NEW YEAR, SAME RESULT

By: Dan Parks
Photos: Richie Pawlak

Despite all the changes for the Storm, its second season began very much like its first, with a home loss to the Milwaukee Wave. In front of 1,206 fans at the UIC Pavilion, the cohesion and opportunistic nature of the defending champions from Milwaukee bested the home team 6-3.

“For the first three quarters, I thought Milwaukee came out and beat us to every ball,” said Storm head coach Frank Klopas. “They were sharper and put pressure on us and made bounces go their way. It’s not like they scored some great goals, but we had some chances and we didn’t put them away. It’s a big difference when I look last year at the first game when we lost, and I look at this one. I feel very confident about my team. We’re just going to get better.”

Things began well for the Storm (0-1) as Lazo Alavanja parked a free kick from the yellow line just under the crossbar and past Wave goalkeeper Nick Vorberg 56 seconds into the contest to put the Storm up 1-0. Unfortunately, that would be the best shot the Storm would have until the 4th quarter.

About six minutes later, Greg Howes set up Angel Rivillo’s equalizer. Rivillo placed the shot just inside the post and had just enough on it to get through Storm goalkeeper Danny Waltman’s right hand.

Waltman would finish the game with seven saves on 13 shots faced while Vorberg pushed aside 15 of the 18 Storm shots. The Storm put 25 shots toward the Milwaukee goal while the Wave responded with 17. Milwaukee shot 10 in the first quarter while the Storm had 10 in the fourth quarter.

The Wave (1-0) would score three more goals in a span of five minutes to end the first quarter up 4-1. Rivillo returned the favor to Howes by setting him up for the second marker at 9:19. Howes scored his second goal of the game unassisted at 12:46 before Johnny Torres rolled a slow diagonal shot that seemed destined to be saved, but it still wound up in Waltman’s net.

Only one goal came in the next thirty minutes, and it was from the Wave by Hewerton, assisted by Torres at 2:52 of the third quarter.

The Storm shored up their defense a bit in that time after a shaky start with some new personnel but could not get anything working offensively including on the game’s only power play opportunity. Klopas’ club retained possession well during the two-minute man advantage for a handball on Milwaukee’s Giuliano Oliveiro at 12:38 in the second quarter, but it refused to put a shot toward Vorberg in the first minute. The Storm put some pressure on the Wave during the second half of the power play but never had a player in position to get the rebounds their shots created.

Gus Kartes finally forced the issue streaking down the left side unimpeded and putting a shot that rebounded into the air and then off the head of a Wave defender and into the net to draw the Storm to within 5-2 at 1:58 of the fourth quarter.

Kyt Salaidopoulous restored the four-goal advantage about five minutes later before Storm captain “Novi” Marojevic made it a game again at the midway point of the fourth quarter with the score at 6-3 in favor of Milwaukee. Even with “Novi” donning the sixth attacker’s jersey for the final 3:30 of the game, the Storm would get no closer.

“The team, we have a lot of depth and a lot of experience,” Klopas said. “It’s going to take some time because a lot of guys just came a couple of days ago, believe it or not. Figuring out the lines is going to take some time. We looked sharp at practice, and I thought today we could have been a little bit sharper. It’s hard when you play the MISL Champs, and then you come out and you’re not on your top game. I can walk away from this game and feel very positive even though we lost.”

The Storm have a lot to look forward to. They have a chance to get instant revenge on Milwaukee up at the Bradley Center on Saturday night. Also, newcomer Fabinho and returning player Denny Clanton were on the bench but did not log any playing time. Offensive force Mark Ughy has yet to join the team as well. Once they get to full strength, Klopas’ optimism may yet be rewarded.

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