Jordyn Washington’s hat trick leads Oswego to crosstown win over Oswego East

OSWEGO – Jordyn Washington readily admitted that thoughts of Oswego’s playoff loss last year to Oswego East were on her mind Tuesday.

She played like it.

“I said I wanted this, I wanted this really bad,” said Washington, Oswego’s junior forward and an Alabama A&M recruit. “That playoff regional loss was in the back of my mind the entire time. I wanted this.”

Washington registered her second hat trick of the season, and Aubrey Eirich headed in the go-ahead goal as Oswego pulled away in the second half to beat visiting Oswego East 5-2 in a Southwest Prairie Conference game.

Oswego (14-2-2, 6-1) scored the game’s last three goals, starting with Eirich’s header off a corner kick with 28:12 left. It came after Oswego East (4-4-5, 3-1-2) had tied it for the second time on a Kenzie Coleman goal.

“Of course, we knew it would be like this. They are a great team, they always are,” Eirich said. “We took our chances and that’s how we were able to connect. Our great speed and how we attack the ball and are first to the ball, I think that’s what got us through.”

Eirich was likewise not surprised to see her number called on a corner kick from Mane Brolley. In a sea of orange, blue and white, Eirich emerged in the box to knock in the score.

“Normally at the top of the box I’m the person waiting for the ball to come. It was just the perfect ball, I said this is my moment and I got it,” Eirich said. “Normally it’s me or Paige Johnson, we’re just two tall girls. It makes sense. We jump high, we’re fast, we’re able to get up.”

Washington sure seems to get up to play Oswego’s crosstown rival. She had a goal and assist in Oswego’s 2-0 regular season win over Oswego East last year, which was at the time the Panthers’ first crosstown win since 2019.

“She’s strong, she’s fast, she can shoot. She is a really good player,” Oswego East coach Juan Leal said. “I can see why she is hard to stop.”

Indeed, Washington scored two goals in the game’s first 17 minutes Tuesday. The second, she had her shot blocked by a diving goalkeeper, but gathered the rebound to score.

Her third goal gave Oswego a 4-2 lead with 19:25 left.

“She has been working on high pressing and the goals she scored they were pressing us pretty good,” Oswego coach Gaspar Arias said. “But she’s fast, she was able to beat the defender and pressing them that hard. It’s really good to see. Her training is showing.”

Oswego is showing itself to be a handful for any opponent. The Panthers won the Plainfield Classic championship on April 19 and just played Naperville North to a 0-0 draw last week.

“We’re up there, we’re on a high right now but we have to keep playing like that,” Washington said. “We saw that in the Naperville tournament, we have to do better. This is a start.”

The start of something special, potentially. Brolley scored the last goal Tuesday for Oswego, which plays at Plainfield North May 6 in a game that could decide the SPC title.

“We’re just always connected,” Washington said. “I would say we never get down on each other. We are always lifting each other up.”

Leal had plenty of reason to not get down about his young Wolves’ team, which twice tied Oswego after getting down a goal. Catie Sloan did so the first time, on a penalty kick 13 minutes in.

“We have had some setbacks but the girls do a wonderful job of when they get scored on they come back full force and try to answer,” Leal said.

“We knew this year would be, not a rebuild year, but we would have to find different ways to score after losing our top scorer [Anya Gulbrandsen, now at Wisconsin] with a young team. They’re really catching on to the varsity level. Our future is bright.”