didn’t capitalize,” Glenbard East coach Kent Overbey said. “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.

“It’s been a story of our season. 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.”

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