OYTF kicks off 37th season with four wins

The Oswego Youth Tackle Football and Cheer opened up their 37th season in Oswego, with all teams playing at home on the Grande Park field last weekend. To keep up with OYTF results and league events, please like their Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/OYTF.
 
Kaneland Silver 19, Oswego 8U Blue 14: Oswego 8U blue opened up the season with a strong effort. A tough offense was led by Ryan King, Jameson Staniszewski, AJ Smith, Blayke Lohmann and Jace Hickman. Kaneland was able to score on the issuing drive but the blue defense tightened up led by Hunter Novak, Trent Epley, Dylan Koebele, Jayden Husband and Wyatt Harvey, and played a very tough game throughout.  Blue battled back to take a one-point lead late in to the fourth quarter, but Kaneland scored late to seal the game.

Oswego 8U Orange 26, Kaneland Silver 0: 8U Orange had a successful start to their season with a shutout victory. Hunter Amelio and Dylan Cathey led the way offensively. Amelio had three touchdowns while Cathey had one touchdown and a few long runs to help set up a few of other scores. The offensive line paved the way for the rushing attack, led by Nolan Hutchings, Colton Pennington, Tristan Thomas and Teddy Manikas, with Connor Konken doing his part from the backfield with some powerful lead blocking. The offense was a dominant force from start to finish.
The defense was led by co-defensive MVP's Jeff Hernandez and Ethan Pilip for their outstanding play and leadership in the season opener.

Oswego 4th grade Orange 7, St. Raphael Red Hawks 0: The defense came to play and continued to shut down every Red Hawk possession, led by Michael Kelly, Andy Pohlman, Nolan Koebele, CJ Reyes, Anthony Massoth, Joey Hartmann and Brett Connolly. After a scoreless first half, the defensive battle continued until the Oswego offensive line led by Louie Cikauskas, Nathan Harker, Mikey Claycombe, Kevin O'Grady, Bradley Stratton and Payton Lanham paved the way for the only score of the game. Anthony Massoth plowed through the line and was off to the races scoring on a 58-yard touchdown. Andy Pohlman completed the extra point conversion.

Kaneland Silver 24, Oswego 5th grade Orange 8: The defense was led by Marco Bellanca, Grifen Brown, Taiden Thomas, Colin O'Grady, Finn Anderson, Noah Vera, Andrew Karsten, Tyrell Husband, Payton Hammond, Austin Campos, Abe Hansen, Julian Rivera, Ryan Pass and Brandon Becker with interceptions by Johnny Cannavino and Grant Zegar. The offense picked up steam as the game went on with blocking from Ben Pavlick, Dalton Platt, Carter Hattrem, Joey Abdallah and in traffic catches from Bryce Woods from Quarterback Owen Carlson. Running back Devin White ran hard against a tough defense and scored in the third quarter, Grifen Brown kicked the extra point.

St. Raphael Huskies 26, Oswego 6th grade Blue 12: The OYTF 6th grade blue football team lost their opener to the Naperville North Huskies, who debuted a new style of offense from last year. The Panthers kept the score, 26-12, close despite turning the ball over twice on their own 18 and 4-yard line. The Panthers scored on two touchdown passes from Josh Polubinski. The first touchdown pass was a 42-yard completion to Will Pavlick. The second touchdown came on a 9-yard pass to Caden Collander.

Aurora Christian 27, Oswego 6th grade Orange 14: The Panthers gave up a couple of big plays early and went into halftime trailing 14-0. The Panthers began to rally late, and RJ Taves made a big hit that resulted in a turnover when Miami Graham came in and stripped the ball. Quarterback Addison Carlson scampered for a 30-yard score, then threw a 10-yard touchdown pass to Graham ,who also ran in the PAT. They closed on a 14-0 run, but ran out of time.

St. Raphael Neuqua Valley 30, Oswego 7th grade Blue 0: The Panthers fumbled on the opening kickoff and Neuqua recovered. After a long hard drive Neuqua was able to score the first touchdown of the season and they were on their way from there. The Panthers fought hard all game. On offense, Cole Henrikson and Xavier Ramirez ran well for the game behind the great blocking of Zach Harpley, Chris Cosmas and Caleb Bierman. The defense was lead by J.T. Stryszyk, who was all over the field, and Logan Bernardy, who played great at nose guard.

Oswego 7th grade Orange 20, Kaneland 16: Julian Rodriquez had a big day with a 70-yard run on the first play from scrimmage that set up an 8-yard scoring run by Moises Perez, who also had 32 yards of tough rushing. Later in the second quarter, Rodriguez caught a 60 yard TD thrown from Charlie Reavley, who was 2-for-2 for 85 yards. Vincent Andersen's first official football catch went for 25 yards. Payton Mitchell recorded a key interception to stop a drive. Zach Selvig had 36 yards in rushing. Nate Perry scooped up a short kick and returned it to Kaneland's 35 to open the second half. Late in the fourth quarter, Tristen August tipped a deep post on fourth down with a heavy rush from Nathaniel Brazen to close the deal.

Oswego 8th grade Blue 7, St. Raphael Neuqua Valley 0: The first half was a defensive battle and just before halftime Neuqua Valley's drive stalled with a Joey DeMarco interception. The Panther defense forced five turnovers in the second half, and Nikolas Hampton led the team with eight tackles, two passes deflected and a fumble recovery. The defensive line was solid led by Aidan Tweedy and Tyler Curtin. The play of the game came with 40 seconds left when Kyle Morrissey picked off a pass and scored to give the Panthers a 6-0 lead. Isaiah Emanuel punched in the two-point conversion to seal the 8-0 victory.

Kaneland 12, Oswego 8th grade Orange 0