Panthers Capture Conference Title

OSWEGO— captured the 2011 Southwest Prairie Conference championship in its final home game of the season, with a 21-7 victory over Minooka Friday night.

 Senior quarterback Ryan West propelled the Panthers’ (7-2, 7-0) spread offense, passing for 246 yards on 19-of-37 for three touchdowns.

“This game was huge for us, and for myself, too, because last year, [Minooka] knocked us out of the playoffs,” West said, “but this year, it’s a different story.”

Junior wide receiver Elliot McGaughey also snagged five West passes for 69 yards, while junior wide receiver Jack Kwiatkowski added seven receptions for 85 yards and a touchdown.

The Panthers’ defense was imposing, holding an Indians team that had scored at least 23 points in each of its other conference games to just seven.

“If you’ve watched us from our first game, [our defense] just kept taking little steps, little steps, little steps,” Oswego head coach Dave Keely said. “And, since then, we’ve developed into a much better defensive team.

“Once you start putting things together, you start believing in yourselves and playing as a unit.”

The Indians (6-3, 6-1) were led by senior running back Kalvin Hill, who carried 17 times for 79 yards and a touchdown.

Junior quarterback Joseph Carnagio ran more effectively than he threw, rushing for 102 yards on 15 attempts, while passing for 29 yards on four-of-14.  

The Indians were first to sustain a drive late in the first quarter, but the Panthers’ defense stopped Carnagio a yard short on fourth down, at the Oswego 31-yard line.

Carnagio quickly avenged the stop by intercepting a West pass at free safety on the subsequent Panther drive.

Early in the second quarter, Hill capped off an 80-yard drive with a 16-yard touchdown run to put Minooka ahead, 7-0.

The Panthers answered on their very next possession, when West hit junior wide receiver Brett Wainwright for a 33-yard touchdown to knot the score at 7-7.

With the score still tied at seven, Panther receivers Jack Kwiatkowski and Josh Mapalo came alive in the second half. Mapalo reeled in a 22-yard touchdown reception to put Oswego in front, 14-7, midway through the third quarter. Kwiatkowski, meanwhile, caught five second half passes, including a 12-yard touchdown early in the fourth that gave the Panthers a 21-7 lead.

“[Oswego] is a very good football team,” Minooka head coach Bert Kooi said. “What we’ve seen on tape and what we saw here tonight is a team that keeps getting better.”

Turnovers plagued the Indians throughout the game. Including a pair of turnovers on downs, Minooka handed Oswego the ball six times.

“We gave Ryan West too many opportunities,” Kooi said. “That kid is too good. You can’t give him as many shots as he had tonight.”

Tonight also marked Keely’s final regular season game as Panthers’ head coach, after 30 years with the Oswego football program and five years as head coach.

“[My retirement] is probably not going to hit me until June,” Keely said. “There’s still too much going on right now. “I’ve got a great group of young men, a good coaching staff, and we’re just going to keep trying to finish every week 1-0, and we’ll be in good shape.”

Both teams now await their opponents in the IHSA State Playoffs. Minooka will participate in the 8A Playoffs, while Oswego will play in 7A. The matchups will be announced tomorrow night.

Kooi said he has high expectations for his Indians in the playoffs.

“We won’t be the first team to win a state championship at 6-3,” he said. “It’s been done before; it’s been done by a lot of good football programs. What we have to do is look at [tonight’s game film] to see what we need to get better at to go on a run here.

“The last time we lost a football game, we won six games in a row. If we win six in a row now, I think we win a state championship.”

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