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Sports
Returning players look to give Panthers bite : Sports : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisReturning players look to give Panthers bite
| Primed junior class looking to improve on seven-win total from last year
| by Mike Slodki
| 8/16/2012
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Losing valuable seniors from the 2011 Oswego boys' soccer team, like Josue Fernandez and Max Calderon, might have teams looking at a steep uphill climb in local soccer.
But for 10th-year head coach Travis Carlisle, a primed junior class and a Southwest Prairie Conference in flux could mean a reachable peak.
"The core of our seniors have been with us since they were sophomores," Carlisle said. "We kind of made a conscious decision to bring them in early. They've all been contributing for at least a full season."
Curtis Grysiewicz at forward, among others, return and need to be on there game in order to improve on a six-win total from 2010 and a 7-15-2 mark from last year that ended with a Metea Valley Regional loss to Naperville North.
Oswego also finished 3-4 in conference play, and dealt with big area powerhouses in non-conference action.
"As long as I've been the head coach, we'll play schools at these larger tournaments that double our numbers. We never look at it as a disadvantage. We take the field with what we have," Carlisle said.
The usual lineup is still fleshing itself out, but, "the spine of our team is pretty much there," Carlisle said.
Grysiewicz heads up a senior base in his fourth year as a varsity Panther and leading scorer from last year.
Senior midfielder Jeremy Wine returns as well. Ryan Totsch looks to be a returning option to plug the ball in the net and is on his fourth year of varsity action. The Oswego attack will also rely on Mitch Lewis.
Two key elements seeing their first real varsity lineup time are Rodolfo Moreno and Danny Fernandez at midfield and defense.
"There are a couple of guys on this team that we want to rely on that maybe didn't contribute as much last year. There are a few guys moving up from the sophomore team who have an nice bit of skill," Carlisle said.
The opening of the season remains a daunting task with the usual Batavia/Geneva/Naperville Central crowd, and leads into Pepsi Showdown and Warrior Invite action, but Carlisle feels that the battles could steel a Panther squad for a conference that had Oswego East and Plainfield Central at the top in 2011.
"We'll find out if we're good right away, and a lot of those teams you can see in the playoffs," Carlisle said.
The Batavia Bulldogs come to town on Tuesday, with host Romeoville providing the opening SPC match on Aug. 28.
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