Top-seeded Oswego dominates Chargers

Oswego's Fernando Chavez handles the ball while being chased by Aurora Central defenders Hank Exline and Peter Lentz during Monday's regional soccer game at Kaneland High School.
Heather Eidson / Staff Photographer

October 21, 2008 BY PAUL JOHNSON Special to the Beacon News

Font Size

Bookmark

Black Text

White Text

MAPLE PARK -- Sometimes, a No. 1 seed headed into the postseason may take the team it faces in the first round lightly.

Generally, that's a team the No. 1 seed should beat handily. But the postseason is a different animal, with both teams starting fresh at 0-0, and one misstep can be the difference between moving on and a shocking defeat.

Let's just say that Oswego's boys soccer team did not fall into that trap Tuesday against Aurora Central Catholic in the Class 2A Kaneland Regional opener.

The Panthers got a goal from Sean Totsch 15 seconds into the game, and the rout was on. The Panthers advanced to the regional title game with a convincing 11-0 win over the Chargers.

They will face either No. 2 seed Kaneland or No. 3 seed Yorkville Saturday at 2:30 p.m. in the regional title game. The game was moved from 11 a.m. to accommodate ACT testing.

"Getting off a 5-0 cushion (in the first 25:13) was great," Oswego coach Travis Carlisle said. "You want to make sure you stay sharp, that you stay mentally focused. You don't want to get into doing things that are outside of your game, and I thought we did a nice job with that."

Everybody up top for Oswego (12-8-1 overall) got into the act to build that early lead. Totsch scored two of his three goals in the game during that 5-0 stretch and Elliot Totsch added another.

Scott Chavez and Joey Charielle also scored goals. Chavez and Charielle each had assists, and Cole Glavan added two assists.

"When we saw the goal in the first 15 seconds, you could tell it wasn't going to be much of a challenge," Totsch said. "I don't know about 11 goals. That was nice."

The Chargers (3-15-2) could not recover from that early deficit, though coach Eric Cournaya was happy with the way the team limited the damage the rest of the way.

"We didn't show up in the first 15 minutes of the game and finally decided to play the last 25 minutes (of the half)," Cournaya said. "We hung with them, but in the second half, we put our heads down and had a 'let's give up' mentality."

When all was said and done for Oswego, Totsch had three goals, Charielle and Adam Udy each had two goals and Alex Fischer, Drew Kehoe, Chavez and Elliot Totsch each added one.

"You don't come into a game expecting to beat a team 11-0," Carlisle said. "We have a lot of talent on this team, not taking anything away from ACC, but I know we have it in us. We have kids that can finish. When we're playing well and passing well like we were today, we're dangerous. Obviously, I didn't think we were 11-0 dangerous."