St. Charles East starts fast, holds on to top Oswego

It took the fourth game of the season for St. Charles East to score a goal last year.

It didn’t take them nearly as long when the Saints opened their season on Monday at Oswego.

The Saints scored the first three goals of the game and then had to tighten up on defense down the stretch to hold on for the 3-2 victory.

“I don’t think the boys were expecting to play that well in that first half, and even the first 10 minutes of the second half, and then the wheels kind of fell off in the way we defended dead balls,” Saints coach Vince DiNuzzo said. “We have to be much better. It was two corner kicks that we just didn’t deal with, you know, and they made us pay and then we scrambled for our lives for the last five minutes defending.”

Aidan Richbell used a first-time volley to deposit sophomore Anthony Sanfilippo’s corner into the back of the net with 17:32 left in the first half to give the Saints the 1-0 advantage.

“Sam (Arville) dribbled to the touch line and played it to Anthony (Sanfilippo) who whipped it back in. I just saw him looking for the cross and just made the run to the back post and it was just on my feet. It was a beautiful cross.”

Huxley Kapoor extended the lead to 2-0 with 4:14 remaining before halftime, fighting for possession of a ball from fellow junior Will Wade.

The Saints (1-0) had scoring opportunities in the opening minutes of the second half that were denied before Wade got a flick on Richbell’s free kick to make it 3-0.

“We knew at halftime we had to keep the intensity in the second half,” Wade said. “We knew they were going to come back and try to get at least one so we had to make sure we kept our intensity high. I think it definitely dropped after they found that first one and we had to dig at the end.”

Oswego (0-1) was able to pull back into the game via corner kicks from senior Victor Rios and the ensuing execution from junior Enrique Castañeda and senior Shawn Stogentin.

“We’ve been practicing with (Victor Rios) because we’re pretty short so we try to work on those set plays so we can do different things,” Panthers coach Gaspar Arias said. “Last year we didn’t do so great on corners, especially when we are defending as well because we are small.”

Castañeda got the Panthers on the board with 17:37 remaining to pull within 3-1.

Stogentin’s goal with 10:01 left put them within striking distance.

“We are adapting right now and still looking for our system, our game this year and moving players around,” Arias said. “First half we struggled on those crosses and they scored on two of them with silly mistakes, but we adjusted in the second half. We kept pretty good possession and created a lot of opportunities. I think we were pretty good in the second half, the better team, I believe.”

The Saints suffered through a 5-14-4 record so a positive result to open the new year was a Godsend.

“I’m proud of them because they need this for confidence,” DiNuzzo said. “We were coming off a season where we struggled pretty bad just because of a lack of experience. But these kids, we believe in them and we told them, you guys are good enough to compete and you got to start to believe it.”