By Bobby Narang
Oswego East High School had the ideal opponent lined up for a memorable day.
Oswego East boys soccer coach Steve Szymanski said he likes to make senior day “as special as possible.”
The veteran coach scheduled Senior Day against top-ranked Naperville North.
The Huskies are the elite in Class 3A in the state, and among the best teams in the entire country.
But the Wolves, who knocked off Plainfield Central from the unbeaten ranks on Oct. 10, were not intimidated by the highly ranked Huskies.
Szymanski said his 11 seniors were a special class: “All of these guys have been with us for so long that it’s important to make sure that they are recognized.”
The 11 seniors and the rest of the Wolves almost made it an even more special day. The Wolves battled the Huskies for 68 minutes before allowing four goals in the final 12 minutes to drop a 5-2 decision on Saturday morning in Oswego.
The game was tied at 1-1 following Oswego East’s senior Dylan Drendel’s goal in the 39th minute. It stayed that way until the 68th minute, when Jaxon Stokes took control of the game, scoring a goal and assisting on three more to stun the home team with four goals in a nine-minute span.
“I feel like we all had to step up and I had to score because we were tied at 1-1,” Stokes said. “I feel like once we scored, the floodgates just opened up and we scored four in a row. My teammates made it easier for me because they just ran off me, so I could just flick it over them to set them to score. I feel like we started off the game a little slow.
“We weren’t really awake, but our halftime speech from our coaches really helped us and motivated it. It was like a snap of the fingers, where we were a whole different team in the second half. We have to keep working hard.”
Oswego East senior MJ Hoffman, the team leader in goals, added to his season tally by stopping Naperville North’s stunning spree of goals by knocking a shot into the back of the net with 2:04 left in the game.
“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.”
Szymanski said he was proud of his players for fighting tough with the Huskies on an emotional day.
“Overall, I thought we played very well,” Szymanski said. “We played 70 minutes. 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 reason.”
Oswego East’s 11 seniors, Drendel, Hoffman and Jack Urbanowski, Alec Gesiakowski, Dylan Ahearn, Diego Godinez, Austin Ward, Jonathan Carranza, Caleb Pankiewicz, Elyas Edders and Josh Lopez, all spent the postgame taking pictures and enjoying the celebration.
But several players talked about hopefully getting an opportunity to play the Huskies in the 3A playoffs. If both teams win their regional semifinal game, the two teams will face off again at the Class 3A East Aurora regional championship game Friday, Oct. 25.
“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,” Drendel said. “I feel the energy drops for 30 seconds or one minute and they scored one. Hopefully we will see them in the second round of the playoffs, and when we do again, we can’t let up any moments and I think it will be another good game.”