Wolves beat rival Panthers to claim Oswego bragging rights

 

 

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By Curt Herron

It shouldn't be too difficult for a team to to be very determined to bounce back from its worst defeat of the season.

And when the next opponent on the schedule also happens to be their biggest rival, that should provide some extra motivation.

Then throw in the fact that the rivals rallied to win last year's matchup and you have all of the ingredients for a team to come out really fired up.

That's just what happened when Oswego East hosted Oswego on Wednesday in a Southwest Prairie Conference match that had been delayed a day by the rain.

The Wolves jumped out to a 2-0 halftime advantage, saw the Panthers close to within a goal and then responded with two more scores of their own.

When all was said and done on the gloomy afternoon, East reclaimed Oswego bragging rights after capturing a 4-1 victory on its own field.

Marco Alvarez scored half of his team's goals while Jorge Alvarez and Jelani Pieters each added a goal and an assist for the Wolves.

East (9-3-2, 2-1) moved back into the picture in the SPC race, pulling to within half a match of Plainfield Central and Plainfield South.

Meanwhile, the Panthers entered the day leading the league with a 3-1 mark but now find themselves all the way back in the fifth spot.

The 4-1 decision was a complete reversal for the Wolves from the last time they competed, which was six days earlier against Metea Valley.

That defeat, the squad's first by more than a goal, capped a stretch of matches where East went 2-2-1, which included struggles to connect.

Wednesday's match marked the seventh time in 14 contests thus far that the Wolves managed to collect four or more goals.

Just as importantly, it also was the seventh time this season that East limited opponents to one goal or less in a match.

The Wolves hope to carry this type of play into Thursday's SPC match with Minooka and also Saturday against East Aurora.

"In our last five games we weren't playing our best soccer, but I thought we played really well in the first half today and dominated possession-wise," Wolves coach Steve Szymanski said.

"We came out a little sluggish in the second half, but I expected that Oswego would also come out with a lot more energy. They got a goal but we answered right away, which is what we needed to do.

"We didn't play well against Metea Valley and they outworked us so it was good to get back out on the field. Obviously there were areas that we could improve on, but overall, I was pretty happy."

A year ago, the Wolves jumped out to an early 2-0 lead against the Panthers, only to see their rivals score the next four goals.

Memories of that must have gone through Szymanski's mind after he saw Oswego close to within a goal early in Wednesday's final half.

But a quick response on scores from the Alvarez brothers that gave the Wolves a three-goal advantage helped to relieve those fears.

"I knew that we would be excited since last year we were up 2-0 against them and they came back to win 4-2," Szymanski said.

"They were the better team on the field last year and I think that we wanted to get a little redemption and show that we were the better team this year."

After seeing his squad struggle to find the net against some recent quality opponents, the Wolves coach was happy with his offense.

"I thought that Jelani and Jorge played really well together today," Szymanski said. "They weren't in synch as much recently as they were today when they combined really well.

"Obviously Marco is always also involved combining with those guys and you saw the results."

But it takes more than just a good offense, and Szymanski was quick to point to other performers who have been playing well.

"Oliver Czopek has been great and has been winning every ball in the air," Szymanski said. "Danny Ruiz has also been solid for us on defense.

"Both of those guys barely ever come out games and they really work their butts off. If it weren't for them, we'd be in trouble some times.

"Nate Paisley is another kid who's stepped up as a sophomore. He was a sub but now he's started a majority of the games and he's distributing the ball better."

The Wolves struck for the first time in the 14th minute when Jorge sent a perfect pass to brother Marco, who then connected.

East took a 2-0 advantage in the 24th minute when Eddie King sent a pass toward Pieters, who found the net with a short try.

Although that's the way the score remained at the break, there was still plenty of drama left in the half's last 10 minutes.

Shortly after Czopek deflected a close shot by the Panthers, King sent a liner that was hauled in by Oswego's keeper.

Cooper Fell and Ryan Murphy were later denied and Jorge Alvarez and Maurico Puga had shots stopped just before halftime.

"Oswego gave us a test and made us play our best," King said. "In the last few games things were kind of shaky and our loss to Metea really gave us motivation to beat Oswego.

"We got off to a strong start in the first half with two goals but after they scored, we got our third goal and that picked us up and then we fought to get a fourth goal.

"This sure is a good step in the right direction. We have to push to try to win each of our last seven games. It's been a lot of fun so far and I feel we can finish strong."

The Panthers came out strong at the start of the second half as Curtis Grysiewicz sent in an early shot to keeper Dakota Bruns.

There wasn't much the Wolves keeper could do in the 46th minute when Ryan Totsch got free and connected to make it a 2-1 match.

Less than two minutes later, however, East got that goal back when Jorge Alvarez scored, following an assist from Pieters.

After the squads exchanged threatening attempts, the Wolves got the final score during the 58th minute from Marco Alvarez.

Nate Paisley set the score up with a pass to Jorge Alvarez, who shot hit the post and Marco alertly put in the deflection.

Jorge Alvarez was denied on a short header just after the midpoint of the half and East substituted liberally after that.

"We just have to keep this good roll going," Czopek said. "We need to make sure that we win games like this and just keep playing our game.

"After losing to Metea, we realized that we needed to pick things up and we wanted to get right back on track when we went up against Oswego.

"It's always nice to beat Oswego. Last year we didn't come out on top so we had that motivation going for us and because they're our rivals."