OSWEGO – A happy annual reunion became an even happier day for Oswego East on Wednesday.

With the Wolves and head coach Steve Szymanski facing off in their typical season opener against Hinsdale Central and his former high school coach Mike Wiggins, host Oswego East made an impressive early statement with a 4-1 win.

“My freshman year at Downers Grove South was Mike’s first year (as head coach),” Szymanski said. “He’s one of the reasons I got into teaching. If I didn’t play for him, I probably wouldn’t be a teacher and a soccer coach. He definitely steered me in a way I wanted to go.”

The ties continue to grow -- Wiggins’ family resides in the Oswego East district.

“I’ve taught all his kids,” Szymanski said.

But between the lines, it’s all about the players. And Szymanski had great first impressions of his side.

“Our guys just want to go out and play hard one game at a time,” he said. “They don’t know that I played for ‘Wiggy.’

“They (Hinsdale Central) have had our number a lot of times. There aren’t many times we’ve had a good chance to beat them. And one thing about their team: it doesn’t matter if they’re young or old, they always have good players and always compete. That’s why I like that as
our first game. It’s always a tough battle to start the season. It lets us know ‘Here’s our deficiencies; here’s what we’re strong at.’”

The list of Oswego East strengths was long Wednesday. But beyond a day coaching against his former player, Wiggins found another nostalgic, very silver lining to his team’s result.

“It was a special year for us in 2014 (winning the Class 3A state title), and we opened up then with a 5-2 loss (to Plainfield North),” Wiggins said. “We’re not worried.

“We had a lot of guys get their first varsity minutes today, and that’s good. We have eight freshman and sophomores, which is more than we’ve had in a while. But we saw a lot of really positive things out of guys that we were hoping for. It wasn’t perfect, and we knew it wasn’t
going to be.”

Perfection or not, the Red Devils’ opening blitz foretold anything but the final score.

In the third minute, Austen Szurgot rocketed a left-side 20-yard shot just wide of the right post. Two minutes later, he came close again when his header redirect of a Harrison Satre corner kick was deflected wide by Wolves goalkeeper Jack Urbanowski.

Making his varsity debut at goalkeeper, Urbanowski was one of the stories of the game. But another emerging factor was Oswego East’s offensive resurgence midway through the first half.

In the 22nd minute, Julian Nino sent a near post header off an Austin Ward cross just wide.

Then with 13:11 until halftime, M.J. Hoffman blocked a clear attempt in the Red Devils’ defensive end, burst into the left side of the box and drew a foul. On the ensuing penalty kick, Dylan Drendel was ontarget inside the left post for a 1-0 Wolves lead.

“On my club team I wasn’t the penalty taker, but in shootouts in big moments I was always one of the five (shooters),” Drendel said. “So, I was constantly getting reps. Coming into this (high school) season, I knew I was probably going to be the penalty taker.

“It’s reps, reps, reps (in practice). I don’t really have a spot (to shoot for). Wherever I put it, I’ve been practicing a lot, and hopefully I can put it away every time.”

Less than two minutes later, Oswego East’s family ties worked from long distance.

On Diego Godinez’s free kick from around 30 yards, Hinsdale Central goalkeeper Martin Contreras arrived an eyelash before a charging Hoffman to tip the would-be midair connection away. But Aaron Godinez pounced on the loose ball in the box for a six-yard strike to make it 2-0 with 11:24 until halftime.

“Diego Godinez assisting on Aaron’s goal: the cousin connection, which was cool,” Szymanski said. “We talked about goals the other day, and Diego said I want to get more assists this year. And first game, there’s one.”

Drendel summed up the two-minute turn from scoreless battle to multi-goal lead.

“In the first half they came out really strong,” he said, “so going up 2-0 we were going to go into halftime super confident.”

Hinsdale Central had other plans.

After Contreras nicely batted a high Hoffman shot over the net in the 30th minute, the Red Devils began to reverse the momentum just before the half.

“We felt like we had a strong first half,” Wiggins said. “We demonstrated something with five minutes to go in the first half and felt like we could at least get one, and we did.”

Hinsdale Central almost broke through in the 38th minute. Nate Lin’s header into the net off a nice Denis Altman free kick was nullified by an offsides call.

“I didn’t think I was offsides,” Lin said, “but you just have to keep playing.”

The senior’s persistence paid off just 12 seconds before halftime. Enzo Cinque attacked from the right side and chipped a shot off the left post. In the rebound scramble, Lin was there for the put-away and the difference was suddenly 2-1.

Drendel summed up the Wolves’ halftime approach.

“Getting one, they (the Red Devils) should have had all the momentum,” he said. “We knew they would come out with that same energy and same push. We just had to keep the intensity up.

“One thing I said was, there’s a difference between playing intense and playing tense. We wanted to play with a lot of intensity, but when they’re bringing a lot of pressure on us, we can’t be tensed up. We need to be relaxed and know what we’re doing. And I think we did that
really well.”

But it wasn’t easy early in the second half.

After a Cinque shot was deflected wide off a defender, the ensuing Satre corner kick produced a scramble in front and required an extra-effort defender play with 37:05 to play.

After Urbanowski saved an initial shot, Lin’s open net rebound seemed destined to tie the game until Wolves defender Caleb Pankiewicz made a sliding, sweeping kick save off the goal line.

“Caleb’s play was amazing,” Szymanski said. “And Jack and our five defenders back there are so good: Cade (Cummings), Caleb, Aaron (Godinez), Diego (Godinez) and Elyas (Edders). All five deserve to be starters but we only play four, but they’re all going to play a lot. And Josh (Lopez) and M.J. up-top bring a lot of energy for us.”

Less than four minutes after that tightrope-act escape, the Wolves were re-energized big time offensively when senior Austin Ward’s put-away in front (off a deflected cross from Hoffman) made their lead 3-1.

“I was just staying wide, and I saw my teammates having a little bit of an attack going forward,” Ward said. “I kind of just sat back post, thinking maybe the keeper was going to touch it, and I might be there for the right time, right moment. And I was.”

Next, it was Urbanowski in the spotlight as the Red Devils blitzed the net.

In a sequence with just under 24 minutes left, Urbanowski made a leaping deflection over the crossbar of a Szurgot high rocket seemingly bound for glory.

He was even better with 22:05 to go, coming up big with back-to-back saves on a 12-yard shot and an ensuing eight-yard rebound try that kept the score 3-1.

Facing a perennial powerhouse team, Urbanowski kept his version of Drendel’s intense no tense message in mind.

“Just play calm out of the back and don’t do anything crazy,” he said. “Play simple, be composed. It’s the first game of the season, and I’m a first-year goalie on varsity, so I was a little nervous for the game. But I played pretty well I think, and I was really happy with what the team did scoring.

“Our defenders did a great job keeping everybody compact and not allowing many shots on goal. They did their job, they locked down and we were able to finish. Everything was good today.”

While crediting his defenders, Urbanowski looked like a varsity veteran most of the day.

“I hadn’t played goalie since freshman season, so I’m really happy with the way I played,” he said. “I started training this summer, but it all came naturally back to me. So when the first whistle started, I was ready to go.”

Midfielder Drendel was not surprised.

“Our freshman year, Jack was a great keeper,” Drendel said, “but obviously last year having Javi (Ruiz, all-time school career shutouts leader): he’s one of the greatest goalies I’ve ever played with.

“The big question this year was who’s going to be goalie, and Jack right at the end of last season said ‘I’m going to play goalie. I’m going to be ready.’ He was at the field all summer working, working, working.

“He made one little mistake today, but it’s the first game of the season, you’re going to expect that,” Drendel added. “But he had a really good double-save, and I feel we have a very, very strong defense. So hopefully we can keep it up, Jack keeps it clean, and we should be really good for the rest of the season.”

As for Wednesday, Drendel did his part to seal a very good result for the Wolves.

With 16:04 to play, Drendel took a pass from Nino, dribbled toward the top of the box and drilled a 22-yard liner just under the crossbar to end the scoring.

And the Wolves hardly rested on their advantage. Hoffman took a Ward cross and lined a shot off the left post with 14:20 left. Five minutes later, Contreras’ acrobatic leap to swat a Josh Lopez shot wide was followed by Ward’s shot off the crossbar on the ensuing Jonathan Carranza corner kick.

All in all, it was an ideal kick off to the 2024 campaign for the Wolves.

“A great start to the season,” Ward said. “It was a good team we had to come out here and play, and we did what we could to make sure we would get it done. It’s going to be a great season I can tell.”

“It means a lot,” Urbanowski said. “It’s a big win: having a performance like that is a good way to start the season. We’re pretty excited.”

With its high standards and history of yearly success (including a supersectional trip in 2022 and a regional title last season), Hinsdale Central should be just fine as well.

“It (the program tradition) kind of empowers you,” Lin said. “We’re Hinsdale Central. We’re always good and never bad. And if you don’t believe in yourself, you’re not in the right mindset.

“We just have to keep working. It’s the start of the season so we’re still working on our team chemistry. I know it’s going to get better. I believe, and if we all believe we’re going to be great.

“It’s our first game,” Lin added. “It’s unfortunate to lose, but we’ll be defined by how we can get back up and keep going rather than how well we played today.”

The day’s events seemed most of all a tribute to Oswego East’s potential.

“They (the Wolves) did a nice job,” Wiggins said. “I feel like we have a good team, so if you can get four goals on us that’s a credit to you. We’re not concerned.”

The Wolves’ response to having the game pushed back a day by 95-degree heat Tuesday was telling.

“We’ve had practice canceled the last two days,” Drendel said, “and last year if we had practice canceled, we were like ‘Let’s go to the field’ and maybe two or three guys would show up. We had 18 or 19 of the 22 guys come this time (Tuesday morning).

“We have had high expectations coming into the season, and I feel we’ve all had so much fun in practices.

“Everyone wants to be here, everyone wants to win,” Drendel added. “And then to come out and get the momentum off the start like this just means a lot, and should be big for us going into the rest of the season.”

Chemistry, extra effort, and a 4-1 win over a perennial power -- the early thumbs are all pointing straight up for Oswego East.

“It’s a fun, fun group to coach,” Szymanski said, “and we’ve got some good depth. I can play 17-18 guys and not miss a beat. And some of the guys not playing right now are young and will get there. We’ve come together really well. 

“We have a nice group, and we have guys who really get along. They were out at 6 in the morning at the park Tuesday. At 6 in the morning – on a hot day most guys are like ‘It’s too hot; I don’t want to do anything.’

“It’s fun to see,” Szymanski added. “I can see we’re having fun playing for each other and with each other, and that’s what good teams do.

“I think our offense is going to be good. If we can continue to play together, I think we’re going to have a good little run. I’m excited for the things to come.”

Starting lineups

Hinsdale Central
GK: Martin Contreras
D: Braden Tingler
D: Milan Puri
D: Yousef Saleem
D: Denis Altman
D: Harrison Satre
M: Enzo Cinque
M: Michael DiTomasso
M: Austen Szurgot
F: Matt Gantar
F: Nate Lin

Oswego East
GK: Jack Urbanowski
D: Aaron Godinez
D: Diego Godinez
D: Caleb Pankiewicz
D: Elyas Edders
M: Austin Ward
M: Dylan Drendel
M: Dillan Max
M: Jonathan Carranza
F: M.J. Hoffman
F: Josh Lopez

Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Dylan Drendel, sr., MF, Oswego East

Scoring summary

First half
OE- Dylan Drendel (PK), 27’
OE- Aaron Godinez (Diego Godinez), 29’
HC- Nate Lin (rebound), 40’

Second half
OE- Austin Ward (M.J. Hoffman), 47’
OE- Drendel (Julian Nino), 64’