Oswego East regroups in crosstown battle
Wolves show fight in 2nd half of 4-1 loss
By Chris Walker
OSWEGO – Trailing early in the first half of Tuesday’s Southwest Prairie Conference game against Oswego, visiting Oswego East head coach Steve Szymanski sounded angry.
“Give me 10 guys who will play hard,” he shouted out in frustration at the Wolves. “Heck, I’ll take seven, and they’ll stay on the field.”
While Szymanski’s motivational words didn’t result in an influx of goal scoring, it most definitely brought out a much better effort from the Wolves, who made their game against crosstown rival Oswego interesting by pulling within striking distance early in the second half before succombing to a 4-1 defeat.
“You can always play hard,” Szymanski said. “And I don’t think we did that in the first 40 minutes. We didn’t do that. I respect how they came out in the second half, because we did play hard, and it was evident. We had 10-to-12 guys all busting the butts going hard to the ball, tackling hard, winning balls and connecting passes -- a lot of things we didn’t see in the first half.”
Szymanski has reminded his kids that they have to outwork teams to be successful. He has yet to see it for an entire game.
“We haven’t played 80 minutes yet all year,” Szymanski said. “I’ve told the guys that we’re not going to go out and beat teams because we have the best talent on the field. So we have to go out and beat teams because we outwork them. The two goals they (Oswego) scored to start the game were mistakes.”
The host Panthers (3-3-2, 2-0-0) deposited two goals at John Jardine Memorial Field in the first six minutes of action Tuesday, but they wouldn’t score again until there were under 18 minutes left to play and the Wolves had split their deficit to 2-1.
“The kids were unmarked, and they dribbled through our defense,” Szymanski said. “If it’s 0-0 at halftime it’s a different game. It’s now happened three times where we’ve given up a goal right after we’ve already given one. We barely kicked the ball off and in comes another one. That breaks your back. And when you’re playing a good team like them, you can’t give up two goals, because it’s going to take all your energy just to get the game tied up.”
A team may not get the result it desires, but if it gives its all there shouldn’t be any regrets. For the Wolves (1-4-0, 0-2-0), Szymanski’s looking for a full effort from start to finish regardless of who is on the field.
“I don’t know what the problem is, and I wish I had the answer right now,” he said. “I just want us to play harder.”
Oswego East senior defender Zach Seidel was all over both ends of the field and a big-time leader by example. He was named Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match for his strong effort.
He suggested the crosstown rivalry’s hype may have gotten the best of some of his teammates during their rough start to the game.
“I think it was nerves,” he said. “I think the nerves got a lot of people. We were overhyped for the game and then when the time finally came to play we were too nervous.”
Hearing from Szymanski during the mid-game break proved inspiring and sparked the turnaround.
“After the halftime speech, I think we turned it on and battled harder,” Seidel said. “We played with a little bit of fire in our heart.”
Oswego East sophomore Cael Cummings acknowledged that losing focus got the best of the Wolves early Tuesday. It’s something they have to eliminate if they hope to begin finding success in the win column.
“I think we are losing our focus for a certain time frame with the game, and that’s when we’re getting scored on,” he said. “Today it happened again. I think if we can find out how to keep our focus we’ll be better.”
The game featured a huge personal achievement for Wolves senior Sahil Sethi who scored his first varsity goal. It made it a 2-1 game with 34:36 left to play.
“It’s amazing, because I hadn’t scored in a while.” Sethi said. “Recognizing we were already down a couple, that helped us start to come back. I thought we still had a chance.”
Junior Dimitri Huitron’s wonderfully placed free kick led to Sethi’s goal. It bounced off a piece of senior teammate Dacarlos Parodis-Yu and Oswego goalkeeper Kade Gutierrez before the finish.
“We just have to come out with more energy and pick up the pace at the beginning,” Sethi said. We are picking up stuff finally when we’re down in a hole, and then we have to dig ourselves out of it.”
Oswego senior Mason McCaw broke the game open with goals with 17:55 and 8:24 left to play. McCaw, who scored 32 goals last season, was growing frustrated as the game wore on. He was getting chances, but when he’d fire on frame Oswego East goalkeeper Owen Kiilsgard was there to make a big save.
“I was like, I can’t score today,” McCaw said. “You just have to kind of turn around and not let those things get in your head, and that helps.”
The Panthers might’ve put a crooked number up on the scoreboard and been celebrating far earlier if not for Kiilsgaard’s great play in net.
“Owen made great saves,” Szymanski said. “I get on him a lot and sometimes he gets frustrated by that, but I’m a goalie and I want perfection. I’m not expecting it, but as a coach we always want it. Like a parent, you want your kids to do everything perfectly.”
Last year, Omar Carreno scored twice in Oswego’s 4-3 victory. The year before, Carreno had three goals in a 5-0 victory. Finally, the Wolves didn’t have to try to stop him, but McCaw put on a show in the second half. Danny Avila, potentially the heir apparent to Carreno, and Collin Moran scored in the first half.
“Our mentality was to move the ball, keep possession most of the time and try to create some opportunities to score and that’s what we did,” Oswego coach Gaspar Arias said. “After we put in two goals on them we got comfortable and stopped connecting and stopped moving the ball. That’s when they got some counters and were able to get some opportunities.”
The Panthers came into action battle tested after competing in the prestigious Best of the West tournament, facing teams like Benet, Naperville Central and three-time defending Class 3A champion Naperville North. It’s apparent that such stellar competition made them a tough opponent for the Panthers.
“We knew those were going to be tough games,” Moran said. “Unfortunately we didn’t get the results we wanted, but we knew that we were due to play well and get some wins, and it’s finally happening.”
Starting lineups
Oswego East
GK Owen Kiilsgaard
D Ryan D’Adamo
D Chris Godinez
D Zach Seidel
MF Grant Glorioso
MF Dimitri Huitron
MF Ethan Klosterman
MF Kellen Klosterman
MF Sahil Sethi
F Andre Casas
F Ythan Houston
Oswego
GK Kade Gutierrez
D Joseph Pagone
D Luis Garcia
D Maxwell Glover
D Collin Moran
MF Martin Ibronjev
MF Samuel Mathew
MF Steven Udy
MF Jael Chavez
F Daniel Avila
F Mason McCaw
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Zach Seidel, Oswego East, sr., D
Game summary
Oswego 4, Oswego East 1
Oswego East 0 1 - 1
Oswego 2 2 – 4
Scoring
First half
Oswego – Daniel Avila (u/a) 34:47
Oswego – Collin Moran (Steven Udy) 33:42
Second half
Oswego East – Sahil Sethi (Dimitri Huitron) 34:36
Oswego – Mason McCaw (u/a) 17:55
Oswego – Mason McCaw (u/a) 8:24
Wolves show fight in 2nd half of 4-1 loss
By Chris Walker
OSWEGO – Trailing early in the first half of Tuesday’s Southwest Prairie Conference game against Oswego, visiting Oswego East head coach Steve Szymanski sounded angry.
“Give me 10 guys who will play hard,” he shouted out in frustration at the Wolves. “Heck, I’ll take seven, and they’ll stay on the field.”
While Szymanski’s motivational words didn’t result in an influx of goal scoring, it most definitely brought out a much better effort from the Wolves, who made their game against crosstown rival Oswego interesting by pulling within striking distance early in the second half before succombing to a 4-1 defeat.
“You can always play hard,” Szymanski said. “And I don’t think we did that in the first 40 minutes. We didn’t do that. I respect how they came out in the second half, because we did play hard, and it was evident. We had 10-to-12 guys all busting the butts going hard to the ball, tackling hard, winning balls and connecting passes -- a lot of things we didn’t see in the first half.”
Szymanski has reminded his kids that they have to outwork teams to be successful. He has yet to see it for an entire game.
“We haven’t played 80 minutes yet all year,” Szymanski said. “I’ve told the guys that we’re not going to go out and beat teams because we have the best talent on the field. So we have to go out and beat teams because we outwork them. The two goals they (Oswego) scored to start the game were mistakes.”
The host Panthers (3-3-2, 2-0-0) deposited two goals at John Jardine Memorial Field in the first six minutes of action Tuesday, but they wouldn’t score again until there were under 18 minutes left to play and the Wolves had split their deficit to 2-1.
“The kids were unmarked, and they dribbled through our defense,” Szymanski said. “If it’s 0-0 at halftime it’s a different game. It’s now happened three times where we’ve given up a goal right after we’ve already given one. We barely kicked the ball off and in comes another one. That breaks your back. And when you’re playing a good team like them, you can’t give up two goals, because it’s going to take all your energy just to get the game tied up.”
A team may not get the result it desires, but if it gives its all there shouldn’t be any regrets. For the Wolves (1-4-0, 0-2-0), Szymanski’s looking for a full effort from start to finish regardless of who is on the field.
“I don’t know what the problem is, and I wish I had the answer right now,” he said. “I just want us to play harder.”
Oswego East senior defender Zach Seidel was all over both ends of the field and a big-time leader by example. He was named Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match for his strong effort.
He suggested the crosstown rivalry’s hype may have gotten the best of some of his teammates during their rough start to the game.
“I think it was nerves,” he said. “I think the nerves got a lot of people. We were overhyped for the game and then when the time finally came to play we were too nervous.”
Hearing from Szymanski during the mid-game break proved inspiring and sparked the turnaround.
“After the halftime speech, I think we turned it on and battled harder,” Seidel said. “We played with a little bit of fire in our heart.”
Oswego East sophomore Cael Cummings acknowledged that losing focus got the best of the Wolves early Tuesday. It’s something they have to eliminate if they hope to begin finding success in the win column.
“I think we are losing our focus for a certain time frame with the game, and that’s when we’re getting scored on,” he said. “Today it happened again. I think if we can find out how to keep our focus we’ll be better.”
The game featured a huge personal achievement for Wolves senior Sahil Sethi who scored his first varsity goal. It made it a 2-1 game with 34:36 left to play.
“It’s amazing, because I hadn’t scored in a while.” Sethi said. “Recognizing we were already down a couple, that helped us start to come back. I thought we still had a chance.”
Junior Dimitri Huitron’s wonderfully placed free kick led to Sethi’s goal. It bounced off a piece of senior teammate Dacarlos Parodis-Yu and Oswego goalkeeper Kade Gutierrez before the finish.
“We just have to come out with more energy and pick up the pace at the beginning,” Sethi said. We are picking up stuff finally when we’re down in a hole, and then we have to dig ourselves out of it.”
Oswego senior Mason McCaw broke the game open with goals with 17:55 and 8:24 left to play. McCaw, who scored 32 goals last season, was growing frustrated as the game wore on. He was getting chances, but when he’d fire on frame Oswego East goalkeeper Owen Kiilsgard was there to make a big save.
“I was like, I can’t score today,” McCaw said. “You just have to kind of turn around and not let those things get in your head, and that helps.”
The Panthers might’ve put a crooked number up on the scoreboard and been celebrating far earlier if not for Kiilsgaard’s great play in net.
“Owen made great saves,” Szymanski said. “I get on him a lot and sometimes he gets frustrated by that, but I’m a goalie and I want perfection. I’m not expecting it, but as a coach we always want it. Like a parent, you want your kids to do everything perfectly.”
Last year, Omar Carreno scored twice in Oswego’s 4-3 victory. The year before, Carreno had three goals in a 5-0 victory. Finally, the Wolves didn’t have to try to stop him, but McCaw put on a show in the second half. Danny Avila, potentially the heir apparent to Carreno, and Collin Moran scored in the first half.
“Our mentality was to move the ball, keep possession most of the time and try to create some opportunities to score and that’s what we did,” Oswego coach Gaspar Arias said. “After we put in two goals on them we got comfortable and stopped connecting and stopped moving the ball. That’s when they got some counters and were able to get some opportunities.”
The Panthers came into action battle tested after competing in the prestigious Best of the West tournament, facing teams like Benet, Naperville Central and three-time defending Class 3A champion Naperville North. It’s apparent that such stellar competition made them a tough opponent for the Panthers.
“We knew those were going to be tough games,” Moran said. “Unfortunately we didn’t get the results we wanted, but we knew that we were due to play well and get some wins, and it’s finally happening.”
Starting lineups
Oswego East
GK Owen Kiilsgaard
D Ryan D’Adamo
D Chris Godinez
D Zach Seidel
MF Grant Glorioso
MF Dimitri Huitron
MF Ethan Klosterman
MF Kellen Klosterman
MF Sahil Sethi
F Andre Casas
F Ythan Houston
Oswego
GK Kade Gutierrez
D Joseph Pagone
D Luis Garcia
D Maxwell Glover
D Collin Moran
MF Martin Ibronjev
MF Samuel Mathew
MF Steven Udy
MF Jael Chavez
F Daniel Avila
F Mason McCaw
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Zach Seidel, Oswego East, sr., D
Game summary
Oswego 4, Oswego East 1
Oswego East 0 1 - 1
Oswego 2 2 – 4
Scoring
First half
Oswego – Daniel Avila (u/a) 34:47
Oswego – Collin Moran (Steven Udy) 33:42
Second half
Oswego East – Sahil Sethi (Dimitri Huitron) 34:36
Oswego – Mason McCaw (u/a) 17:55
Oswego – Mason McCaw (u/a) 8:24