Wolves fall to Plainfield North 1-0
By Gary Larsen

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The old curmudgeon will tell you that back in the day he had to walk 10 miles back and forth to school, uphill both ways. Plainfield North keeper Aaron Dunn can now tell a similar story.

In both halves of Plainfield North’s 1-0 win over visiting Oswego East, Dunn had the bizarre pleasure of standing in net with a wicked wind in his face. The stiff southwest wind that opened the game shifted dramatically to a frigid northwest wind after halftime, forcing Dunn for much of the game to contend with some blistering shots from long range that knuckled, dipped, and changed direction.

“Aaron did a very nice job,” Tigers coach Jim O’Hara said. “The forecast said 18-mile-an-hour winds but they were stronger than that. Some of those balls, a keeper thinks they’re coming to him and they’re not, so he did a very nice job of adjusting and adapting to those.”

Dunn’s shutout on the Tigers’ Senior Day didn’t come easy, against a Wolves team that sent in plenty of dangerous balls from distance.

“It was nerve-wracking,” Dunn said. “They were shooting from the forty and there’s nothing you can do but pray that you get a hand on it. There were a couple times it got scary but I had to power through it.”

Fittingly, the game’s lone goal came on a 35-yard bomb off the foot of Plainfield North defender Sam Puglisi in the second half, sent to a place just under the crossbar where no keeper likely gets it.

“We encourage our outside backs to take space when they have the opportunities, and the last couple of games (Puglisi) has been taking that space and getting those opportunities,” O’Hara said.

There was little that the Wolves’ outstanding keeper, Sean Phetchanpheng, could have done to stop Puglisi’s rainmaker at the 50-minute mark, and it wasn’t the goal that concerned Oswego East coach Steve Szymanski.

“We need to find someone to put the ball in the net. And it’s especially tough because we’ve got two of the best teams in the state coming up in Naperville North and West Chicago,” Szymanski said. “So it doesn’t get any easier.

“I felt like we got the better of the calls but the ball seemed to be bouncing their way tonight. They went in strong for tackles and like I told (O’Hara), they outworked us today. They’ve been struggling to score this season just like us, and the team that worked harder today won.”

Oswego East (6-11-2, 1-6 in SPC play) attacked well throughout the game’s first half. Cooper Fell forced Dunn to tip a long shot off the crossbar and buried another into the keeper’s chest thereafter.

The Wolves’ Joey Coliton, Alex Torres, and Danny Madrigal all blistered long-range shots just wide of frame through 40 minutes. Wolves defender Oliver Czopek worked his way through North’s backline in the first half, only to see his final touch roll into Dunn’s waiting hands.

Dunn was slow to get up after colliding in the air with a Wolves player to start the second half, and the Tigers nearly went up 1-0 on a Tyler Petprachan rip, but Phetchanpheng’s acrobatic save thwarted the shot.

Puglisi’s game-winner came next, and the game’s lone goal was followed by the severe shift in wind direction.

“When you get a wind like that you’re going to take shots from the outside, and our backline was in synch tonight,” O’Hara said. “I think for eighty minutes, that was the best our back four has played all season.”

Zack Foust, Tom DeVaux, Garrett Gathman, and Puglisi had their hands full protecting Dunn from a Wolves team that pushed numbers forward and had a strong wind at its back during the game's final 10 minutes.

“Our defense did a great job tonight,” Dunn said. “They played incredible against Plainfield South and they were incredible again today.” The Tigers won 2-1 against Plainfield South last week on a Jake Novacek goal in overtime.

The Tigers handled a wild exchange in at 62 minutes that saw a ball pinging back and forth across the goalmouth before being cleared. Danny Ruiz, Torres, and Oscar Martinez were each threatening on a handful of near-chances, but the ball stayed defiant for the Wolves and the Tigers held firm.

Ruiz’ grit and work rate stood out throughout the contest.

“I’ll put Danny Ruiz anywhere on the field and he’s all over the place,” Szymanski said. “If we had eleven Danny Ruiz’s, we’d be an incredible team. He’ll run through a brick wall for you.

“I also thought (central defender) Danny Madrigal played well for us and he made some big tackles back there, one-vee-one. Defensively, we were pretty strong. We don’t give up a lot and we knew that would be our strength, and that goal-scoring would be tougher for us this season.”

The Tigers (7-9-3, 3-4) were happy to get the win and relieved to be done with the Wolves’ final 10 minutes of strong attacking pressure.

“For us to be able to survive that … they’re a very good team, very well-coached, and we had to handle a lot of pressure,” O’Hara said. “But we didn’t panic. We stayed composed.

“I thought James Thompson had another real solid game for us. That’s his third solid game in a row. He’s been shifting around all year, anywhere from outside mid, a little bit of center mid, to an attacker, and I think attacking is where his spot is. He does a very good job of using his body, holding people off, and controlling the ball.”

After its final regular-season game against Naperville North on Thursday, Oswego East opens postseason play against West Chicago on Tuesday of next week at the Class 3A Metea Valley Regional.

Plainfield North is idle until Saturday, when the Tigers host Bolingbrook as part of the Class 3A Naperville North Regional. Tuesday’s win over the Wolves was a good tune-up for the postseason.

“We’ve definitely gotten better at communication since the beginning of the year,” Dunn said. “We switched the ball a lot tonight. We weren’t just sending it down and letting our forwards chase it. We were actually possessing and we’ve done a good job improving throughout the season.”