Oswego cools Lake Park hot streak
Lancers' 5-game unbeaten run ends in 5-1 loss
By Dave Owen
PLAINFIELD – A great week for Lake Park ended with one of those days.
In a showdown of teams on strong unbeaten streaks, the Lancers (4-4-1) saw their five-game surge without a loss ended with a 5-1 loss to Oswego (5-3-1) in the opening round of the Plainfield Classic at Plainfield South.
“We struggled – we came out slow,” Lake Park coach Sean Crosby said. “But we had a lot of guys out today, so we were working with limited numbers.
“To not have our captain in the back – Riccardo (Ciaccio) had an ACT test , and another senior starting defender Konrad (Sagan) is out with a concussion. So to be missing those two huge blocks who help us defend big time was not a good place to be.”
Lake Park -- last year's Classic champion -- was also playing its first game of the fall on artificial turf, and endured a much longer bus ride than Oswego.
But having navigated all challenges to reach the Class 3A state semifinals last year, Lake Park wasn’t about to dwell on any alibis.
“You can’t blame it on the turf, the refs, anything,” Lancers senior Grayden McClellan said. “That was just us coming out slow.
“It’s an hour bus ride, everybody has tight legs sitting on the bus – but no excuse for the way we played. We came out slow and ready to be beat.”
Beating an Oswego squad that has now outscored opponents 20-4 during a four-game win streak would have required a sharp performance from the Lancers.
Instead, after a chance in the box three minutes in for Lake Park’s Abel Campuzano and McClellan (denied by two Oswego defenders), the Lancers soon found themselves on the defensive.
Lake Park goalkeeper Kyle Czeremuga denied the first good threat, making a reaching save of a high shot towards the right post in the 13th minute.
But 24:26 before halftime, Oswego went up 1-0 as Steven Udy’s cross to the front was chipped home by junior Mason McCaw.
Three minutes later, McCaw burst up the middle and lined a 15-yarder inside the right post to put Oswego up 2-0.
McCaw (11 goals this season) finished with his second hat-trick of 2019 en route to Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match honors. And based on his postgame comments, the Lancers’ adjustment to key defensive unit absences was evident to all.
“They kind of let us receive the ball up -top,” McCaw said, “and they would drop off and give us time to run at them. We just ran at them, had quick combos and would get shots off and score.”
McCaw certainly made an impression on Lake Park’s coach.
“He’s a good player,” Crosby said. “He can turn really well. He has good speed, and they work off each other really well in the forward system.
“Number 9 (McCaw) is a talented player. He’s going to do a lot of good things for Oswego. Hats off to him – he gave us a lot of trouble in the back. He’s going to be a player to watch out for in this tournament for sure. If he keeps that up, he’ll turn a lot of heads.”
Before Saturday’s hiccup, the Lancers had started turning heads themselves. After a slow start, Lake Park had poured in 19 goals over a five-game unbeaten streak (4-0-1).
“What was working until this point was that we were attacking from all over the field,” Crosby said. “Our forward movement was really good, we stretched the backlines and got goal scoring chances every game.
“And more specifically in our last game (a 5-2 win on Thursday) against Glenbard West, a very good attacking team, we just committed to defending, really kept ourselves balanced and minimized their chances.”
The list of recent standouts for the Lancers has been a growing one.
“I think (defender) Max Panek had his game of the season Thursday night,” Crosby said. “That was big for him out of the back.
“And Logan (Pobloske) stepping up – he wasn’t a starter at the beginning of the season, but when illnesses and things got guys off the field, he’s stepped on and has been starting ever since.”
One of many juniors stepping in to fill voids left by graduated seniors from the 2018 state squad, Pobloske brings energy and grit to the Lancers.
“He’s small,” Crosby said, “but he makes up for it by positioning and just working hard for every single ball. And his endurance is huge. He runs up and down the field all game long and never asks to get subbed out until today. We had a lot of heavy legs today.”
“As a junior we’re excited for him to continue growing and developing.”
And most of all, it had been the Lake Park offense fueling the resurgence.
“Our attacking corps is huge,” Crosby said. “And we’re scoring from a lot of different areas, which is good.
“To have Olek (Melnyk) and Gray and Max Armas – those three forwards were firing on all cylinders and scoring every game for us (in the unbeaten streak).
“We had those three,” Crosby added, “and also Edgar Villagran, who went out of this game with an injury. All of them were on multi-game goal scoring streaks. So that’s been exciting. But we just weren’t ready to adjust to today.”
Lake Park did begin to adjust late in the first half Saturday – but not before a Joey Motto goal in the 29th minute had stretched Oswego’s lead to 3-0.
The Lancers’ set pieces began to cause trouble in the 32nd minute, when a Campuzano free kick required a low save at the right post by Oswego goalkeeper Kade Gutierrez.
Then late in the half, back-to-back free kicks put the Lancers on the scoreboard.
Panek’s initial free kick send from the defensive end resulted in an Oswego foul right of the box.
On the second-straight free kick, Melynk’s 25-yard send produced a scramble in front and a Campuzano goal to make the score 3-1 with 4:04 until halftime.
“Olek sent it in,” McClellan said. “It deflected off the goalkeeper’s hands, I was there and screened it, and Abel buried that (shot).”
Oswego closed the half with another offensive push, highlighted in the 37th minute when Czeremuga made two great point-blank saves at the right post in a 10-second span to keep the score 3-1 at halftime.
That 3-1 margin would remain intact until just 14:37 remained in the match, as the two sides would more evenly exchange threats until the late going.
After Oswego defender Collin Moran cleared a McClellan cross into the box two minutes into the second half, the Oswego offense again turned up the heat.
Francesco Ciara’s block of a 19-yard Oswego free kick with 30:15 left denied one threat. Then two minutes later, second-half Lake Park goalkeeper Andrew Deardorff made a high save on Udy’s right-of-the-box 12-yard free kick.
Then it was Lake Park’s turn to nearly finish. With 26 minutes left, a McClellan pass set up Melynk’s 10-yard, straight-on shot that was stopped on a sliding kick save by Oswego keeper Gutierrez.
Panek made a big defensive play with 24:30 left, making a steal and clear on an Oswego attack into the box.
Three minutes later, Deardorff made a great save on a McCaw straight-on 10-yard rocket off a Samuel Mathew pass.
But that only delayed McCaw’s bid for a hat-trick.
With 14:37 left, McCaw was knocked down in the box on a run near the left post. The junior powered home the ensuing penalty kick, upping the Oswego lead to 4-1.
“It feels good to beat a team (Lake Park) that was so good last year,” McCaw said. “That just brings our hopes up even more and gets us ready to win the tournament.”
With 4:40 to go, Oswego closed the scoring when Jael Chavez’s send from the right sideline somehow found Johnny Sherrell onside behind the defense for a right post putaway and a 5-1 score.
By that time, Lake Park had substituted extensively and chalked up the match as a learning experience.
“Everyone came out slow, and we had rotations out and changed everybody,” Crosby said.
“It just wasn’t our day. It’s a bummer because we come off a good hot streak. To go undefeated in the last five against good teams, then to field this one is tough.
"We’ve played every game up until now at home,” Crosby added, “so this was a challenge traveling and playing on a turf field. A lot of things we had to adjust to, and we didn’t. To not be at full health made it tricky too.
“There’s a lot of circumstances not going our way, but most of all we weren’t ready to go from the kickoff. That was the big part.”
Reserve Jacob Farsalas provided two late notable moments for the Lancers – a 22-yard free kick just over the net with 4:40 left, then a shot on goal off a right side rush in the final seconds.
Ultimately, the match was about lessons to be learned for Lake Park.
“No game is ever handed to us,” McLellan said. “We have to come out every single game as a brand new game, a brand new fight to win. Every single ball you have to play high intensity from the start, 80 minutes.”
Having faced adversity with three losses starting the year, the Lancers have already proved their resiliency.
“I’ll be honest,” McLellan said, “having so many young guys after graduating so many (from last year), we finally started building that chemistry and connecting with the team together, building up and back.
“All the sorts of chemistry things we’ve been really working on, we started hitting our stride. Until today obviously.”
Crosby hopes any misstep Saturday is like a stubbed toe.
“Hopefully we bounce back from it,” Crosby said, “that it’s a fluke.
“We weren’t full strength, and we weren’t ready to play today. Hopefully we can put this one behind us.”
Starting lineups
Lake Park
GK Kyle Czeremuga
D Francesco Caira
D Max Panek
D Logan Pobloske
D Anthony Magner
M Abel Campuzano
M Max Armas
M Edgar Villagran
M Jakub Zych
F Olek Melnyk
F Grayden McClellan
Oswego
GK Kade Gutierrez
D Collin Moran
D Max Glover
D Jose Castro
D Joseph Pagone
M Martin Imbronjev
M Steven Udy
M Joey Motto
M Norman Hernandez
F Mason McCaw
F Daniel Avila
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Mason McCaw, jr. F, Oswego
Scoring summary
First half
O- Mason McCaw (Steven Udy assist), 16th min
O- McCaw, 19th min
O- Joey Motto, 29th min
LP- Abel Campuzano (Olek Melnyk), 36th min
Second half
O- McCaw (PK), 66th min
O- Johnny Sherrell (Jael Chavez), 76th min
Lancers' 5-game unbeaten run ends in 5-1 loss
By Dave Owen
PLAINFIELD – A great week for Lake Park ended with one of those days.
In a showdown of teams on strong unbeaten streaks, the Lancers (4-4-1) saw their five-game surge without a loss ended with a 5-1 loss to Oswego (5-3-1) in the opening round of the Plainfield Classic at Plainfield South.
“We struggled – we came out slow,” Lake Park coach Sean Crosby said. “But we had a lot of guys out today, so we were working with limited numbers.
“To not have our captain in the back – Riccardo (Ciaccio) had an ACT test , and another senior starting defender Konrad (Sagan) is out with a concussion. So to be missing those two huge blocks who help us defend big time was not a good place to be.”
Lake Park -- last year's Classic champion -- was also playing its first game of the fall on artificial turf, and endured a much longer bus ride than Oswego.
But having navigated all challenges to reach the Class 3A state semifinals last year, Lake Park wasn’t about to dwell on any alibis.
“You can’t blame it on the turf, the refs, anything,” Lancers senior Grayden McClellan said. “That was just us coming out slow.
“It’s an hour bus ride, everybody has tight legs sitting on the bus – but no excuse for the way we played. We came out slow and ready to be beat.”
Beating an Oswego squad that has now outscored opponents 20-4 during a four-game win streak would have required a sharp performance from the Lancers.
Instead, after a chance in the box three minutes in for Lake Park’s Abel Campuzano and McClellan (denied by two Oswego defenders), the Lancers soon found themselves on the defensive.
Lake Park goalkeeper Kyle Czeremuga denied the first good threat, making a reaching save of a high shot towards the right post in the 13th minute.
But 24:26 before halftime, Oswego went up 1-0 as Steven Udy’s cross to the front was chipped home by junior Mason McCaw.
Three minutes later, McCaw burst up the middle and lined a 15-yarder inside the right post to put Oswego up 2-0.
McCaw (11 goals this season) finished with his second hat-trick of 2019 en route to Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match honors. And based on his postgame comments, the Lancers’ adjustment to key defensive unit absences was evident to all.
“They kind of let us receive the ball up -top,” McCaw said, “and they would drop off and give us time to run at them. We just ran at them, had quick combos and would get shots off and score.”
McCaw certainly made an impression on Lake Park’s coach.
“He’s a good player,” Crosby said. “He can turn really well. He has good speed, and they work off each other really well in the forward system.
“Number 9 (McCaw) is a talented player. He’s going to do a lot of good things for Oswego. Hats off to him – he gave us a lot of trouble in the back. He’s going to be a player to watch out for in this tournament for sure. If he keeps that up, he’ll turn a lot of heads.”
Before Saturday’s hiccup, the Lancers had started turning heads themselves. After a slow start, Lake Park had poured in 19 goals over a five-game unbeaten streak (4-0-1).
“What was working until this point was that we were attacking from all over the field,” Crosby said. “Our forward movement was really good, we stretched the backlines and got goal scoring chances every game.
“And more specifically in our last game (a 5-2 win on Thursday) against Glenbard West, a very good attacking team, we just committed to defending, really kept ourselves balanced and minimized their chances.”
The list of recent standouts for the Lancers has been a growing one.
“I think (defender) Max Panek had his game of the season Thursday night,” Crosby said. “That was big for him out of the back.
“And Logan (Pobloske) stepping up – he wasn’t a starter at the beginning of the season, but when illnesses and things got guys off the field, he’s stepped on and has been starting ever since.”
One of many juniors stepping in to fill voids left by graduated seniors from the 2018 state squad, Pobloske brings energy and grit to the Lancers.
“He’s small,” Crosby said, “but he makes up for it by positioning and just working hard for every single ball. And his endurance is huge. He runs up and down the field all game long and never asks to get subbed out until today. We had a lot of heavy legs today.”
“As a junior we’re excited for him to continue growing and developing.”
And most of all, it had been the Lake Park offense fueling the resurgence.
“Our attacking corps is huge,” Crosby said. “And we’re scoring from a lot of different areas, which is good.
“To have Olek (Melnyk) and Gray and Max Armas – those three forwards were firing on all cylinders and scoring every game for us (in the unbeaten streak).
“We had those three,” Crosby added, “and also Edgar Villagran, who went out of this game with an injury. All of them were on multi-game goal scoring streaks. So that’s been exciting. But we just weren’t ready to adjust to today.”
Lake Park did begin to adjust late in the first half Saturday – but not before a Joey Motto goal in the 29th minute had stretched Oswego’s lead to 3-0.
The Lancers’ set pieces began to cause trouble in the 32nd minute, when a Campuzano free kick required a low save at the right post by Oswego goalkeeper Kade Gutierrez.
Then late in the half, back-to-back free kicks put the Lancers on the scoreboard.
Panek’s initial free kick send from the defensive end resulted in an Oswego foul right of the box.
On the second-straight free kick, Melynk’s 25-yard send produced a scramble in front and a Campuzano goal to make the score 3-1 with 4:04 until halftime.
“Olek sent it in,” McClellan said. “It deflected off the goalkeeper’s hands, I was there and screened it, and Abel buried that (shot).”
Oswego closed the half with another offensive push, highlighted in the 37th minute when Czeremuga made two great point-blank saves at the right post in a 10-second span to keep the score 3-1 at halftime.
That 3-1 margin would remain intact until just 14:37 remained in the match, as the two sides would more evenly exchange threats until the late going.
After Oswego defender Collin Moran cleared a McClellan cross into the box two minutes into the second half, the Oswego offense again turned up the heat.
Francesco Ciara’s block of a 19-yard Oswego free kick with 30:15 left denied one threat. Then two minutes later, second-half Lake Park goalkeeper Andrew Deardorff made a high save on Udy’s right-of-the-box 12-yard free kick.
Then it was Lake Park’s turn to nearly finish. With 26 minutes left, a McClellan pass set up Melynk’s 10-yard, straight-on shot that was stopped on a sliding kick save by Oswego keeper Gutierrez.
Panek made a big defensive play with 24:30 left, making a steal and clear on an Oswego attack into the box.
Three minutes later, Deardorff made a great save on a McCaw straight-on 10-yard rocket off a Samuel Mathew pass.
But that only delayed McCaw’s bid for a hat-trick.
With 14:37 left, McCaw was knocked down in the box on a run near the left post. The junior powered home the ensuing penalty kick, upping the Oswego lead to 4-1.
“It feels good to beat a team (Lake Park) that was so good last year,” McCaw said. “That just brings our hopes up even more and gets us ready to win the tournament.”
With 4:40 to go, Oswego closed the scoring when Jael Chavez’s send from the right sideline somehow found Johnny Sherrell onside behind the defense for a right post putaway and a 5-1 score.
By that time, Lake Park had substituted extensively and chalked up the match as a learning experience.
“Everyone came out slow, and we had rotations out and changed everybody,” Crosby said.
“It just wasn’t our day. It’s a bummer because we come off a good hot streak. To go undefeated in the last five against good teams, then to field this one is tough.
"We’ve played every game up until now at home,” Crosby added, “so this was a challenge traveling and playing on a turf field. A lot of things we had to adjust to, and we didn’t. To not be at full health made it tricky too.
“There’s a lot of circumstances not going our way, but most of all we weren’t ready to go from the kickoff. That was the big part.”
Reserve Jacob Farsalas provided two late notable moments for the Lancers – a 22-yard free kick just over the net with 4:40 left, then a shot on goal off a right side rush in the final seconds.
Ultimately, the match was about lessons to be learned for Lake Park.
“No game is ever handed to us,” McLellan said. “We have to come out every single game as a brand new game, a brand new fight to win. Every single ball you have to play high intensity from the start, 80 minutes.”
Having faced adversity with three losses starting the year, the Lancers have already proved their resiliency.
“I’ll be honest,” McLellan said, “having so many young guys after graduating so many (from last year), we finally started building that chemistry and connecting with the team together, building up and back.
“All the sorts of chemistry things we’ve been really working on, we started hitting our stride. Until today obviously.”
Crosby hopes any misstep Saturday is like a stubbed toe.
“Hopefully we bounce back from it,” Crosby said, “that it’s a fluke.
“We weren’t full strength, and we weren’t ready to play today. Hopefully we can put this one behind us.”
Starting lineups
Lake Park
GK Kyle Czeremuga
D Francesco Caira
D Max Panek
D Logan Pobloske
D Anthony Magner
M Abel Campuzano
M Max Armas
M Edgar Villagran
M Jakub Zych
F Olek Melnyk
F Grayden McClellan
Oswego
GK Kade Gutierrez
D Collin Moran
D Max Glover
D Jose Castro
D Joseph Pagone
M Martin Imbronjev
M Steven Udy
M Joey Motto
M Norman Hernandez
F Mason McCaw
F Daniel Avila
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Mason McCaw, jr. F, Oswego
Scoring summary
First half
O- Mason McCaw (Steven Udy assist), 16th min
O- McCaw, 19th min
O- Joey Motto, 29th min
LP- Abel Campuzano (Olek Melnyk), 36th min
Second half
O- McCaw (PK), 66th min
O- Johnny Sherrell (Jael Chavez), 76th min