Boys soccer: Oswego East falls to Waubonsie Valley

AURORA – When it comes to technical skills, Oswego East midfielder Julian Nino’s got game.

The junior’s assist to senior Josh Lopez helped the Wolves rally on Wednesday night in non-conference action at Waubonsie Valley, but it wasn’t enough an early deficit during a 2-1 loss.

“Julian is one of our tech-iest players on the team,” Lopez said. “Whenever we can get him in that 1v1 situation I just know he’s going to get the ball to me somehow. He’s a good piece to have on our team for sure.”

Nino crossed the ball approximately 20 yards into the center of the box where Lopez used his 6-foot-3 frame to rise high and head home a goal with 13:29 left in the game.

“I was going to shoot and didn’t really make it so if I could’t take it on my own I just help my teammate,” Nino said. “I just put one in the box and Josh got up there. He will be a key target this season. We will look for him. We have a lot of individual talent and once we start clicking it’s going to be a good season.”

Waubonsie Valley (2-0-1) controlled the first half but didn’t see its effort truly pay off until senior Erick Maravillo buried a 25-yard free kick with 17:07 left before the break.

“I just made a play for my team,” Maravillo said. ‘We all played as a team. We played well and we have built chemistry since last year. We only had a couple of seniors who left last year. We played really well today. Hopefully we keep it like that.”

The Warriors extended their lead and made an unforgettable memory for the Garcia family with 15:26 remaining the first half. Sophomore Lucas Garcia, son of Waubonsie Valley head coach Jose Garcia, scored his first goal.

“His first of many, hopefully,” Jose Garcia said. “This is ideal. Coaching my son on this team and he’s successful. It really is a dream.”

Lucas Garcia praised the pass he received from senior Gabrielle Pizzo that helped the team jump ahead 2-0.

“It was a great team effort and a great pass from (Gabrielle) Pizzo. He set me up perfectly and luckily I finished. Erick’s goal helped build the momentum. It feels good. I feel like we’re a family now and we have made a lot of new fans.”

Oswego East (2-1) controlled the second half for the most part, a much different 40 minutes than the prior ones.

“They dominated us in the first half; we didn’t play very well,” Wolves coach Steve Szymanski said. “We weren’t able to generate much in the first half.”

The second half was a much different game.

“We played really well in the first half and it kind of flip-flopped in the second half,” Jose Garcia said. “Then they had a better (half) than we did. They’re off to a great start. We are, too. I knew coming in they were a competitive team and we had to bring our ‘A’ game and I think our guys did that.”