Gianni Casurella does not need to be reminded that Oswego is the surprise participant in this Saturday’s Class 8A final.

Doubt is his fuel.

Casurella, Oswego’s 6-foot-2, 250-pound senior defensive tackle, recalled seeing a preseason projection that the Panthers – with just three starters back this season – would finish 3-6.

“And here we are,” Casurella said. “There was a fire in my soul every day from all those little comments.”

Casurella and bookend defensive tackle Andrew Shaw are two reasons why the Oswego defense has barely budged during this playoff run.

Oswego (11-2) plays three-time defending Class 7A champion Mount Carmel (13-0), bumped up to Class 8A this year, in the finale at 7 p.m. Saturday at Illinois State’s Hancock Stadium.

Oswego has yielded just one second-half score over four playoff games. It shut out Lockport over the final two-plus quarters in Saturday’s 10-7 semifinal win.

Thank Casurella and Shaw, who perform the thankless job of clogging the middle.

“He does the same dirty work that Shaw does,” Oswego coach Brian Cooney said. “He has had a willingness to buy into our system, absorb blocks when needed. Without guys like Gianni, those guys flying around making plays would have it much more difficult.”

Casurella did make his presence felt in Oswego’s statistical breakdown from the Lockport game. The Oswego coaches chart factor points for plays like tackles for loss. Casurella had the high total of eight points against Lockport.

“Three tackles for a loss and I think a sack,” Casurella said. “Honestly, that’s just Panther defense, 1/11, just do your job. It’s been pushed down my throat since June. Stick to basic fundamentals. That is what we are going to do with Mount Carmel.

“At the end of the day, they are just high school kids like us.”

Casurella, like Shaw, hardly saw the field as a junior on what was a senior-heavy unit. He was one that Cooney and the Oswego coaching staff had their eye on as a next man up.

That added responsibility first required Casurella to reshape his body.

“I did a lot of cardio. I was sloppy weight, not as athletic as this year,” Casurella said. “I didn’t see any time last year and had to make a change in my training. Did cardio, ate well, tried to maintain my weight, build muscle, lift weight and kick ass playing football.”

Casurella credited last year’s Oswego offensive line for helping make him the player he is today.

“Iron sharpens iron,” Casurella said. “They really developed me. I 100% percent knew what I was capable of. I had that fire in the back of my head every day.”

Casurella has 50 tackles on the season, despite twin bouts of physical adversity.

He played through a case of bronchitis the last five weeks of the regular season. The week it went away, first round of the playoffs, Casurella suffered a high-ankle sprain the first drive against Naperville North.

He barely played the next week against Lane Tech and did not start the quarterfinal at Maine South. But Casurella had a huge sack in that Maine South game and came up big against a physical Lockport offensive line.

“Gianni is back healthy, and just at the right time,” Cooney said. “From tackle to tackle, that Lockport team was some big kids.

“He has the frame to do it. Coach [Andrew] Cook, our defensive line coach, feeds our concepts into their heads, the technique that we want every day, just being disciplined.”

Casurella, while he’s never faced them before, recognizes what he’s up against with Mount Carmel. The Caravan offensive line averages 6-foot-3, 290 pounds across the line, a group led by 6-foot-5, 320-pound Nebraska commit Claude Mpouma at left tackle.

Mount Carmel, already with the most state championships in Illinois history, is going for its 17th Saturday. Oswego, in a state final for the first time since 2003, has won two. The two programs previously met in the 1999 Class 5A state semifinals.

“It’s Mount Carmel. We know Mount Carmel, how they play. I’ve been seeing them since I was a sophomore,” Casurella said. “We know their style, how they are going to play. We need to play Panther defense like we do, what got us to this point.

“We are 1/11. Do our job, and do it well.”