Oswego football defeats Providence Catholic

The foundation of Oswego football has always been built on defense. Providence Catholic knows defense wins championships.

In a historic meeting between two highly-regarded teams, it was the Panther defense that stood firm at Ken Pickerill Field on Friday night to lift Oswego to a 14-13 non-conference victory over Providence and give the Panthers their first win of the season.

Providence (0-2) created the one-point margin with an early third-quarter touchdown drive, capped off with an 11-yard connection from quarterback Stephen Simowitz to Mike Markasovic with 7:25 on the clock.

Both teams came up with an interception, but neither could convert the turnovers into points and Oswego missed a field goal in the fourth quarter to build pressure into the final minutes.

Providence kicker PJ Kowalkowski's punt pinned Oswego back to its own 2-yard line with 5:13 to go, but two personal fouls on the Celtics allowed the Panthers to march a combined 30 yards and enter Providence territory. Facing fourth-and-3 at the Providence 41, Oswego's Steven Frank was stopped on his quarterback sneak to turn the ball over to the Celtics with 2:56 remaining.

Providence running back Richie Warfield (11 carries, 110 yards) ran the ball three times to put the Celtics at midfield, but on fourth-and-3, Warfield was stopped by a wall of Panthers to turn the ball over on downs with 1:20 left. Frank took a knee on the next possession, sealing the Oswego victory.

"This win is huge for our program," said Oswego defensive end Brennan Burdo. "We've never beaten Providence before. Last week was a wake-up call and we wanted to win this one going into conference."

Oswego scored on its first possession of the game on Frank's 7-yard quarterback keeper. With 3:32 remaining in the first quarter, Kowalkowski kicked his first of two field goals – this one from 32 yards – to put the Celtics on the scoreboard, 7-3. Derek Bresingham's interception set up Kowalkowski's 41-yarder early in the second quarter.

Oswego fumbled the ball just inside the Providence goal line and recovered the ball in the end zone for its second touchdown of the game with 57 seconds to play in the first half, giving Oswego a 14-6 lead.

"It was a sloppy game, especially on our side," Providence head coach Mark Coglianese said. "We had our opportunities; we just didn't take advantage of it. The kids played hard. We had penalties that kept putting us in tough situations, long-yard situations and right now we're just not good enough to overcome those tough situations."

This was the third meeting between perennial playoff powers dating back to 1990, but this year's meeting was a one-year contract with the Celtics. With Joliet West and Joliet Central joining the Southwest Prairie Conference for the 2016-17 school year, the SPC schedule will start Week 1.

"We've never beat them," Oswego head coach Brian Cooney said. "Providence is who they are. Historically, if you list out the top 10 teams in the state, Providence is on that list. I want to play the best. If you're planning to go to Week 10, this is the type of caliber you want to play."

Oswego's defense recorded five sacks, one pass deflection and a pair of interceptions by Willie Rodriguez and Dylan Bielawski. Despite the defensive highlights, the Panther offense had its share of struggles with two interceptions, several dropped passes and costly penalties.

“We were anticipating this year that we would have a good front four that could pressure, and after watching film, we were hoping we wouldn’t have to bring a fifth man or sixth man too often and we were able to get pressure with four guys, which allowed us to level off some of their horizontal threats,” Cooney said. “The kids played sound on defense. Offensively, we sputtered and shot ourselves in the foot. We can’t afford to do that.”