Panthers Advance to Second Round with Convincing Victory

OSWEGO—Fourth-seeded Oswego extended its winning streak to eight and advanced to the second round of the Class 7A IHSA State Playoffs, with a 35-13 win over Thornton Saturday tonight.

The Panthers (8-2) demonstrated versatility on offense, passing and running the ball effectively against the Wildcats’ (6-4) defense.

“I think you have to be able to control the clock [with a lead],” Oswego head coach Dave Keely said. “We were up by three scores [in the second half], and you have to be able to take some time off of the clock to protect a lead.

“I think earlier in the year, we had a little trouble doing that, but we have personnel right now that enable us to protect the lead a little bit better.”

Senior quarterback Ryan West captained the Panthers’ offense, throwing for 250 yards and four touchdowns on 12 for 30.  

Junior wide receiver Elliot McGaughey hauled in four West passes for 123 yards and a touchdown, while junior wide-out Jack Kwiatkowski had three receptions for 43 yards and two touchdowns.

Junior Brett Wainwright, filling in for the injured Mickeel Stewart, led the Panthers on the ground, carrying 19 times for 116 yards and a score.

“I didn’t expect to get so many carries, because we have Ryan [West] at quarterback,” Wainwright said.

Sophomore quarterback Jowahn Brown and speedy senior wide receiver Jamel Frazier carried the Wildcats’ spread offensive attack. Brown completed 15 of 42 passes for 237 yards and two touchdowns, while Frazier caught four passes for 111 yards and a score.

Junior running back Jamal Towns added 54 yards on 10 attempts.

Keely said Thornton’s speed posed significant problems for his defense.

“Probably our fastest kid is as fast as their slowest kid,” Keely said. “They have some really good team speed. Their wide-outs and linemen blocked very well on screens, and we were a half a step away from [making plays] early in the game, until we got our rhythm.”

Both teams began the game with solid drives, but both were stopped on fourth down in opposing territory.

Thornton broke the scoreless tie late in the first quarter, when Brown found sophomore wide-out Juan Wesley for a 31-yard touchdown.

West was erratic at the outset, missing multiple open receivers down the field in the opening period. But the senior quarterback found his rhythm early in the second quarter, when he hit McGaughey on a deep post over the middle for a 73-yard touchdown strike to knot the score at seven.

The Panthers grabbed their first lead, 14-7, on their subsequent possession, after West connected with Kwiatkowski on a 10-yard touchdown.

West hooked up with Kwiatkowski again for a 13-yard touchdown pass to put Oswego up 20-7 going into the locker room.

West and Wainwright led the Panthers on another touchdown drive to open the third quarter. Wainwright carried four times for 17 yards, before West found junior running back Alain Dixon for a 35-yard touchdown on fourth-and-10 to sink the Wildcats’ spirits.

Thornton refused to go away quietly. Junior all-purpose back Jason Towns intercepted a West pass, and then reeled in a 12-yard touchdown toss from Brown to trim the lead to 28-13 early in the fourth quarter.

But the Panthers inserted the dagger when Wainwright plunged into the end zone from one yard out, to extend the lead to 35-13 with just over one minute remaining.

Oswego will host fifth-seeded East St. Louis in the second round next weekend.

Keely said the game will not be an easy one.

“[East St. Louis] is a very good football team,” he said. “They’ve won a couple of state championships in recent years. One of their losses was to a team out of Georgia that’s ranked nationally, so the competition level they play before conference season is very high-quality.

“They’re going to present a lot of challenges for us. We’re just going to have to be a smart football team, and make sure we get our kids into positions where they can make plays.”