Boys soccer: Oswego East blanks Waubonsie Valley

DuPablo Parodis-Yu did not score Oswego East's first goal of the 2021 season, but his timely effort led to the corner kick scoring opportunity that resulted in it.

The junior did score the team's second goal of the year and it gave the Wolves some insurance in a 2-0 victory over visiting Waubonsie Valley in the season opener for both teams who each had games postponed earlier this week.

"Our coach tells us just to give him space and he'll do his job," Wolves sophomore goalkeeper Javier Ruiz said. "We're pretty good at corners, set pieces and sending DuPablo (Parodis-Yu) out wide. Giving him one-on-one chances is pretty much our best way to score."

Waubonsie Valley (0-1) had its best opportunities early in the match with Gean Ribeiro Scarpelli and Alan Sanchez proving to be the Warriors' biggest threats. Sanchez's liner shot that flew wide left with just under 12 minutes remaining in the first half may have been their most dangerous threat the rest of the afternoon.

"I felt like if we played our first game Tuesday against Benet, we would've done a lot better in this game," Sanchez said. "Considering it's our first game it's a game to learn from and obviously Oswego East has always been a good team."

The Warriors are young and coming off a 3-8-1 spring season.

"We have a lot of new talent that we want to get up-to-date to our tactics," Sanchez said. "Our main goal is to teach the young people how to team up with us and make plays so we can do better on the pitch."

Oswego East (1-0) certainly looked fantastic with 38:28 left in the game.

After Parodis-Yu's touch from John Danison led to a corner kick, Carter Boberg served the ball deep to 6-foot-1 Drew Karg who buried his header for the 1-0 lead.

"My job is to be on the back post and just get there and score goals, like just beat the defenders one on one is basically my goal," Karg said. "And my height really helps me win the balls in the air."

Practicing certainly helps too.

"We've been working on that in practice over and over for the past couple practices," he said. " So I think it was beneficial in today's game and we showed it."

Attempts at netting the equalizer proved difficult, although the Warriors stayed within striking distance until Parodis-Yu struck with 6:08 left to play.

"I just dribbled down the line and used a move to cut in and then cut back out and kept dribbling until I was near the goal and got the chance to shoot," he said. "I had a couple chances earlier but those were on the wing and whenever I cut in the middle I just passed it, but I used this chance to take it by myself and ended up scoring."

With 17 seniors, the Wolves are deep and that most definitely helped on a hot and humid day full of anticipation and the excitement of a fresh, new start.

"I'm able to play 18 guys and we don't lose much," Wolves coach Steve Szymanski said. "It's a credit to our guys. They played unselfish and if I put in one guy he was able to step in and do just as well as the next guy, which is a luxury I haven't had much here. We haven't been as deep as we are."