'Practice Mike' makes perfectly
fine evening for Oswego East
Wolves beat Plainfield Central for first time in program history
By Chris Walker
OSWEGO -- Freshman Michael Waclaw can’t remember ever having a game like he had on Tuesday afternoon against Plainfield Central in Suburban Prairie Conference action.
Moreover, Oswego East had never enjoyed such an outcome against the visiting Wildcats either.
Waclaw scored a hat trick and added two assists to lead the Wolves to an impressive 7-0 victory.
It was the first time in school history that Oswego East beat Plainfield Central.
“We had been 0-10,” Oswego East coach Steve Szymanski. “The kids responded well, and for whatever reason we play well at home. I don’t know what it is. We’ll have to think of Plainfield North (on Thursday) as Oswego North South or something and try to carry that in.”
Oswego East (6-7-1, 3-0-0) dominated the first 12 minutes of play, earning three corner kicks and a couple of other scoring chances. But the Wolves were unable to break the scoreless tie until Waclaw sent a cross to Ryan Aten, who smacked it into the net with 28:40 left in the first half.
It would be just the start of an unforgettable afternoon for Waclaw, who was selected as Chicagoland Soccer's Man of the Match.
“Pretty impressive today,” Szymanski said. “He’s a great player, and we call that ‘Practice Mike' because he does that every day in practice.
“He scores on our guys all the time, takes guys on, does great things with the ball. So today, ‘Practice Mike’ showed up. I told him I want to see ‘Practice Mike’ more times because he’s pretty fun to watch.”
Waclaw dribbled into the penalty box and scored with 22:33 left in the first half to make it 2-0 before extending it to 3-0 just 49 seconds later after getting taken down in the penalty box.
Waclaw converted the penalty kick with 21:44 still on the clock for his second goal.
“He’s very skillful with the ball,” Oswego East senior Sean Phetchanpheng said. “He can dance around with the ball holding on to it. He may be a bit small, but his skill makes up for his size.”
Phetchanpheng, who started the season by splitting time in goal and at forward, has now been utilized at the forward position on a full-time basis.
He continued Oswego East’s impressive attack, scoring 52 seconds after Waclaw’s PK to make it 4-0. He’d later take a beautiful feed that Cristian Anthony Cepeda lofted just beyond Plainfield Central’s remaining back line and deposit that into the net as well.
Those two tallies made it a 5-0 ballgame with 14:31 left before halftime.
Plainfield Central (2-9-2, 1-2-0) got a shot from Gage Wuestenfeld early in the first half, but nothing much more. Still, they maintained their energy and continued to battle.
“I think our guys did a nice job of continuing to play hard,” Plainfield Central coach Kevin Fitzgerald said. “That’s not easy when you’re losing that big, but they played hard, which is hard to do because everyone knows what the score is and the situation is.
“I saw some good effort but I probably didn’t see a whole lot of good soccer. But it all starts with the effort, and they had effort, so that’s fine.”
Fitzgerald was impressed at what he saw from the Wolves.
“They’re very good and very fast and they’re young too,” he said. “So we’re going to have to get used to playing these guys going forward. I like how they play. They’re well organized, and that team can beat a lot of teams. They’re good and they showed it.”
Waclaw earned his hat trick by scoring with 27:29 left.
Phetchanpheng achieved his with 23:46 left, thanks to a pair of quick passes from Arnold Arevalo and Victor Cuevas.
It was Phetchanpheng’s second hat trick of the season. He also did it against IMSA.
“Getting a big lead like that is always a lot of fun,” Oswego East freshman defender Spencer Moriaty said. “You kind of get bored a little bit though and want to move up.”
While Moriaty and the Oswego East back line had a relatively easy afternoon, they know it won’t always be that way. In fact, they were victimized badly on Saturday, losing 7-1 at Batavia.
“We just didn’t play well on Saturday,” Szymanski said. “But give Batavia credit. (Ian) Larson is one of the best players in the state, and the kids let that game go and responded today.”
Moriaty is relishing his role as a leader in back, something he wasn’t necessarily expecting as just a sophomore. He’s certainly received a great deal of support from senior James Jones.
“I’ve kind of taken the leadership in the back, and it’s me and James making sure everything is good there in back like it was today,” Moriaty said. “I know James is going to be gone next year, so I’m trying to get as close as I can to how he plays.”
Oswego East is in the midst of a historical season, even if its record isn’t overly impressive. The Wolves also beat Waubonsie Valley this year, another program first.
“It’s nice knowing that we’ve made history in beating those two teams,” Phetchanpheng said. “It feels good. Our team this year has looked great at times. We can move the ball well, and even though we lack size, we make up for it with movement and tactical stuff.”
While there’s no denying that the Wildcats have had only minimal success this season, they also know that they have time to regroup and start their season over during the state series in October.
“If we keep playing hard, I think some good soccer is going to come along eventually,” Wildcats junior Jarod Petrovic said. “Hopefully we can do that and get a couple of wins and then get some confidence.”
Despite the lopsided loss, Petrovic thought the Wildcats played well. That says a lot about how well the Wolves played too.
“We’ve got a lot of freshmen and sophomores playing and they’re still trying to get used to varsity,” he said. “I think they’re getting better. The score doesn’t show it today, but this was one of the best games we’ve played so far.”
Starting lineups
Plainfield Central
GK: Shane Badertscher
D: Ryan Donnell
D: Ricky Garcia
D: Matt Geib
D: Esdras Hernandez
D: Gage Wuestenfeld
MF: Jose Cardenas
MF: Kyle Holden
MF: Jarod Petrovic
MF: Roger Vera
F: Simeon Adesina
Oswego East
GK: Jake Leonard
D: Arnold Arevalo
D: James Jones
D: Spencer Moriaty
MF: Ryan Aten
MF: Victor Cuevas
MF: Austin Patsch
MF: Tristan Stewart
MF: Michael Waclaw
F: Jackson Frazor
F: Sean Phetchanpheng
Man of the Match: Michael Waclaw, Oswego East
Officials: Gary Griffin, Thomas Evins, Harry Arroyo
fine evening for Oswego East
Wolves beat Plainfield Central for first time in program history
By Chris Walker
OSWEGO -- Freshman Michael Waclaw can’t remember ever having a game like he had on Tuesday afternoon against Plainfield Central in Suburban Prairie Conference action.
Moreover, Oswego East had never enjoyed such an outcome against the visiting Wildcats either.
Waclaw scored a hat trick and added two assists to lead the Wolves to an impressive 7-0 victory.
It was the first time in school history that Oswego East beat Plainfield Central.
“We had been 0-10,” Oswego East coach Steve Szymanski. “The kids responded well, and for whatever reason we play well at home. I don’t know what it is. We’ll have to think of Plainfield North (on Thursday) as Oswego North South or something and try to carry that in.”
Oswego East (6-7-1, 3-0-0) dominated the first 12 minutes of play, earning three corner kicks and a couple of other scoring chances. But the Wolves were unable to break the scoreless tie until Waclaw sent a cross to Ryan Aten, who smacked it into the net with 28:40 left in the first half.
It would be just the start of an unforgettable afternoon for Waclaw, who was selected as Chicagoland Soccer's Man of the Match.
“Pretty impressive today,” Szymanski said. “He’s a great player, and we call that ‘Practice Mike' because he does that every day in practice.
“He scores on our guys all the time, takes guys on, does great things with the ball. So today, ‘Practice Mike’ showed up. I told him I want to see ‘Practice Mike’ more times because he’s pretty fun to watch.”
Waclaw dribbled into the penalty box and scored with 22:33 left in the first half to make it 2-0 before extending it to 3-0 just 49 seconds later after getting taken down in the penalty box.
Waclaw converted the penalty kick with 21:44 still on the clock for his second goal.
“He’s very skillful with the ball,” Oswego East senior Sean Phetchanpheng said. “He can dance around with the ball holding on to it. He may be a bit small, but his skill makes up for his size.”
Phetchanpheng, who started the season by splitting time in goal and at forward, has now been utilized at the forward position on a full-time basis.
He continued Oswego East’s impressive attack, scoring 52 seconds after Waclaw’s PK to make it 4-0. He’d later take a beautiful feed that Cristian Anthony Cepeda lofted just beyond Plainfield Central’s remaining back line and deposit that into the net as well.
Those two tallies made it a 5-0 ballgame with 14:31 left before halftime.
Plainfield Central (2-9-2, 1-2-0) got a shot from Gage Wuestenfeld early in the first half, but nothing much more. Still, they maintained their energy and continued to battle.
“I think our guys did a nice job of continuing to play hard,” Plainfield Central coach Kevin Fitzgerald said. “That’s not easy when you’re losing that big, but they played hard, which is hard to do because everyone knows what the score is and the situation is.
“I saw some good effort but I probably didn’t see a whole lot of good soccer. But it all starts with the effort, and they had effort, so that’s fine.”
Fitzgerald was impressed at what he saw from the Wolves.
“They’re very good and very fast and they’re young too,” he said. “So we’re going to have to get used to playing these guys going forward. I like how they play. They’re well organized, and that team can beat a lot of teams. They’re good and they showed it.”
Waclaw earned his hat trick by scoring with 27:29 left.
Phetchanpheng achieved his with 23:46 left, thanks to a pair of quick passes from Arnold Arevalo and Victor Cuevas.
It was Phetchanpheng’s second hat trick of the season. He also did it against IMSA.
“Getting a big lead like that is always a lot of fun,” Oswego East freshman defender Spencer Moriaty said. “You kind of get bored a little bit though and want to move up.”
While Moriaty and the Oswego East back line had a relatively easy afternoon, they know it won’t always be that way. In fact, they were victimized badly on Saturday, losing 7-1 at Batavia.
“We just didn’t play well on Saturday,” Szymanski said. “But give Batavia credit. (Ian) Larson is one of the best players in the state, and the kids let that game go and responded today.”
Moriaty is relishing his role as a leader in back, something he wasn’t necessarily expecting as just a sophomore. He’s certainly received a great deal of support from senior James Jones.
“I’ve kind of taken the leadership in the back, and it’s me and James making sure everything is good there in back like it was today,” Moriaty said. “I know James is going to be gone next year, so I’m trying to get as close as I can to how he plays.”
Oswego East is in the midst of a historical season, even if its record isn’t overly impressive. The Wolves also beat Waubonsie Valley this year, another program first.
“It’s nice knowing that we’ve made history in beating those two teams,” Phetchanpheng said. “It feels good. Our team this year has looked great at times. We can move the ball well, and even though we lack size, we make up for it with movement and tactical stuff.”
While there’s no denying that the Wildcats have had only minimal success this season, they also know that they have time to regroup and start their season over during the state series in October.
“If we keep playing hard, I think some good soccer is going to come along eventually,” Wildcats junior Jarod Petrovic said. “Hopefully we can do that and get a couple of wins and then get some confidence.”
Despite the lopsided loss, Petrovic thought the Wildcats played well. That says a lot about how well the Wolves played too.
“We’ve got a lot of freshmen and sophomores playing and they’re still trying to get used to varsity,” he said. “I think they’re getting better. The score doesn’t show it today, but this was one of the best games we’ve played so far.”
Starting lineups
Plainfield Central
GK: Shane Badertscher
D: Ryan Donnell
D: Ricky Garcia
D: Matt Geib
D: Esdras Hernandez
D: Gage Wuestenfeld
MF: Jose Cardenas
MF: Kyle Holden
MF: Jarod Petrovic
MF: Roger Vera
F: Simeon Adesina
Oswego East
GK: Jake Leonard
D: Arnold Arevalo
D: James Jones
D: Spencer Moriaty
MF: Ryan Aten
MF: Victor Cuevas
MF: Austin Patsch
MF: Tristan Stewart
MF: Michael Waclaw
F: Jackson Frazor
F: Sean Phetchanpheng
Man of the Match: Michael Waclaw, Oswego East
Officials: Gary Griffin, Thomas Evins, Harry Arroyo