Not only did Mother Nature ruin Oswego East’s Homecoming celebration on Friday night, but visiting Plainfield East played the spoiler on Saturday morning in the postponed Southwest Prairie Conference contest.
Two turnovers and a failed red zone drive stalled the Wolves and led to a 28-21 Plainfield East victory.
"Offensively, we've got to hang onto the football. We have a turnover on our first play, turnover in the fourth quarter – those are big," Oswego East head coach Tyson LeBlanc said. "Our conference is tough and against good teams you can't turn the ball over."
Oswego East moved Friday night's Homecoming game ahead by 90 minutes hoping to beat the predicted storms, but weather forced the game to be postponed to Saturday morning. Without a bus to take the Bengals back to Oswego East, the game was delayed another 30 minutes as the team arrived after the scheduled 9 a.m. kickoff.
"We haven't won since Week 9 of last year, so it feels good," Plainfield East head coach Mike Romeli said. "We came here last night, took the bus trip over and didn't play. Our busses didn't show up this morning and the game was delayed. Our kids stayed focused the whole time and played a great ball game."
Plainfield East (1-3) converted two Oswego East turnovers into first-half points to take a 14-8 lead at intermission, which lasted well into the third quarter.
Oswego East jumped onto the scoreboard at the start of the second quarter when Kaelub Newman tackled the Plainfield East punter in the end zone as he tried to wrangle a botched snap, giving the Wolves the safety.
Jack Borvan blocked another Plainfield East punt attempt to put Oswego East at the Bengals 1-yard line, setting up a 1-yard touchdown by Nik Wadsworth to give the Wolves an 8-7 lead with 7:52 to play in the first half.
Oswego East (2-2, 0-2 Southwest Prairie) took a 15-14 lead on a 11-play, 80-yard drive that ended with a 1-yard score from Wadsworth with 4:48 to go in the third. The Wolves held the Bengals to three-and-out and Oswego East drove back down to the 1-yard line – but this time the Bengal defense buckled down for the stop.
Plainfield East used the momentum to put together its own red zone drive.
Quarterback Matthew Mazurkiewicz connected with Jalen Hutt twice for gains of 47 and 40 yards to put the Bengals at the Oswego East 16. Seven plays later, Mazurkiewicz threw a 7-yard touchdown pass to Dylan Koch for a 20-15 lead. Troy Mayon recovered an Oswego East fumble to set up another Bengal scoring drive – and Mayon (35 yards, nine carries) converted his own turnover with an eventual 2-yard run into the end zone for a 28-15 lead.
Quarterback James Kidd threw 4-for-4 on the next series to put Oswego East in the end zone in just 40 seconds, but Plainfield East blocked the extra point attempt as the Bengals held a 28-21 lead to the final horn. Mazurkiewicz finished 13-for-26 for 183 yards and three touchdowns. Oswego East was led by Kidd, who came into the game late in the first half for an injured Jaylon Banks (ankle) and went 14-for-21 for 134 yards and one touchdown.
Oswego East will host Plainfield South (1-2) for Pink Out Night on Sept. 25 at 7 p.m. The Cougars will host Plainfield North tonight in a rescheduled game at 6 p.m.
“Our guys have to find a way, our coaches ahve to find a way to play with a sense of urgency because our backs are against the wall. We have two of the better teams in our conference ahead on our schedule, and Plainfield South beat Plainfield East,” LeBlanc said.