Girls Soccer: Haley Lewis, Oswego East put up good fight, but stymied by Metea goalkeeper

LOCKPORT – Oswego East junior midfielder Haley Lewis plays on the same club team with Metea Valley goalkeeper Nikki Coryell.

Lewis enjoys that experience.

But playing against Coryell? Not so much.

Coryell, a Valparaiso recruit, made seven saves, several of them difficult, as the Mustangs ended Oswego East’s season with a 3-0 victory Wednesday in a Class 3A Lockport Regional semifinal.

Lewis took the Wolves’ final shot, a rocket from eight yards out which Coryell stopped with four minutes remaining.

“I thought that one was going in, but she was there in the right time, right place,” Lewis said. “She’s a heck of a goalie.

“She works hard, plays hard. Everything about her is just amazing.”

It needed to be because 12th-seeded Oswego East (6-14-1) put up a good fight, holding sixth-seeded Metea (10-8-2) scoreless for the first 27 minutes and controlling the run of play for large portions of the second half.

But the Mustangs scored off three corner kicks, with all three goals coming on rebounds after scrambles in front of the goal.

Sophomore Livvy Toole scored the first goal, the first of her career, on a third-chance shot with 12:55 left in the first half and Paige Buranosky scored on a similar play five minutes later. Kiley McKee capped the scoring with 31:39 to go in the second half.

“Effort-wise, we outworked them but they were just able to find the back of the net and buried [those chances]," Lewis said.

The Wolves were unable to, largely because of Coryell, who stopped shots from freshmen Taylor English and Mikayla Lambert and sophomore Abby Burns in the first half.

But Coryell’s best play came with the Mustangs leading 2-0 early in the second half. Oswego East senior Sydney Conway broke into the box and launched a hard shot which Coryell made a diving save on. The ball squirted free but Coryell stopped Conway’s rebound while still on the ground.

“They have an incredible goalie,” Oswego East coach Juan Leal said. “That obviously is one of their biggest strengths.

“We held the ball more and we created better opportunities. We dictated the game in the second half and unfortunately the ball didn’t find the back of the net for us today.”

It wasn’t for lack of trying, something that pleased Leal, whose team had only four seniors this spring.

“We didn’t have some good corner kicks defensively and they capitalized on them [thanks to] a bad clearance here or a miscommunication there,” Leal said. “But we fought to the whistle and we created a lot of scoring opportunities.

“I’m very proud of the way our girls played. When you play a team like Metea Valley you know what you’re going to get yourself into – a tough opponent. They’regoing to be physical and fast, everything a good soccer team is.”

The Wolves aren’t at Metea’s level but that may change. They fielded only five seniors this spring.

“We’re a really young team, so our future is really bright,” Leal said. “We have to fill a couple gaps and we’ll be very competitive next year because we know we can play against the best of the best.

“We compete against them and beat them in possession and distribution. Just got to beat them on the scoreboard where it counts.”

Indeed, nine of the Wolves’ losses were by one goal, so Lewis thinks the team can turn some of those defeats into victories.

“It’s definitely a learning process, like it always has been,” Lewis said. “We see what we’re capable and the issues that we have to [solve]. I believe that we’regoing to be able to do it.”