Oswego East’s upset bid foiled by Naperville North’s late flurry of goals

OSWEGO --- On the surface, Oswego East’s soccer team looked happy.

The Wolves waited until after Saturday’s home game against top-ranked Naperville North to honor their 11 seniors – Jack Urbanowski, Alec Gesiakowski, Dylan Ahearn, Diego Godinez, Austin Ward, Jonathan Carranza, Dylan Drendel, Caleb Pankiewicz, Elyas Edders, MJ Hoffman and Josh Lopez.

Each player received a bouquet of flowers, took pictures with their parents and Oswego East coach Steve Szymanski. All the parents had Fathead pictures of their kids, and the team celebrated with a postgame barbecue. It was nearly a perfect day – during and after the game.

Except for a 9:05 blip late in the game, the Wolves nearly knocked off their second highly ranked opponent in three days.

But the Huskies seized an opening, breaking a tie game with four goals in the final 12-plus minutes for a 5-2 nonconference victory over the Wolves on Senior Day.

The Huskies (16-1-1) collected two goals from Noah Radeke to go with goals from Josh Pedersen, Jaxon Stokes and Anthony Flores. Oswego East received goals from Drendel and Hoffman.

Hoffman said the Huskies turned the tide with late push to break open a 1-1 tie late in the second half. The Wolves (11-5-4) were intent on adding the Huskies to their impressive run of victories, which included knocking off previously undefeated Plainfield Central on Thursday.

“Overall, I thought we played very well,” Szymanski said. “We had a 10-minute stretch where the wheels fell off. That’s why they are the best. I always say we’re trying to get from good to great. They’re great. It’s part of the process. I don’t think we took a step back today. We played well, but just had 10 bad minutes of soccer. We missed marks and they got All-Americans and all-staters for a reasons.”

Hoffman ended Naperville North’s run of four straight goals with a short tap in with 2:14 left, as both teams combined for five goals in the final 12:06.

”I think we played good and competed very well, so I’m not as down about the loss,” Hoffman said. “I haven’t seen a game with so many late goals. I think we need to keep pushing. That small window of time is what messed us up and cost us the game.”

The Huskies scored their first goal just 13 seconds into the game, when Pedersen shocked the large crowd with his netter. Drendel tied the game with 75 seconds before halftime, tapping in a slow roller into the far post.

“It felt really nice to score after they scored so early,” Drendel said. “We always knew we had a chance. I know a lot of the guys on that team, so scoring on them was a big thing for me. We had momentum and carried it most of the way until the last 12 minutes. These guys are far and way people say the best team in the state, so to go out there and compete with them shows a lot, but just the let-ups.”

Naperville North coach Jim Konrad said his team played with more energy and efficiency in the final 40 minutes.

”I knew it was going to be a good game,” Konrad said. “They have some special kids and those kids showed up. Drendel’s goal was beautiful. We made some adjustments the boys started playing little bit faster and created a couple more good chances. There was some fantastic individual efforts.”