Oswego East’s winning
vibe shows against Joliet West
Burns, Parodis-Yu have big days in 6-1 league win
By Curt Herron
OSWEGO -- It's very unusual when a coach can suggest that each member of his team could be a starter, but that's just how Steve Szymanski views his Oswego East squad.
And with 17 seniors on the Wolves' 21-man team, there's obviously a strong bond among the players, who seem to be far more focused on what they might be able to achieve as a group as opposed to whatever individual accolades they may receive.
That was certainly on display Wednesday when Oswego East hosted Joliet West in a Southwest Prairie Conference match between two honorable mention selections in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25. The game was pushed back from a day earlier due to storms in the area.
A third of the members of the Oswego East roster got in on the scoring act while the others contributed as the Wolves broke open a tight match. They moved in front for good on a goal with one second left before halftime and then scored four more times after the break to capture a 6-1 victory over Joliet West.
"I've never had this," said Szymanski of his team's depth. "There's been years where I feel like we wear our guys out, because we don't have any subs; because we're riding 12, 13, 14 players the whole season. That's the one thing that we hope will carry us a little further this year. One of our team's goals is to win the regional, which we haven't done yet at our school. We're obviously working toward the conference and hopefully get the opportunity to go beyond.
"I think we have the kids that can do it, it's just about keeping everyone healthy and playing hard and fresh. Sometimes my hardest job is trying to find enough minutes for everybody on the team. They're really good friends, and they all get along so well and it makes it much easier to coach. We've all had teams where there's egos and kids that don't get along, but that's something that I don't have to worry about."
Heading into another league match at Joliet Central today, the Wolves are off to a 5-0-0 start overall and 2-0-0 in league play while outscoring their opponents by a 17-4 margin. They also have a home match Saturday against Downers Grove North to open play in the Plainfield North Classic.
Leading the way in scoring against Joliet West were senior Ben Burns, who collected a hat-trick, and junior DuPablo Parodis-Yu, who handed out four assists. Seniors Josh Frank, Matt Watson and Ythan Houston also scored goals; seniors Kellen Klosterman and Min Kha added helpers.
Though not accounting for any scoring, senior starters Carter Boberg, Cael Cummings, Grant Glorioso, Gilberto Mijarez and Kyle Smiley, junior starter Drew Karg and sophomore keeper Javier Ruiz all did their part to frustrate the Tigers (4-3-0, 0-2-0), who entered the game fresh off a runnerup finish to no. 8 Lockport in the 32-team Windy City Classic.
"You have to like what you're seeing when you're 5-0-0, and we're going to stay undefeated as long as we can," Cummings said. "I like what coach Szymanski said, that we have 20 starters on our team. Everyone can go in and put in the same amount of effort and skill as the last person and the level of play never goes down.
"We've all been playing together for five-plus years. These are my best friends out here. We've been hanging out all summer, and we're just friends who like to play soccer."
While the Wolves had many more good chances during the opening half, Joliet West coach Michael O'Shea's squad proved to be up to the challenge. They quickly answered the initial goal by Burns and assist for Parodis-Yu in the fourth minute with a goal from Joseph Karnezis in the seventh minute to keep the sides on level terms until just before the break.
After Tigers keeper Daniel Gudino turned away threats from Burns, Glorioso and Frank and defenders altered tries by Houston and Parodis-Yu, who also bounced one off of the post, the visitors' fortunes took a turn for the worse just before the referee blew the whistle to signal halftime.
With one second remaining in the half, Klosterman sent a good pass inside to Burns, who connected for the second time and the score that put the Wolves in front for good.
"At the beginning of the season, probably our biggest struggle was just putting the ball in the net," Klosterman said. "But then we had one practice, where that's all we did and then in the next game we scored four and the balls kept rolling.
"We didn't lose any steam when the subs went in and at the end of the game when all of our subs were in, it felt like the starters were still out there. Everyone has fun and at the end of the game, every time someone scored, we were all cheering for them and having a good time. This is probably the most fun that I've had so far playing in high school."
After giving up the heartbreaking pre-halftime goal, Joliet West continued to battle. Caden Halla was denied by Ruiz on a short try, and Tony Kochev fired in two dangerous free kicks from just beyond the top of the box. The first glanced off of the crossbar, and the latter was corralled by the Wolves keeper.
The hosts took a 3-1 lead in the 52nd minute when Parodis-Yu, the Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match, sent a ball into the box, and Frank collected it and scored. Boberg followed a short time later with a threatening liner and then a corner kick but both attempts were hauled in.
Oswego East scored half of its goals during the final 10 minutes as the Tigers ran out of gas against the deep Wolves, who were determined to battle through the entire match. The result was a shocker – Joliet West’s previous two losses were one-goal deficits; and they had only surrendered more than a goal once.
In the 71st minute, Parodis-Yu and Burns both hit the trifecta for assists and goals respectively to make it 4-1. In the 75th minute, Kha sent a pass in front and Watson connected. In the 78th minute, Parodis-Yu was at it again, finding Houston in front of the net for the match's final goal.
"I just like that everybody was able to get a good amount of playing time on the field today, and everybody was able to mesh well. We were able to push to get the win today," Watson said. "It's nice being able to get a win in every game this season right now, and our goal is to stay undefeated.
"As coach said, it's really good to have 20 starters on our team. Everybody's really versatile and they can put in the amount of effort as the person who was in before them. I love this team so much.
“I've been playing soccer with all of these kids for years, and everybody is so close with each other. The quality of play and the chemistry all comes together to make our team even better."
Starting lineups
Joliet West
GK Daniel Gudino
D David Reynoso
D Richard Pacheco
D Ethan Podmolik
D Collin McIntyre
MF Joseph Karnezis
MF A.J. Romero
MF Caden Halla
MF Tony Kochev
F Adrian Maldonado
F Victor Antomez
Oswego East
GK Javier Ruiz
D Cael Cummings
D Drew Karg
D Kyle Smiley
D Gilberto Mijarez
MF Carter Boberg
MF Josh Frank
MF Grant Glorioso
MF Kellen Klosterman
F Ben Burns
F DuPablo Parodis-Yu
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: DuPablo Parodis-Yu, jr., F, Oswego East
Scoring summary
First half
OE: Burns (Parodis-Yu), 4th minute
JW: Karnezis, 7th minute
OE: Burns (Klosterman), 40th minute
Second half
OE: Frank (Parodis-Yu), 52nd minute
OE: Burns (Parodis-Yu), 71st minute
OE: Watson (Kha), 75th minute
OE: Houston (Parodis-Yu), 78th minute
vibe shows against Joliet West
Burns, Parodis-Yu have big days in 6-1 league win
By Curt Herron
OSWEGO -- It's very unusual when a coach can suggest that each member of his team could be a starter, but that's just how Steve Szymanski views his Oswego East squad.
And with 17 seniors on the Wolves' 21-man team, there's obviously a strong bond among the players, who seem to be far more focused on what they might be able to achieve as a group as opposed to whatever individual accolades they may receive.
That was certainly on display Wednesday when Oswego East hosted Joliet West in a Southwest Prairie Conference match between two honorable mention selections in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25. The game was pushed back from a day earlier due to storms in the area.
A third of the members of the Oswego East roster got in on the scoring act while the others contributed as the Wolves broke open a tight match. They moved in front for good on a goal with one second left before halftime and then scored four more times after the break to capture a 6-1 victory over Joliet West.
"I've never had this," said Szymanski of his team's depth. "There's been years where I feel like we wear our guys out, because we don't have any subs; because we're riding 12, 13, 14 players the whole season. That's the one thing that we hope will carry us a little further this year. One of our team's goals is to win the regional, which we haven't done yet at our school. We're obviously working toward the conference and hopefully get the opportunity to go beyond.
"I think we have the kids that can do it, it's just about keeping everyone healthy and playing hard and fresh. Sometimes my hardest job is trying to find enough minutes for everybody on the team. They're really good friends, and they all get along so well and it makes it much easier to coach. We've all had teams where there's egos and kids that don't get along, but that's something that I don't have to worry about."
Heading into another league match at Joliet Central today, the Wolves are off to a 5-0-0 start overall and 2-0-0 in league play while outscoring their opponents by a 17-4 margin. They also have a home match Saturday against Downers Grove North to open play in the Plainfield North Classic.
Leading the way in scoring against Joliet West were senior Ben Burns, who collected a hat-trick, and junior DuPablo Parodis-Yu, who handed out four assists. Seniors Josh Frank, Matt Watson and Ythan Houston also scored goals; seniors Kellen Klosterman and Min Kha added helpers.
Though not accounting for any scoring, senior starters Carter Boberg, Cael Cummings, Grant Glorioso, Gilberto Mijarez and Kyle Smiley, junior starter Drew Karg and sophomore keeper Javier Ruiz all did their part to frustrate the Tigers (4-3-0, 0-2-0), who entered the game fresh off a runnerup finish to no. 8 Lockport in the 32-team Windy City Classic.
"You have to like what you're seeing when you're 5-0-0, and we're going to stay undefeated as long as we can," Cummings said. "I like what coach Szymanski said, that we have 20 starters on our team. Everyone can go in and put in the same amount of effort and skill as the last person and the level of play never goes down.
"We've all been playing together for five-plus years. These are my best friends out here. We've been hanging out all summer, and we're just friends who like to play soccer."
While the Wolves had many more good chances during the opening half, Joliet West coach Michael O'Shea's squad proved to be up to the challenge. They quickly answered the initial goal by Burns and assist for Parodis-Yu in the fourth minute with a goal from Joseph Karnezis in the seventh minute to keep the sides on level terms until just before the break.
After Tigers keeper Daniel Gudino turned away threats from Burns, Glorioso and Frank and defenders altered tries by Houston and Parodis-Yu, who also bounced one off of the post, the visitors' fortunes took a turn for the worse just before the referee blew the whistle to signal halftime.
With one second remaining in the half, Klosterman sent a good pass inside to Burns, who connected for the second time and the score that put the Wolves in front for good.
"At the beginning of the season, probably our biggest struggle was just putting the ball in the net," Klosterman said. "But then we had one practice, where that's all we did and then in the next game we scored four and the balls kept rolling.
"We didn't lose any steam when the subs went in and at the end of the game when all of our subs were in, it felt like the starters were still out there. Everyone has fun and at the end of the game, every time someone scored, we were all cheering for them and having a good time. This is probably the most fun that I've had so far playing in high school."
After giving up the heartbreaking pre-halftime goal, Joliet West continued to battle. Caden Halla was denied by Ruiz on a short try, and Tony Kochev fired in two dangerous free kicks from just beyond the top of the box. The first glanced off of the crossbar, and the latter was corralled by the Wolves keeper.
The hosts took a 3-1 lead in the 52nd minute when Parodis-Yu, the Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match, sent a ball into the box, and Frank collected it and scored. Boberg followed a short time later with a threatening liner and then a corner kick but both attempts were hauled in.
Oswego East scored half of its goals during the final 10 minutes as the Tigers ran out of gas against the deep Wolves, who were determined to battle through the entire match. The result was a shocker – Joliet West’s previous two losses were one-goal deficits; and they had only surrendered more than a goal once.
In the 71st minute, Parodis-Yu and Burns both hit the trifecta for assists and goals respectively to make it 4-1. In the 75th minute, Kha sent a pass in front and Watson connected. In the 78th minute, Parodis-Yu was at it again, finding Houston in front of the net for the match's final goal.
"I just like that everybody was able to get a good amount of playing time on the field today, and everybody was able to mesh well. We were able to push to get the win today," Watson said. "It's nice being able to get a win in every game this season right now, and our goal is to stay undefeated.
"As coach said, it's really good to have 20 starters on our team. Everybody's really versatile and they can put in the amount of effort as the person who was in before them. I love this team so much.
“I've been playing soccer with all of these kids for years, and everybody is so close with each other. The quality of play and the chemistry all comes together to make our team even better."
Starting lineups
Joliet West
GK Daniel Gudino
D David Reynoso
D Richard Pacheco
D Ethan Podmolik
D Collin McIntyre
MF Joseph Karnezis
MF A.J. Romero
MF Caden Halla
MF Tony Kochev
F Adrian Maldonado
F Victor Antomez
Oswego East
GK Javier Ruiz
D Cael Cummings
D Drew Karg
D Kyle Smiley
D Gilberto Mijarez
MF Carter Boberg
MF Josh Frank
MF Grant Glorioso
MF Kellen Klosterman
F Ben Burns
F DuPablo Parodis-Yu
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: DuPablo Parodis-Yu, jr., F, Oswego East
Scoring summary
First half
OE: Burns (Parodis-Yu), 4th minute
JW: Karnezis, 7th minute
OE: Burns (Klosterman), 40th minute
Second half
OE: Frank (Parodis-Yu), 52nd minute
OE: Burns (Parodis-Yu), 71st minute
OE: Watson (Kha), 75th minute
OE: Houston (Parodis-Yu), 78th minute