West Aurora's win streak stopped at three games

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By Gary Larsen

She tried to play with her injured quad wrapped on Monday, but Oswego’s Trisha Carr eventually had to shed the wrapping and take her chances.

She converted on two of them.

The scoreboard wasn’t working at Oswego’s home field, but by rough estimate Carr’s second goal came with about 20 seconds remaining in the game to give the Panthers a 2-1, come-from-behind win over visiting West Aurora.

Carr had no idea how much time remained. “I just knew we wanted to win,” she said. “Lisa (Bajkowski) sent it up to me and it kind of went off my face. I saw the goalie come out and I just chipped it over.”

Carr and Bajkowski play on the same club team together, and the chemistry they’ve developed paid off with Bajkowski assisting on both of Carr’s goals.

Oswego has relied heavily on its feistiness this year, and the Panthers needed a whole lot of that quality on Tuesday. Oswego trailed 1-0 at halftime courtesy of a free kick goal by the Blackhawks’ Jessica Saffell, but the Panthers put their shoulders to the wheel in the second half.

“We’re fighters. The most positive thing we can pull from this game is that even though we played ugly in the first half, they didn’t put their heads down in the second half,” Oswego coach Jamie Bartkowiak said. “Even if we were still playing a little ugly in the second half, they fought and fought and that takes heart.

And I’ll take a team with heart over skill any day of the week.”

After 40 minutes, West Aurora (3-7-2) was in a good place on Monday. The Blackhawks bused into Oswego (4-7) on the heels of three consecutive wins, and their 1-0 lead stood as another brick in a foundation of confidence they’ve been building.

“We got a lot of goals in those three games,” Blackhawks coach Laura Wagley said of her squad’s 11 to 2 scoring edge, in wins over Rochelle, Plainfield East, and Streamwood.

“When we’re playing the Napervilles and the Wheatons it’s all defense, so those games give us a chance to know what it feels like to score and to win. Our offense got so much better.”

Wagley applauded the recent play of Nina Jones and Daniela Bueno, helping to support the primary role of Saffell in the attack.

When the Blackhawks earned a free kick 18 yards out, it was Saffell’s cue to put her big leg to use. The sophomore came through with a ball sent to the upper ninety and West’s lead held to the break.

Wagley was happy with the way her girls approached the Panthers through 40 minutes.

“They were playing a flat-back four so I just kept telling them ‘through-balls’,” Wagley said. “It was working awesome for us, offensively. We were getting through-balls and we were getting it out wide.”

With a breeze at its back, Oswego attacked hard to start the second half, earning a good handful of corner kicks and sending a bevy of shots just wide of net.

“We don’t catch any lucky breaks. It’s an Oswego thing,” Bartkowiak said. “We have to fight for every inch that we get, scrapping and clawing. I swear the wind picked up right when (Saffell) struck that ball but it was a good hit. What are you going to do?”

The Panthers kept steady attacking pressure on the Blackhawks’ back line. Wagley was pleased with the efforts she got throughout the game from central defender Priscilla Diaz and keeper Brianna Burkett, but the Panthers’ second-half attack had West’s back line on its heels.

“It just got really crazy and we got sucked into the storm,” Wagley said. “I just think our defense got confused. Oswego was making runs that we haven’t seen before and we got confused. We were following girls and not staying in the space. There was just a lot of confusion.”

Fifteen minutes into the second half, Carr stepped forward onto a Bajkowski feed and chipped a tying goal over a sliding Burkett. Oswego kept the pressure on from there as Bartkowiak got solid efforts from a good handful of players.

Bartkowiak has settled on a back line of Cathy Tram, Hannah Gardner, Emily Swanson, and Gina Schultz, and there were other strong contributions on Monday.

“Reynolds Cross stepped into a defensive midfield role for us today and played great,” Bartkowiak said. “And (outside midfielder) Kendra Hughes fought really hard for us today. She came in off the bench and she really showed us something. She proved to us that we were wrong for not putting her on the field before.”

Carr’s late game-winner sent the Oswego faithful home happy, for a team that will continue to apply its feistiness.

 “We seem to be establishing ourselves as a team that is not going to put a lot of goals in the back of the net,” Bartkowiak said. “We’re getting our opportunities up top. We just need to fight a little harder.”

“If we can keep playing with heart and fix the tactical things, we’ll be all right.”