Oswego keeps punching, knocks out Waubonsie

By Gary Larsen

Nothing kills the potential momentum of a goal scored like a goal immediately scored against.

Waubonsie Valley came back twice on Saturday, but Oswego answered back quickly with goals both times to make sure the Warriors didn’t get within a sniff of a momentum swing.

“It was frustrating, especially after we cut their lead to 3-2 and then gave up a dead-ball goal,” Waubonsie’s Oliver Mayer said. “We haven’t given up many of those all season, but that one hurt us because at 3-2 we were right back in it.”

Trailing 1-0 at halftime in Oswego, Waubonsie (10-6-2) tied the game at the start of the second half, when Johnny Akl slid onto a cross sent to the far post by Steven Turcios. Oswego answered with a goal, and Waubonsie keeper Sean Elvert dove to stop a shot off the foot of Joe Charielle to keep the Warriors within a goal of the Panthers.

Charielle extended the lead to two goals for Oswego with a score off a Sean Totsch assist, before Mayer put forth an exceptional effort in the final third.

Mayer picked his way around three defenders on the dribble and scored from 10 yards out, putting Waubonsie one goal away from again tying the contest.

Oswego didn’t let it happen. The Panthers earned a corner kick, and they were first to get a head on Elliot Totsch’s offering to the near post. The ball fell, and Drew Boldridge hammered it home from point-blank range to give Oswego another two-goal cushion.

The Warriors would certainly like to have a second crack at diverting Totsch’s corner kick.

“Their kid went up for the ball and we did not,” said Waubonsie coach Angelo DiBernardo. “We have tall guys, too, and they need to be in the middle of the box and be responsible. That responsibility is to make sure you at least challenge for that ball. You don’t make it easy for them to get a head on the ball.”

Sean Totsch and Drew Kehoe also scored for Oswego, and Will Robinson and Charielle chipped in a pair of assists for the Panthers. Afterwards, coach Travis Carlisle was pleased to see his boys’ reaction to Waubonsie’s two goals.

“It was nice to see us respond like that because we’ve had every break go against us this year,” Carlisle said. “It’s been a frustrating season for us so it was nice to see us keep our composure, especially heading into the postseason.”

Through 40 minutes, the Warriors let a good handful of chances slip through their fingers.

“We had three or four good opportunities but everything we hit was right to the goalie,” DiBernardo said. “And we can’t say we were unlucky or things didn’t go our way.”

“When you have a chance to take care of business, you need to do so. And at this time of the season you can’t have the letdowns that we had, and you can’t miss the chances that we had.”

At times during the first half, the Panthers found light traffic through midfield and were able to find their attacking third a little too easily for the Warriors’ taste.

“Tactically, in the middle of the field – myself included – we need to position ourselves better so (opponents) don’t just come streaking through,” Mayer said.

While the Warriors picked up their midfield play in the second half, battling for balls in the air is an issue their coach would like to see them address quickly with the postseason looming.

“Challenging a ball in the middle of the field has been a problem. We have kids that have the ability to get up high and hang in the air, but they have to want it.”

“If you look at the whole game, we played okay. We didn’t play great but we played okay. We tried to play some soccer. But because of the letdowns, we were always trying to catch up. We just made some silly mistakes in the back.”

“The effort level was there, but the focus wasn’t there for eighty minutes.”

Class 2A Oswego improved to 6-10-3 with Saturday's win, and Carlisle was pleased with the play of Charielle, Kehoe, and Sean Totsch as his Panthers knocked off a 3A team in Waubonsie Valley.

"Every year we're able to pull a couple of scalps," Carlisle said. “Three-fourths of our problem this year is that we’ve been settling (for long-range shots). Instead of bringing our eyes up and wide, we’re looking up a thirty-yard lane. Today we were looking for people’s feet and looking to combine."

" If we can do that we can be very dangerous.”

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