Oswego wideout Mariano Velasco looked at his quarterback, Drew Kleinhans, with the Panthers trailing by four halfway through the fourth quarter.

Kleinhans identified zone coverage and checked Velasco to a go route. Velasco found the soft spot between the corner and the high safety and hauled in a perfect ball from his quarterback.

The senior wideout went to work from there and took it to the end zone.

“I made a move to get open,” said Velasco, who finished with two receptions for 71 yards and a touchdown. “He threw a good ball, and I took care of the rest.”

Oswego used Velasco’s long touchdown and a stout defensive effort to outlast Naperville North 17-7 in the first round of the Class 8A playoffs.

Naperville North (6-4) took the ball over with three minutes to play down by three. In the second half, the Huskies had gone punt, turnover on downs, punt, punt. With time ticking away, both teams were desperate to extend their seasons.

North quarterback Dante Colasante found Finnian Bretag for a 16-yard gain on first down, but two plays later, the Oswego (8-2) defense took a stand.

Colasante hit his man on a screen, and during the run after the catch, Velasco and Cam Loghmani came together to crunch him. The hit knocked the ball loose, and Loghmani was able to scoop it at the 35-yard line of Naperville North and return for a house call, entering the end zone with a Devin Hester-esque front roll.

“I was on the backside and just wanted to get in there and lay a hit to set the tone,” Loghmani said. “I saw the ball come out, I picked it up and started running.

“The flip looked better in my head, I guess.”

The touchdown put the exclamation point on a muddy and sloppy night.

“Quick turnaround there,” Oswego coach Brian Cooney said. “It was a close game, and it really flipped after those two plays.”

Early in the game, it was Naperville North who appeared in control. The Huskies traveled 80 yards in 14 plays on the game’s opening drive, with the first 13 plays coming on the ground. The Huskies prescribed Oswego with a heavy dose of William Eloe, who rushed for 49 yards on the opening drive (112 yards on the night).

Colasante (14 of 18, 108 yards; one touchdown) got the Huskies into the end zone with a 23-yard touchdown pass to Jack Zitko, one of his favorite targets on the evening.

“They took it to us on that first drive,” Cooney said. “Our fits were a little bit off. That quickly flipped once our guys got a little more confidence.”

The Oswego defense held Naperville North scoreless for the remaining 40:52.

“We stuck to what we studied in film,” Loghmani said. “Linebackers filled the holes; defensive backs did what they could.”

The Panthers responded with a 46-yard field goal with 5:38 left in the first half, cutting the Huskie lead to 7-3.

Both offenses spun their wheels on the muddy surface of Ken Pickerill Stadium throughout the second half, with Oswego unable to get any of its running backs into a groove, while Naperville North’s once dominant rushing attack was stymied by the Oswego defense front.

“We’re going to run the ball, play good defense and punt when we need to,” Cooney said. “We’ve got some guys that stretch the field when we need to. They’ve got to pick their poison.”

Oswego hopes to ride the wave into next week’s contest. The Panthers will play at Lane, a 34-6 winner over Perspectives Leadership.

“It was a team win all around,” Velasco said. “We’re riding high into the next round.”

https://www.shawlocal.com/friday-night-drive/2025/11/01/oswego-uses-big-plays-in-fourth-quarter-to-get-past-naperville-north/