Alfaro repeats late-game magic,
Wheaton Warrenville S. upsets Oswego E.
Senior's goal in 79th minute leads Tigers to 3-2 win
By Matt Le Cren
PLAINFIELD – Wheaton Warrenville South’s Gael Alfara had done it before, so he was confident he could do it again.
He was right.
For the second time in less than a month, the senior midfielder delivered the game-winning goal in the final minutes for the Tigers. This one was particularly memorable.
Alfara rose up to meet Edgar Guzman’s corner kick and sent the ball crashing into the net with 1:32 remaining in Wednesday’s Class 3A Plainfield North Regional semifinal, giving the 11th-seeded Tigers the lead for good in a 3-2 upset of sixth-seeded Oswego East.
It was the first playoff victory for Wheaton Warrenville South since 2016 and came on the heels of 13th-seeded Oswego’s shocking 4-3 upset of third-seeded Plainfield North in the first semifinal.
The Tigers (9-6-3) will try to win their first regional championship since 2012 when they face the Panthers (9-8-7) in the regional final at 3 p.m. Saturday.
“At the beginning, we came in confident, thinking we were going to win, and that’s what we should think every game,” Alfara said. “We never stop fighting on every play.
“The same thing happened against Batavia. We were up 2-0 at halftime. Then they scored on us, and it was 2-2. We just kept fighting until the end until we won 3-2.”
Alfara had an eerily similar role in both triumphs. He buried a free kick with 3:25 remaining in regulation against Batavia on Sept. 22, which was the Tigers’ first win since Aug. 27.
This one came as Oswego East had all the momentum after rallying from a 2-0 halftime deficit. Overtime appeared a distinct possibility.
But Guzman and Alfara, who finished with two goals to earn the Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match honor, had other ideas. Both were confident they could make the corner kick work.
“We’ve been practicing it the last few practices,” Guzman said. “The opportunity was to shoot it around the first post, and I got lucky enough today to find Gael on the header. I knew it was going to go in.
“He had that header, and he always has been scoring those goals. I knew he was going to score there.”
It was Alfara’s seventh goal of the season, tying him with Chase Kedzior for the team lead. Did he have a flashback to the Batavia game?
“No, I was just really happy, not thinking of anything, just celebrating with my teammates,” Alfara said. “We practice those in practice, putting it in the penalty box.
"Nikhil (Bawa) is supposed to be there, but he was a little bit more back. Fortunately, I was there to finish it off.”
Wheaton Warrenville South coach Guy Callipari wasn’t shocked that he did.
“If you whip it in, you’ve got somebody with his capability and pace. He’s a very courageous kid; the timing was there, and he’s very technical -- that’s not surprising,” Callipari said.
“He’s playing out of position a little bit. He’s not a number nine. He’s more of a number 10. He likes to play going forward as opposed to with his back to two big guys, but he’s very crafty. We just had to support him and get numbers forward.”
The Tigers didn’t do much of that but had success when they did. They stunned the Wolves (9-7-4) by scoring twice on two nearly identical counterattacks in the first half.
Alfara got the first one, racing onto a lead pas from Mario Gonzalez up the right wing before cutting back inside a defender and beating Oswego East goalkeeper Javier Ruiz to the near post at the 31:14 mark.
That was the first of only four shots the Tigers mustered before intermission. But the third one found the back of the net, too. Aaron Escareno scored from a similar spot with 7:52 to go.
Just like that, it appeared the Tigers would continue turning the sectional seeding on its head. Plainfield North and fourth-seeded East Aurora, which was stunned 7-2 by 14th-seeded Metea Valley, already had been eliminated from the Bolingbrook Sectional.
“They do the seeding in the sixth week,” Callipari said. “Half of our sectional was under .500. I had played six games.
“Do we really know what the end is going to look like at the time they seed? You take what you get at the end of the day, maybe it’s upside down and everybody’s different a month later.
“That being said, it’s a tough regional regardless. We knew we were going to have our hands full.”
Indeed, they did. Oswego East returned only four players from the team that won a school-record 17 games and its first regional championship in 2021, but exceeded expectations despite a roster that included nine sophomores, five of whom started.
“They are an organized team,” Callipari said. “They have pace; they have confidence and poise.
“We just had to make do with the opportunities that we were going to create. We knew we weren’t going to get many of them, but that was the case on both sides of the fence. Our percentage of converting them was pretty good.”
But so was Oswego East’s. The Wolves turned the tables in the second half, scoring on back-to-back shots four minutes apart.
Sophomore midfielder Dylan Drendel got Oswego East on the board by ripping a 35-yard shot that went in off the underside of the crossbar with 27:52 remaining. Star striker DuPablo Parodis-Yu got the equalizer via a penalty kick with 24:02 left.
But despite earning four corner kicks in the final 17 minutes, the Wolves were unable to find a go-ahead strike.
“I think we competed,” Oswego East coach Steve Szymanski said. “We played hard. We played to the last second.
“I was proud of our second half effort. I think we were very nervous and very tight in the first half.
“We played not to make mistakes and to their credit, their two goals, I think those were their two main shots. They were tough; they buried them.”
And Alfara buried the Wolves with his 79th-minute header.
How did it feel to get the game-winning goal in a playoff match?
“It feels amazing to help my team,” Alfara said. “But these guys help me out too, at the end of the day, because we all played as a team and won. It takes everybody.”
Now it’s on to a regional final match-up that nobody saw coming. Who will win is anyone’s guess – Wheaton Warrenville South played Oswego to a 2-2 road tie in Oswego on Aug. 25 in the second game of the season.
Both teams are riding season-high, four-game winning streaks; the Tigers have scored 14 goals in that stretch. But Callipari said his team needs to generate more chances if it wants to advance.
“We don’t have enough presence in the final third,” Callipari said. “We have a lot of flank play, but we have nothing going back into the middle of the final area. That’s just something we have to work on. We’ve got to put some bodies in that area.”
Will the Tigers do so, and will it lead to more goals? If so, who will score them?
“We’ve had 13 people score in our conference games alone, so we don’t know who is going to show up on the day,” Callipari said. “Somebody’s going to step up.”
Guzman is just glad the Tigers have that chance.
“That means a lot to us, to me and my team,” Guzman said. “I’ve never gotten this far.”
Starting lineups
Wheaton Warrenville South
GK: Jared Ferreyra
D: Tim Foley
D: Christian Triscik
D: Brooks Becker
M: Chase Kedzior
M: Edgar Guzman
M: Jack Beres
M: Gael Alfara
M: Nikhil Bawa
F: Jet Oehrlein
F: Marco Gonzalez
Oswego East
GK: Javier Ruiz
D: Drew Karg
D: Diego Godinez
D: ZeDaniel Parodis-Yu
D: Celesmar Herrera
M: Dylan Drendel
M: Israel Torres
M: Caleb Pankiewicz
F: DuPablo Parodis-Yu
F: M.J. Hoffman
F: Josh Lopez
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match:
Gael Alfara, sr., MF, Wheaton Warrenville South.
Scoring summary
First half
WWS: Gael Alfara (Marco Gonzalez) 31:14 remaining
WWS: Aaron Escarreno 7:52 remaining
Second half
OE: Dylan Drendel (DuPablo Parodis-Yu), 27:52 remaining
OE: Parodis-Yu (PK) 24:02 remaining
WWS: Alfara (Edgar Guzman) 1:32 remaining
Wheaton Warrenville S. upsets Oswego E.
Senior's goal in 79th minute leads Tigers to 3-2 win
By Matt Le Cren
PLAINFIELD – Wheaton Warrenville South’s Gael Alfara had done it before, so he was confident he could do it again.
He was right.
For the second time in less than a month, the senior midfielder delivered the game-winning goal in the final minutes for the Tigers. This one was particularly memorable.
Alfara rose up to meet Edgar Guzman’s corner kick and sent the ball crashing into the net with 1:32 remaining in Wednesday’s Class 3A Plainfield North Regional semifinal, giving the 11th-seeded Tigers the lead for good in a 3-2 upset of sixth-seeded Oswego East.
It was the first playoff victory for Wheaton Warrenville South since 2016 and came on the heels of 13th-seeded Oswego’s shocking 4-3 upset of third-seeded Plainfield North in the first semifinal.
The Tigers (9-6-3) will try to win their first regional championship since 2012 when they face the Panthers (9-8-7) in the regional final at 3 p.m. Saturday.
“At the beginning, we came in confident, thinking we were going to win, and that’s what we should think every game,” Alfara said. “We never stop fighting on every play.
“The same thing happened against Batavia. We were up 2-0 at halftime. Then they scored on us, and it was 2-2. We just kept fighting until the end until we won 3-2.”
Alfara had an eerily similar role in both triumphs. He buried a free kick with 3:25 remaining in regulation against Batavia on Sept. 22, which was the Tigers’ first win since Aug. 27.
This one came as Oswego East had all the momentum after rallying from a 2-0 halftime deficit. Overtime appeared a distinct possibility.
But Guzman and Alfara, who finished with two goals to earn the Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match honor, had other ideas. Both were confident they could make the corner kick work.
“We’ve been practicing it the last few practices,” Guzman said. “The opportunity was to shoot it around the first post, and I got lucky enough today to find Gael on the header. I knew it was going to go in.
“He had that header, and he always has been scoring those goals. I knew he was going to score there.”
It was Alfara’s seventh goal of the season, tying him with Chase Kedzior for the team lead. Did he have a flashback to the Batavia game?
“No, I was just really happy, not thinking of anything, just celebrating with my teammates,” Alfara said. “We practice those in practice, putting it in the penalty box.
"Nikhil (Bawa) is supposed to be there, but he was a little bit more back. Fortunately, I was there to finish it off.”
Wheaton Warrenville South coach Guy Callipari wasn’t shocked that he did.
“If you whip it in, you’ve got somebody with his capability and pace. He’s a very courageous kid; the timing was there, and he’s very technical -- that’s not surprising,” Callipari said.
“He’s playing out of position a little bit. He’s not a number nine. He’s more of a number 10. He likes to play going forward as opposed to with his back to two big guys, but he’s very crafty. We just had to support him and get numbers forward.”
The Tigers didn’t do much of that but had success when they did. They stunned the Wolves (9-7-4) by scoring twice on two nearly identical counterattacks in the first half.
Alfara got the first one, racing onto a lead pas from Mario Gonzalez up the right wing before cutting back inside a defender and beating Oswego East goalkeeper Javier Ruiz to the near post at the 31:14 mark.
That was the first of only four shots the Tigers mustered before intermission. But the third one found the back of the net, too. Aaron Escareno scored from a similar spot with 7:52 to go.
Just like that, it appeared the Tigers would continue turning the sectional seeding on its head. Plainfield North and fourth-seeded East Aurora, which was stunned 7-2 by 14th-seeded Metea Valley, already had been eliminated from the Bolingbrook Sectional.
“They do the seeding in the sixth week,” Callipari said. “Half of our sectional was under .500. I had played six games.
“Do we really know what the end is going to look like at the time they seed? You take what you get at the end of the day, maybe it’s upside down and everybody’s different a month later.
“That being said, it’s a tough regional regardless. We knew we were going to have our hands full.”
Indeed, they did. Oswego East returned only four players from the team that won a school-record 17 games and its first regional championship in 2021, but exceeded expectations despite a roster that included nine sophomores, five of whom started.
“They are an organized team,” Callipari said. “They have pace; they have confidence and poise.
“We just had to make do with the opportunities that we were going to create. We knew we weren’t going to get many of them, but that was the case on both sides of the fence. Our percentage of converting them was pretty good.”
But so was Oswego East’s. The Wolves turned the tables in the second half, scoring on back-to-back shots four minutes apart.
Sophomore midfielder Dylan Drendel got Oswego East on the board by ripping a 35-yard shot that went in off the underside of the crossbar with 27:52 remaining. Star striker DuPablo Parodis-Yu got the equalizer via a penalty kick with 24:02 left.
But despite earning four corner kicks in the final 17 minutes, the Wolves were unable to find a go-ahead strike.
“I think we competed,” Oswego East coach Steve Szymanski said. “We played hard. We played to the last second.
“I was proud of our second half effort. I think we were very nervous and very tight in the first half.
“We played not to make mistakes and to their credit, their two goals, I think those were their two main shots. They were tough; they buried them.”
And Alfara buried the Wolves with his 79th-minute header.
How did it feel to get the game-winning goal in a playoff match?
“It feels amazing to help my team,” Alfara said. “But these guys help me out too, at the end of the day, because we all played as a team and won. It takes everybody.”
Now it’s on to a regional final match-up that nobody saw coming. Who will win is anyone’s guess – Wheaton Warrenville South played Oswego to a 2-2 road tie in Oswego on Aug. 25 in the second game of the season.
Both teams are riding season-high, four-game winning streaks; the Tigers have scored 14 goals in that stretch. But Callipari said his team needs to generate more chances if it wants to advance.
“We don’t have enough presence in the final third,” Callipari said. “We have a lot of flank play, but we have nothing going back into the middle of the final area. That’s just something we have to work on. We’ve got to put some bodies in that area.”
Will the Tigers do so, and will it lead to more goals? If so, who will score them?
“We’ve had 13 people score in our conference games alone, so we don’t know who is going to show up on the day,” Callipari said. “Somebody’s going to step up.”
Guzman is just glad the Tigers have that chance.
“That means a lot to us, to me and my team,” Guzman said. “I’ve never gotten this far.”
Starting lineups
Wheaton Warrenville South
GK: Jared Ferreyra
D: Tim Foley
D: Christian Triscik
D: Brooks Becker
M: Chase Kedzior
M: Edgar Guzman
M: Jack Beres
M: Gael Alfara
M: Nikhil Bawa
F: Jet Oehrlein
F: Marco Gonzalez
Oswego East
GK: Javier Ruiz
D: Drew Karg
D: Diego Godinez
D: ZeDaniel Parodis-Yu
D: Celesmar Herrera
M: Dylan Drendel
M: Israel Torres
M: Caleb Pankiewicz
F: DuPablo Parodis-Yu
F: M.J. Hoffman
F: Josh Lopez
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match:
Gael Alfara, sr., MF, Wheaton Warrenville South.
Scoring summary
First half
WWS: Gael Alfara (Marco Gonzalez) 31:14 remaining
WWS: Aaron Escarreno 7:52 remaining
Second half
OE: Dylan Drendel (DuPablo Parodis-Yu), 27:52 remaining
OE: Parodis-Yu (PK) 24:02 remaining
WWS: Alfara (Edgar Guzman) 1:32 remaining