Tournament ends on a high note for Panthers

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OSWEGO - The Oswego and Waubonsie Valley soccer teams were greeted by a crisp, cool morning Saturday, but once the second half got started, the two teams provided plenty of heat offensively.

The squads combined for five goals in the second 40 minutes of play, with Oswego scoring three times to close out the Waubonsie Valley Invitational with a 4-2 win.

Much of the first half was spent on the Oswego side of the field, as the Warriors had several scoring opportunities but couldn't get one by Panthers keeper Ryan Totsch. Though Oswego had few chances of its own, it did take a 1-0 lead into the break when Joe Charielle fed Sean Totsch with a long pass that Totsch put away with 13 minutes to go.

"When you have opportunities like that you have to put them away," Waubonsie coach Angelo DiBernardo said. "They came down the field once and put that one away and from that point on we were playing like we had to catch up."

The Warriors (10-6-2) did catch up in the opening minute of the second half when Johnny Ackl took a long cross from Tyler Yanisch and put it away to make it a 1-all game, but the Panthers came back three minutes later and took the lead for good when Drew Kehoe scored on an assist from Will Robinson.

That was a theme for Oswego in the second half as each time Waubonsie scored the Panthers would come back and pick up a goal of their own.

When Oliver Meyer used some fancy footwork in a crowd in the penalty area to find the back of the net for Waubonsie later in the second half to make it a 3-2 game, Drew Boldridge found the ball on his foot in a similar type of crowd on the other side of the field and put away the insurance goal moments later.

"In the first half we were getting frustrated," said Charielle, who had a goal to go with his assist. "We talked about it at halftime and calmed down and we started to play well together. When you play composed a lot of good things happen then."

Oswego coach Travis Carlisle credited a good practice on Friday, as well as moving players around and making some adjustments for the solid second half.

"We came up ready to play," he said, "and we had some guys that finished some nice plays. We kept doing what we have been working on. It's nice to do something on the practice field and have it carry over and be able to do it so well (in the game)."

The Panthers (6-10-3) finished 1-2 in tourney play, while the Warriors went 1-1-1. Hinsdale South finished as the champions of the round-robin event, beating Lemont 2-1 in the other game of the day.