Quick response lifts Waubonsie Valley
over Oswego East
Warriors take home-opener 3-1
By Chris Walker
AURORA -- After both teams opened their season on the wrong end of shutouts Tuesday, getting that first goal of the season was a big priority during Thursday’s nonconference battle between visiting Oswego East and host Waubonsie Valley.
The Warriors scored in the final minutes of the first half; the Wolves scored in the first few minutes of the second half.
But before the lights on the scoreboard had fully changed Oswego East’s illumination of “0” to “1,” the Warriors had retaken the lead.
And Waubonsie Valley wasn’t finished, an insurance goal followed just 1:45 later.
And that’s how it remained for the final 35 minutes and change as the Warriors were impressive during their home-opener, defeating the Wolves, 3-1.
Last year, Oswego East dominated in a 4-0 victory, so the Warriors players who returned certainly enjoyed getting a little revenge on the Wolves.
“I think they responded well,” Warriors coach Jose Garcia said. “When they (Oswego East) got the one goal, that’s when they realized we have to kick it into the next gear.”
Waubonsie Valley certainly kicked it up a notch and did so immediately on the ensuing possession after the Wolves tied the game. Was there even enough time for the momentum to swing in Oswego East’s favor before it went back to the hosts when Zach Stanley’s shot turned into an owngoal as it caromed off an Oswego East player and was inadvertently redirected into the back of the net? If there was, it didn’t even last a half a minute.
Things like own-goals happen on occasion though and when a team is entirely new in back, mistakes are more likely going to happen. They’re called growing pains for a reason.
“All five of those guys in back are brand new,” Oswego East coach Steve Szymanski said. “We’ve tried a bunch of guys in back, and it’s a growing process. But I think our best soccer is ahead of us. We just have to keep the team together and grow as we go. The biggest thing with two losses to start is staying together, because a lot of these guys are 15- or 16-years-old.”
Waubonsie Valley (1-1-0) got on the board with 2:20 remaining before halftime when Noah Glorioso, who was named Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match, scored. Gloriso earned a spot on the Chicagoland Soccer All-State Watch List Class of 2020 and may be ready to take the next step.
“I just evaluated their backline, and I knew I was faster than them,” he said. “Dan (Morgan) knew to play the ball over the top, and I just finished it.”
It’s far from uncommon for Glorioso to chat with his teammates about what he’s seeing from opponents, but at the same time, his teammates have to recognize those things as well and Glorioso praised Morgan and the rest of the Warriors for seeing where they had an advantage and thus attacked it.
“Me and Dan talk constantly during the game,” Glorioso said. “My teammates can figure out when I’m faster than the backline and play it to me, or if they’re fast they can play my feet and lay it off. They’re intelligent players.”
The biggest difference between Thursday and Tuesday’s loss to Benet for the Warriors was their vastly improved work rate.
“Our attack and our work rate was much higher,” Glorioso said. “Against Benet we played a lot of defense, and that’s why we were in the game. Today our attacking players showed up to play, our outside mids and outside backs were up and down the field and that gave us a game.”
Garcia noted the improvement too.
“That was the first thing we talked about,” he said. “We lost our first game to Benet, but I give Benet credit because they played pretty well, but there wasn’t a fire underneath our butts. We just needed to get that push to get going and keep going, and to hustle, and there just wasn’t any hustle in that game. And that was our goal for today. We told the guys to not worry about tactics and technical skills. Just get out there and play the best you can and the hardest you can play, and I think they responded.”
While the Warriors enjoyed a 1-0 lead at the break thanks to Glorioso’s late goal, it didn’t last long into the second half as Oswego East’s Andre Casas scored just three minutes into the return to action to make it a 1-1 contest.
Dimitri Huitron sparked the scoring play with his corner kick that Zach Seidel was able to get a head on before Casas buried it.
But just 20 seconds later the Wolves turned Zach Stanley’s shot into an own goal.
Less than two minutes later and Glorioso had a highlight-worthy assist to Jerry Perez.
“That was a crazy assist from Noah,” Perez said. “I like how he curled it with his foot, and I just knew it was going to get to me. It felt really good to get it. I missed a header against Benet and had missed another header so it felt good to finally get this one.”
Suddenly, in a blink of an eye, the Warriors went from giving up the lead to being tied and then being up 3-1, while the Wolves went from being thrilled that they had scored their first goal of the season to tie a game only to then find themselves trailing by two a couple minutes later. Soccer can be a crazy game.
“We didn’t want to start this season with another loss,” Perez said. “Today we were playing like rock stars. We really wanted to win this one, and we just need to keep scoring goals and winning.”
The Warriors feel like they’re ready to make some noise this fall after struggling to find success last season (4-13-1).
“Last year we were a bunch of sophomores and juniors and a lot of us were new players,” Glorioso said. “Now this year we’re a lot older with a whole season under our belt. We’ve got two new players in the lineup who we worked with over the summer and last year we ended the season with a good run, but this year we want to start with a good run and maintain it all season.”
Oswego East (0-2-0) started five sophomores and is likely going to take some time to figure things out personnel-wise which is a difficult task when September is full of games. Sometimes the learning and growth has to take place right in the middle of games, but that’s part of what makes prep sports so special and such a challenge.
“They got those goals in a just a couple of minutes, and that’s how high school soccer is,” Casas said. “As much as skill is important, at the end of the day, it’s about effort.”
The Wolves have already recognized that they should be better and they appear to have some key returnees in place that will lead them.
“I know we’re a better team than this,” Huitron said. “We can perform much better, but it’s the start of the season and a lot of guys are just getting into the groove now. We have a young team so the only way is up from here. It’s two losses, but we have a whole season to play.”
Sometimes it’s baby steps. They may not signal huge progress, but it’s progress just the same.
“We’re getting better,” Szymanski said. “There’s six guys out there with varsity experience, so we’re extremely young. We’re working to get better each day, but a lot of guys are being thrown into a bit of a fire. It’s tough. For some of them.
“It’s their first time playing varsity, but the positive is that we’re getting better every day in practice.”
The eventual return of Kyle Blasingame will be huge for the Wolves, but the timetable for the injured senior’s return is unknown.
“There always has to be room for growth,” Huitron said. “The only way for us to go is up or down and hopefully for us we can improve.”
The desire is there from the youngsters and that’s one positive Huitron is sticking by.
“We saw a hunger to play today, and that’s really important for this season to have the young guys that really want to play. They’ll push the older guys to do better,” he said. “The first game, everyone was really nervous. This game, we were more comfortable and throughout the season we’re just going to progress and try to get more and more comfortable.”
The Wolves have struggled at Waubonsie Valley, playing there every other year during odd years beginning in 2011. After playing to a scoreless draw in 2011, the Wolves are 0-4-0 on the road against the Warriors.
“It’s always a tough place for us to play,” Szymanski said. “They always give us a good effort and a good game, which is good because we’re not going to get better beating teams 10-0.”
One of the more unique and fun places to play, Waubonsie Valley is one of the few soccer programs to have its own soccer field and does its part to attract students to come out and support the team. Without a doubt, the Warriors fed off their energy in this one.
“The fans are a big part of it,” Glorioso said. “They make us want to score because then we can celebrate with the fans after the game, and that fires us up. They support us big-time, so we want them here for every game.”
The Warriors follow after Glorioso. There’s no doubt he’s one of the most talented players in the area, but he also has a unique personality that complements his play on the field. The kid wants to win and have fun, and that’s a pretty good way to play the game.
“Noah is such a great player who creates so much up-top,” Garcia said. “He’s creative and causes havoc. He’s fast. He’s got everything you need to be a great soccer player. I think the team trusts him. They know his experience, and they know how relentless he is. They feed him the ball, and the players feed off of him.”
Starting lineups
Oswego East
GK Owen Kiilsgaard
D John Danison
D Chris Godinez
D Cael Cummings
D Zach Seidel
MF Grant Glorioso
MF Dimitri Huitron
MF Ethan Klosterman
MF Kellen Klosterman
F Andre Casas
F Dacarlos Parodi-Yu
Waubonsie Valley
GK Bryan Grimaldo
D Javi Gonzalez
D Adrien Mehra
D Dan Morgan
D Teague Stotler
MF Diego Carrillo
MF Daniel Fritz
MF Noah Glorioso
MF Zach Stanley
F Jorge Gallegos
F Brandon Garduno
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Noah Glorioso, sr., MF, Waubonsie Valley
Scoring summry
Waubonsie Valley 3, Oswego East 1
Waubonsie Valley 1 2 – 3
Oswego East 0 1 – 1
First half
Waubonsie Valley – Noah Glorioso (Dan Morgan) 2:20
Second half
Oswego East – Andre Casas (Zach Seidel) 37:06
Waubonsie Valley – Diego Carrillo (own goal) 36:46
Waubonsie Valley – Jerry Perez (Noah Glorioso) 35:21
over Oswego East
Warriors take home-opener 3-1
By Chris Walker
AURORA -- After both teams opened their season on the wrong end of shutouts Tuesday, getting that first goal of the season was a big priority during Thursday’s nonconference battle between visiting Oswego East and host Waubonsie Valley.
The Warriors scored in the final minutes of the first half; the Wolves scored in the first few minutes of the second half.
But before the lights on the scoreboard had fully changed Oswego East’s illumination of “0” to “1,” the Warriors had retaken the lead.
And Waubonsie Valley wasn’t finished, an insurance goal followed just 1:45 later.
And that’s how it remained for the final 35 minutes and change as the Warriors were impressive during their home-opener, defeating the Wolves, 3-1.
Last year, Oswego East dominated in a 4-0 victory, so the Warriors players who returned certainly enjoyed getting a little revenge on the Wolves.
“I think they responded well,” Warriors coach Jose Garcia said. “When they (Oswego East) got the one goal, that’s when they realized we have to kick it into the next gear.”
Waubonsie Valley certainly kicked it up a notch and did so immediately on the ensuing possession after the Wolves tied the game. Was there even enough time for the momentum to swing in Oswego East’s favor before it went back to the hosts when Zach Stanley’s shot turned into an owngoal as it caromed off an Oswego East player and was inadvertently redirected into the back of the net? If there was, it didn’t even last a half a minute.
Things like own-goals happen on occasion though and when a team is entirely new in back, mistakes are more likely going to happen. They’re called growing pains for a reason.
“All five of those guys in back are brand new,” Oswego East coach Steve Szymanski said. “We’ve tried a bunch of guys in back, and it’s a growing process. But I think our best soccer is ahead of us. We just have to keep the team together and grow as we go. The biggest thing with two losses to start is staying together, because a lot of these guys are 15- or 16-years-old.”
Waubonsie Valley (1-1-0) got on the board with 2:20 remaining before halftime when Noah Glorioso, who was named Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match, scored. Gloriso earned a spot on the Chicagoland Soccer All-State Watch List Class of 2020 and may be ready to take the next step.
“I just evaluated their backline, and I knew I was faster than them,” he said. “Dan (Morgan) knew to play the ball over the top, and I just finished it.”
It’s far from uncommon for Glorioso to chat with his teammates about what he’s seeing from opponents, but at the same time, his teammates have to recognize those things as well and Glorioso praised Morgan and the rest of the Warriors for seeing where they had an advantage and thus attacked it.
“Me and Dan talk constantly during the game,” Glorioso said. “My teammates can figure out when I’m faster than the backline and play it to me, or if they’re fast they can play my feet and lay it off. They’re intelligent players.”
The biggest difference between Thursday and Tuesday’s loss to Benet for the Warriors was their vastly improved work rate.
“Our attack and our work rate was much higher,” Glorioso said. “Against Benet we played a lot of defense, and that’s why we were in the game. Today our attacking players showed up to play, our outside mids and outside backs were up and down the field and that gave us a game.”
Garcia noted the improvement too.
“That was the first thing we talked about,” he said. “We lost our first game to Benet, but I give Benet credit because they played pretty well, but there wasn’t a fire underneath our butts. We just needed to get that push to get going and keep going, and to hustle, and there just wasn’t any hustle in that game. And that was our goal for today. We told the guys to not worry about tactics and technical skills. Just get out there and play the best you can and the hardest you can play, and I think they responded.”
While the Warriors enjoyed a 1-0 lead at the break thanks to Glorioso’s late goal, it didn’t last long into the second half as Oswego East’s Andre Casas scored just three minutes into the return to action to make it a 1-1 contest.
Dimitri Huitron sparked the scoring play with his corner kick that Zach Seidel was able to get a head on before Casas buried it.
But just 20 seconds later the Wolves turned Zach Stanley’s shot into an own goal.
Less than two minutes later and Glorioso had a highlight-worthy assist to Jerry Perez.
“That was a crazy assist from Noah,” Perez said. “I like how he curled it with his foot, and I just knew it was going to get to me. It felt really good to get it. I missed a header against Benet and had missed another header so it felt good to finally get this one.”
Suddenly, in a blink of an eye, the Warriors went from giving up the lead to being tied and then being up 3-1, while the Wolves went from being thrilled that they had scored their first goal of the season to tie a game only to then find themselves trailing by two a couple minutes later. Soccer can be a crazy game.
“We didn’t want to start this season with another loss,” Perez said. “Today we were playing like rock stars. We really wanted to win this one, and we just need to keep scoring goals and winning.”
The Warriors feel like they’re ready to make some noise this fall after struggling to find success last season (4-13-1).
“Last year we were a bunch of sophomores and juniors and a lot of us were new players,” Glorioso said. “Now this year we’re a lot older with a whole season under our belt. We’ve got two new players in the lineup who we worked with over the summer and last year we ended the season with a good run, but this year we want to start with a good run and maintain it all season.”
Oswego East (0-2-0) started five sophomores and is likely going to take some time to figure things out personnel-wise which is a difficult task when September is full of games. Sometimes the learning and growth has to take place right in the middle of games, but that’s part of what makes prep sports so special and such a challenge.
“They got those goals in a just a couple of minutes, and that’s how high school soccer is,” Casas said. “As much as skill is important, at the end of the day, it’s about effort.”
The Wolves have already recognized that they should be better and they appear to have some key returnees in place that will lead them.
“I know we’re a better team than this,” Huitron said. “We can perform much better, but it’s the start of the season and a lot of guys are just getting into the groove now. We have a young team so the only way is up from here. It’s two losses, but we have a whole season to play.”
Sometimes it’s baby steps. They may not signal huge progress, but it’s progress just the same.
“We’re getting better,” Szymanski said. “There’s six guys out there with varsity experience, so we’re extremely young. We’re working to get better each day, but a lot of guys are being thrown into a bit of a fire. It’s tough. For some of them.
“It’s their first time playing varsity, but the positive is that we’re getting better every day in practice.”
The eventual return of Kyle Blasingame will be huge for the Wolves, but the timetable for the injured senior’s return is unknown.
“There always has to be room for growth,” Huitron said. “The only way for us to go is up or down and hopefully for us we can improve.”
The desire is there from the youngsters and that’s one positive Huitron is sticking by.
“We saw a hunger to play today, and that’s really important for this season to have the young guys that really want to play. They’ll push the older guys to do better,” he said. “The first game, everyone was really nervous. This game, we were more comfortable and throughout the season we’re just going to progress and try to get more and more comfortable.”
The Wolves have struggled at Waubonsie Valley, playing there every other year during odd years beginning in 2011. After playing to a scoreless draw in 2011, the Wolves are 0-4-0 on the road against the Warriors.
“It’s always a tough place for us to play,” Szymanski said. “They always give us a good effort and a good game, which is good because we’re not going to get better beating teams 10-0.”
One of the more unique and fun places to play, Waubonsie Valley is one of the few soccer programs to have its own soccer field and does its part to attract students to come out and support the team. Without a doubt, the Warriors fed off their energy in this one.
“The fans are a big part of it,” Glorioso said. “They make us want to score because then we can celebrate with the fans after the game, and that fires us up. They support us big-time, so we want them here for every game.”
The Warriors follow after Glorioso. There’s no doubt he’s one of the most talented players in the area, but he also has a unique personality that complements his play on the field. The kid wants to win and have fun, and that’s a pretty good way to play the game.
“Noah is such a great player who creates so much up-top,” Garcia said. “He’s creative and causes havoc. He’s fast. He’s got everything you need to be a great soccer player. I think the team trusts him. They know his experience, and they know how relentless he is. They feed him the ball, and the players feed off of him.”
Starting lineups
Oswego East
GK Owen Kiilsgaard
D John Danison
D Chris Godinez
D Cael Cummings
D Zach Seidel
MF Grant Glorioso
MF Dimitri Huitron
MF Ethan Klosterman
MF Kellen Klosterman
F Andre Casas
F Dacarlos Parodi-Yu
Waubonsie Valley
GK Bryan Grimaldo
D Javi Gonzalez
D Adrien Mehra
D Dan Morgan
D Teague Stotler
MF Diego Carrillo
MF Daniel Fritz
MF Noah Glorioso
MF Zach Stanley
F Jorge Gallegos
F Brandon Garduno
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Noah Glorioso, sr., MF, Waubonsie Valley
Scoring summry
Waubonsie Valley 3, Oswego East 1
Waubonsie Valley 1 2 – 3
Oswego East 0 1 – 1
First half
Waubonsie Valley – Noah Glorioso (Dan Morgan) 2:20
Second half
Oswego East – Andre Casas (Zach Seidel) 37:06
Waubonsie Valley – Diego Carrillo (own goal) 36:46
Waubonsie Valley – Jerry Perez (Noah Glorioso) 35:21