Boys Soccer: Jacob Thompson, Ryan Anhalt boot Oswego to crosstown win

OSWEGO – Rain or shine, spring or fall, it doesn’t seem to matter to Oswego junior Jacob Thompson.

All he does is score goals.

The Panthers’ midfielder tallied 14 in the fall of 2019 on Oswego’s JV team. He’s picked up right where he left off this spring, with 12 more in his first season on varsity.

Thompson’s latest heroics helped the Panthers to a 2-0 win over host Oswego East in the regular season finale on a rainy Saturday afternoon.

Ryan Anhalt added his third goal of the season, and Logan Wade posted a shutout in goal for the Panthers (9-3, 8-3 Southwest Prairie Conference).

“You always want to go in and win these types of games, because they’re rivalry games,” Thompson said. “We all know a bunch of people on the other team so it’s always nice to play against your friends. But once you get out there on the field it’s all business. We got to fight hard and that’s exactly what we did today.”

Thompson took care of business in the early going Saturday.

After an Oswego steal just outside the box, the ball landed at Thompson’s foot, and he drilled a shot from straightaway that deflected off the Oswego East goalkeeper and in for his 12th goal of the year.

“Day like today, where it’s rainy and wet, you know you’re not going to get a lot of opportunities,” Thompson said. “When they present themselves you have to take advantage and hope they go in.”

Oswego coach Gaspar Arias has enjoyed watching Thompson take advantage of his opportunities this spring on a new-look Panthers’ team that graduated a ton of talent. And Arias believes the best is yet to come.

“Jacob this year came out strong; he’s a really good striker,” Arias said. “Next year he is going to be one of the top players for sure.”

Anhalt made it 2-0 midway through the second half. Oswego East’s goalkeeper made a diving save, but the rebound came to Anhalt, who booted it inside the far left post.

“I don’t get that much playing time, so when I get in I have to take advantage of it when the put all the subs in,” said Anhalt, a junior midfielder. “We put all our effort into this.”

Oswego East (4-3-4) had not lost since March 23, going 4-0-1 in that stretch, but had few opportunities playing its fourth match in five days. The best chance came in the last minute of the first half, a steal in front of the Oswego box, but the shot was missed. Other than that the closest the Wolves came to scoring was a couple Jack Conway free kicks, the first Wade deflected away.

“Third game in three days, not to make an excuse, but our guys were dead,” Oswego East coach Steve Szymanski said. “I had no subs, we were struggling to just get through the game. We’ve been playing really we, we just ran out of gas. Credit to Oswego, they finished their opportunities. Our guys battled hard and left it all out there, we just didn’t have many opportunities in the final third and when you don’t get those it’s hard to win a game.”

Both teams conclude their season this week with the SPC tournament. Oswego East hosts Plainfield South Monday, while Oswego plays Minooka. West Aurora and Plainfield North are the top two seeds.

Oswego, before this year, won the last two SPC championships, so the tournament allows the Panthers to potentially finish on top again.

“The last few years, us being unbeaten in conference and everything, it didn’t happen for us this year but I still think we went out there and gave it our all and we fought to win every game,” Thompson said. “We’ll try to get some payback next week.”