Oswego E., Plainfield S. stalled at halftime
Teams tied 1-1 when storms slice Southwest Prairie game in half
By Chris Walker
PLAINFIELD -- Bryant Williams liked what he saw from his Plainfield South squad during Tuesday’s Southwest Prairie Conference game against Oswego East.
Oswego East coach Steve Szymanski wasn’t nearly as enthusiastic with his Wolves after a single half of play.
And neither Williams nor Syzmanski liked seeing storms suddenly come in and force the postponement of the second half of their game. But, since they have no control over the weather, there’s nothing they can do about it but accept the fact that they’ll have to continue this game where it left off with the second half needed to be completed at 4:30 p.m. Oct. 11 back at Plainfield South.
“I was very happy with how we played in the first half, especially playing with the wind in our faces and knowing how good (the Wolves) are,” Williams said. “I was very happy with the way the defense stepped up. We’re missing three starters back there now, and the guys that are back there are coming along. It’s been a little rough at times, but they’ve started to show some maturity back there and have really turned a corner.”
The quickness of Justin D’Alessandro, Zachary Kolb, Justin McGuigan and Tyler Whitmire was key to the Plainfield South backline.
“Those guys are tenacious defenders,” Williams said. “And they’re super quick. So even if someone gets back on us, they can make up for it.”
The group kept Oswego East scoreless, but succumbed to the always-dangerous Ford Frazer who was able to gather a loose ball between goalkeeper Nicholas Beemster and a couple defenders and bury it into the back of the net with just 4:34 remaining before the half.
“It was nice that Ford found that,” Szymanski said. “It basically fell into his lap, and he put it away. It was fortunate for us to tie it up. We had the wind at our backs which I thought was a huge advantage to get first, but we didn’t take advantage of it. They were winning balls in the air and beating us to balls and simply playing better than us.”
Plainfield South (6-5-4, 1-3-0), which has lost three-straight games, didn’t have anywhere near as many scoring chances as Oswego East, but buried one with 15:41 left in the first half when Anthony Marmolejo sent a cross to Ernesto Cortina.
“They were pressuring us for a while and then we came down and scored, and we felt if we could just hold them off the board and get the game to be official, we’d be all right,” Williams said. “Then they popped in that goal and then we had to hope we could continue to hold them off the board. I was very happy with the way we came out tonight against a quality team.”
Strangely, it was a victory of sorts for the Cougars albeit not in the win column, but from a mental standpoint.
“I think it just picks everybody up,” Williams said. “Tomorrow night will be a much better night of practice. We should have some more confidence. We knew we had to bring our ‘A’ game, and that’s what we told the boys. Steve always has his boys ready to play, and we answered them and stepped up to play our best.”
The back of the net seemingly was playing keep away with the Wolves.
Frazer, Andre Casas, Nolan Laczynski, Dimitri Huitron, Kyle Blasingame and Decarlos Parodis-Yu all sent shots that way but saw their efforts thwarted either by Beemster making a big stop or punching out tries for his teammates to clear, or sailing off target.
“I did tell the guys that we had weather coming so try to put in as many as they could because we don’t know when or if the game will be stopped,” Szymanski said. “We were excited to have the wind at our back, but we weren’t playing very well.”
Oswego East (11-2-2, 4-0-0) is continuing to pile on the victories, but Szymanski acknowledged that the Wolves haven’t been at their best despite their success. That showed in the 40 minutes they played in this game.
“I don’t how a 16- or 17-year-old kid may feel, but I know we haven’t been playing our best soccer in the past week even though we won three games,” Szymanski said. “We played pretty well against Romeoville but didn’t finish very well against East Aurora on Saturday. We were hoping to get back on track here.”
Now the conclusion of this game will also be the conference finale for the Wolves and the Cougars. It could decide a championship or perhaps be nothing more than a game for bragging rights and to get ready for the postseason.
“We hope the game will mean something,” Szymanski said. “Right now it’s between us and Oswego near the top.”
Oswego and Oswego East will meet with huge conference implications on the line next Tuesday. For now, the Wolves need to turn their focus over to Plainfield North, their opponent on Thursday while the Cougars meet Joliet Central next.
Hopefully for both teams, as well as their opponents, the weather will be much more accommodating on Thursday.
Starting lineups
Oswego East
GK: Nathan Huerter
D: Joey Bavol
D: David Bombrys
D: Zach Lass
D: Nathan Czepiel
MF: Kyle Blasingame
MF: Dimitri Huitron
MF: Kellen Klosterman
MF: Nolan Laczynski
F: Ford Frazer
F: Andre Casas
Plainfield South
GK: Nicholas Beemster
D: Justin D’Alessandro
D: Zachary Kolb
D: Justin McGuigan
D: Tyler Whitmire
MF: Ernesto Cortina
MF: Miki Derka
MF: Vincent Nircha
MF: Gabe Sandoval
F: Anthony Marmolejo
F: Maxwell Treptow
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: To be determined upon match completion Oct. 11, 2018.
Scoring Summary
First half
Plainfield South – Ernesto Cortino (Anthony Marmolejo), 15:41
Oswego East – Ford Frazer (unassisted), 4:34
Second half
Postponed
Teams tied 1-1 when storms slice Southwest Prairie game in half
By Chris Walker
PLAINFIELD -- Bryant Williams liked what he saw from his Plainfield South squad during Tuesday’s Southwest Prairie Conference game against Oswego East.
Oswego East coach Steve Szymanski wasn’t nearly as enthusiastic with his Wolves after a single half of play.
And neither Williams nor Syzmanski liked seeing storms suddenly come in and force the postponement of the second half of their game. But, since they have no control over the weather, there’s nothing they can do about it but accept the fact that they’ll have to continue this game where it left off with the second half needed to be completed at 4:30 p.m. Oct. 11 back at Plainfield South.
“I was very happy with how we played in the first half, especially playing with the wind in our faces and knowing how good (the Wolves) are,” Williams said. “I was very happy with the way the defense stepped up. We’re missing three starters back there now, and the guys that are back there are coming along. It’s been a little rough at times, but they’ve started to show some maturity back there and have really turned a corner.”
The quickness of Justin D’Alessandro, Zachary Kolb, Justin McGuigan and Tyler Whitmire was key to the Plainfield South backline.
“Those guys are tenacious defenders,” Williams said. “And they’re super quick. So even if someone gets back on us, they can make up for it.”
The group kept Oswego East scoreless, but succumbed to the always-dangerous Ford Frazer who was able to gather a loose ball between goalkeeper Nicholas Beemster and a couple defenders and bury it into the back of the net with just 4:34 remaining before the half.
“It was nice that Ford found that,” Szymanski said. “It basically fell into his lap, and he put it away. It was fortunate for us to tie it up. We had the wind at our backs which I thought was a huge advantage to get first, but we didn’t take advantage of it. They were winning balls in the air and beating us to balls and simply playing better than us.”
Plainfield South (6-5-4, 1-3-0), which has lost three-straight games, didn’t have anywhere near as many scoring chances as Oswego East, but buried one with 15:41 left in the first half when Anthony Marmolejo sent a cross to Ernesto Cortina.
“They were pressuring us for a while and then we came down and scored, and we felt if we could just hold them off the board and get the game to be official, we’d be all right,” Williams said. “Then they popped in that goal and then we had to hope we could continue to hold them off the board. I was very happy with the way we came out tonight against a quality team.”
Strangely, it was a victory of sorts for the Cougars albeit not in the win column, but from a mental standpoint.
“I think it just picks everybody up,” Williams said. “Tomorrow night will be a much better night of practice. We should have some more confidence. We knew we had to bring our ‘A’ game, and that’s what we told the boys. Steve always has his boys ready to play, and we answered them and stepped up to play our best.”
The back of the net seemingly was playing keep away with the Wolves.
Frazer, Andre Casas, Nolan Laczynski, Dimitri Huitron, Kyle Blasingame and Decarlos Parodis-Yu all sent shots that way but saw their efforts thwarted either by Beemster making a big stop or punching out tries for his teammates to clear, or sailing off target.
“I did tell the guys that we had weather coming so try to put in as many as they could because we don’t know when or if the game will be stopped,” Szymanski said. “We were excited to have the wind at our back, but we weren’t playing very well.”
Oswego East (11-2-2, 4-0-0) is continuing to pile on the victories, but Szymanski acknowledged that the Wolves haven’t been at their best despite their success. That showed in the 40 minutes they played in this game.
“I don’t how a 16- or 17-year-old kid may feel, but I know we haven’t been playing our best soccer in the past week even though we won three games,” Szymanski said. “We played pretty well against Romeoville but didn’t finish very well against East Aurora on Saturday. We were hoping to get back on track here.”
Now the conclusion of this game will also be the conference finale for the Wolves and the Cougars. It could decide a championship or perhaps be nothing more than a game for bragging rights and to get ready for the postseason.
“We hope the game will mean something,” Szymanski said. “Right now it’s between us and Oswego near the top.”
Oswego and Oswego East will meet with huge conference implications on the line next Tuesday. For now, the Wolves need to turn their focus over to Plainfield North, their opponent on Thursday while the Cougars meet Joliet Central next.
Hopefully for both teams, as well as their opponents, the weather will be much more accommodating on Thursday.
Starting lineups
Oswego East
GK: Nathan Huerter
D: Joey Bavol
D: David Bombrys
D: Zach Lass
D: Nathan Czepiel
MF: Kyle Blasingame
MF: Dimitri Huitron
MF: Kellen Klosterman
MF: Nolan Laczynski
F: Ford Frazer
F: Andre Casas
Plainfield South
GK: Nicholas Beemster
D: Justin D’Alessandro
D: Zachary Kolb
D: Justin McGuigan
D: Tyler Whitmire
MF: Ernesto Cortina
MF: Miki Derka
MF: Vincent Nircha
MF: Gabe Sandoval
F: Anthony Marmolejo
F: Maxwell Treptow
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: To be determined upon match completion Oct. 11, 2018.
Scoring Summary
First half
Plainfield South – Ernesto Cortino (Anthony Marmolejo), 15:41
Oswego East – Ford Frazer (unassisted), 4:34
Second half
Postponed