Wolves beat Cougars to claim first conference championship

 

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By Curt Herron

Oswego East headed into Tuesday's match at Plainfield South with a very clear mission: to claim the program's first-ever conference championship.

Needing a win to assure themselves of at least a share of the Southwest Prairie Conference crown, the Wolves knew that the task wouldn't be easy.

That's because the host Cougars, a title contender only a week earlier, wanted nothing more than to celebrate senior night by knocking off East.

But thanks to a hat trick from Jorge Alvarez and a strong defensive effort, the Wolves managed to accomplish their historic achievement.

East took a 2-0 halftime lead and expanded it by a goal before South scored in the late going to deprive it of a third-straight shutout.

When the final whistle blew, the Wolves claimed a 3-1 win in Joliet that assured it of a 6-1 SPC slate, good for a tie with Plainfield Central.

The Wolves just missed winning an outright title, but the Wildcats rallied to capture a 2-1 overtime victory over Plainfield North on Tuesday.

Central, which captured its sixth-straight league championship, was the lone team to defeat the Wolves during conference play this season.

However, after dropping their initial SPC match to the Wildcats, coach Steve Szymanski's squad claimed victories in its next six contests.

"I think we're only the third boys program at Oswego East to win conference," Szymanski said. "The guys were down after the Plainfield Central loss but bought into overcoming the adversity.

"One of our tonight's goals was to come out and set the tone early. When we let teams keep it close, we tend to struggle and when we get early goals, we get a lot of momentum.

"I thought we really played with a lot of intensity all over the field and were pressuring everywhere. When all 11 men on the field are working hard, we're a pretty tough team."

East (14-3-3) has now won four straight and gone 6-0-1 in its last seven matches as it prepares to begin postseason play next week.

The Wolves meet up with the hosts in next Wednesday's Metea Valley Regional. The Mustangs defeated East 4-1 back on September 22.

"Defensively, I really think that we've tightened things up since the East Aurora game, which is the only one where we've allowed multiple goals in the last seven," Szymanski said.

"We have a couple of shutouts and one-goal games during that stretch and if we can do that defensively, we're going to score. We just have to have all 11 guys out there work hard.

"We go into the playoffs with a seven-game unbeaten string, so we're playing really strong and that's where you want to be. We're looking forward to the upcoming challenges."

East moved ahead in the tenth minute when Jelani Pieters sent a pass to Alvarez, who lined a shot into the opposite side of the net.

The Wolves continued to keep the pressure on as Alvarez and Pieters followed with shots stopped by Cougar keeper Eric Hoar.

Marco Alvarez also had one attempt cleared by Grant Dziuda and another turned away by Jeff Bond during the ensuing stretch.

In the 27th minute, the visitors added another score as Marco found his brother Jorge, who connected for a short shot.

The visitors had one final try just before the halftime break but Hoar pulled in a long line drive from Noel Zepeda.

"It's been a long season and we've worked really hard for this so I'm glad that we were able to accomplish it," Zepeda said. "The early loss made us learn that we had to keep working hard.

"We made sure that we play good defensively by pressuring hard. We knew that this was going to be a tough game and we prepared for it all week and then went out there and finished it.

"We're only the second boys team in school history to win a conference championship, so it's a big thing and we're very proud of that. Hopefully we can keep up the good work against Metea."

While the Alvarez brothers and Pieters give East the ability to have a dangerous offense, defense still wins championships.

And one things the Wolves have tried to improve upon is their play in the back, and that was clearly seen in Tuesday's match.

The Cougars (10-7-5, 4-3) didn't really have any serious shots attempts against keeper Dakota Bruns in the initial 40 minutes.

Much of the credit for that goes to the backline efforts of Ryan Murphy, Oliver Czopek, Danny Ruiz, Zepeda and Cooper Fell.

"This is absolutely amazing," Murphy said. "As soon as the clock got to 10 minutes, we couldn't wait any longer, we started going crazy. This gives us more momentum going into the playoffs.

"We knew that it was their senior night so we had to come out with more intensity than they did and we did right from the start. We slacked a little in the second half but then picked it up.

"Our defense, with me at sweeper, Oliver as the stopper, Noel, Danny and Cooper and Dakota at goalkeeper, has been playing great. But that's also the case with our midfielders and forwards."

It didn't take long for Jorge Alvarez and the Wolves to get on the scoreboard again once the final half got underway.

In the 43rd minute, Nate Paisley sent a pass to Jorge Alvarez, who fired in a liner to give East a three-goal advantage.

Over the next few minutes, Jorge Alvarez and Ruiz were both denied on tries as the visitors tried to add to their lead.

South finally started to come alive offensively during the 50th minute when Steven Keeley sent a header to Bruns.

Following that, Anthony Skrip had an attempt cleared by Fell and Colton Gallt's short try was later deflected away.

That set up a corner by Manny Sanchez that went to Bond, whose header bounced off of the post, leading to a third corner.

After the half's midway point, another Sanchez corner led to Gallt getting a short shot that was halted by Marco Alvarez.

The squads traded shots as Pieters and Eric Garcia were denied for the visitors as were Dziuda and Sanchez for the hosts.

In the 75th minute, Fell was denied by Hoar and Adam Rodriguez followed a bit later with a short try that was deflected.

South finally broke through in the 77th minute when Rodriguez sent a corner in front to Gallt, who headed the ball in.

All 11 Cougar seniors started in Tuesday's match. They included Bond, Dziuda, Gallt, Hoar, Keeley and Adam Rodriguez.

South's other senior starters were Miguel Rodriguez, Ernesto Perez, Gustavo Rodriguez, Nigel Mukemu and Ben Bockman.

The Cougars, who dropped their final two SPC matches, head into postseason play with a three-match losing streak.

Coach Dave Brown's squad opens the playoffs on Wednesday against the host team in the Naperville Central Regional.

"Jorge got free one time and punished us and then the second goal was kind of a goofy play that took a bad bounce," Brown said. "But they created both of the chances with their speed up top.

"Everyone knew coming into this year that they had three horses up top with the Alvarez brothers and Jelani. They've earned everything that they've gotten and Steve is coaching a good side.

"We were tied with Central and Oswego East going into last week. But when it came down to it, we gave up too many weak goals and didn't score enough so we were a bit off in the last two games.

"I think that we were a little over-amped up in the first half so instead of playing soccer we were panicking. In the second half we started moving the ball better and created more chances.

"But when you go down 2-0 and then 3-0 to a good team like that, you're fighting an uphill battle. We know that Naperville Central is a good team but my guys are going to play with some pride."