Latest / Kendall County News - Shaw Local / Plainfield North boys soccer gets revenge on Oswego in regional semifinals
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- 0:05Plainfield
- 0:05North Boys Soccer gets revenge on Oswego in regional semifinals. Written by
- 0:11Skylar Casellus. This article is being read by an automated voice, brought
- 0:16to you by Everlet. Zaki Baraki had waited almost two years for
- 0:21the moment. The Plainfield North sophomore who joined the Tigers varsity roster
- 0:26coming out of camp hadn't scored a goal in his high school
- 0:29career entering Wednesday's Class III A regional semifinal at Oswego. Even in
- 0:35J V I was like, When am I going to get my
- 0:37goal Baraki said. That question was finally answered in the 26th minute,
- 0:42when Berraki buried a shot in the net to put the Tigers
- 0:45on the board in a 2-1 victory and help secure the program's
- 0:49first playoff win since 2021. But the goal hardly came as
- 0:54a surprise to Plainfield North coach Lukas Maevsky, who had watched Baraki
- 0:59find the net in practice and find his groove at the varsity
- 1:02level. You could see the confidence growing and him s just being
- 1:07more comfortable with everything and the speed of The game, Majewsky said.
- 1:11Things are kind of slowing down for him. Playing such big minutes
- 1:15as a sophomore and seeing that scoring a pretty important goal for
- 1:19his first one, it's kind of amazing. After Oswego, 912-3-65 Southwest Prairie
- 1:25Conference broke through in the 67th minute with the equalizer, Plainfield North
- 1:29Captain Joel Martinez responded less than two minutes later. They senior delivered
- 1:34the go-ahead goal that simultaneously advanced them Tigers, May 1, 14, 92
- 1:39SPC, to Saturday's regional final against Bene Academy and ended the Panthers
- 1:44season. The came a little too confident like the were going to
- 1:47come here and just beat us without us putting up a fight,
- 1:51Oswego coach Gaspar Arias said. But I think these guys showed how
- 1:55good they are, and they showed good dedication, good discipline, and we
- 1:59gave them a good fight. Wednesday's result also served as a measure
- 2:03of revenge for Plainfield North, whose season ended at the hands of
- 2:06Oswego last year in the Naperville Central Regional Semifinals. The Panthers won
- 2:112-1 in penalty kicks, thanks to a Herculean effort from keeper Christian
- 2:15Lopez. This time around the Tigers got the better of Lopez who
- 2:20made two saves. Each side applied pressure for a while before Baraki
- 2:25received a pass from Dylan Dwyer at the top of the box,
- 2:28took a touch, and fired a shot up inside the post, with
- 2:3124 17 left in the first half. For a player who waited
- 2:35so long for his first high school score, it was an opportunity
- 2:39he was always ready to seize. The
- 2:48Tigers had a chance to extend their lead before halftime, but Lopez
- 2:53made an incredible save and Dwyer sent another shot wide right to
- 2:56keep the score at 1 0 at halftime. Mavias also missed wide
- 3:01left early in the second half before cashing in on Oswego's only
- 3:04true scoring opportunity of the evening. With 1325 left, the senior captain
- 3:09took a ball down the line, dribbled past two defenders, and tapped
- 3:13it in to even the match at 1-1. I feel like as
- 3:16soon as they scored, we knew that we had to bounce back,
- 3:19Baraki said. We couldn't repeat it from last year. We couldn't go
- 3:23into penalty kicks. One minute and thirty-eight seconds later, Martinez stepped up
- 3:29to deliver the response. Caden Sanborn's throw-in took an unexpected bounce off
- 3:34an Azwego player, giving Martinez an opening in front of the net.
- 3:38It did like a weird spin, Martinez said. I anticipated it and
- 3:42I looked to the goal and I just tapped it in with
- 3:45my right foot. For Oswego the goals was a familiar frustration, marked
- 3:50by narrow margins and defensive breakdowns. That's been the story for the
- 3:54whole season, Arya said. Most of the team that we played, and
- 3:58the goals that they scored against us, it's always from either a
- 4:01throw in, cornerback, or set play, but never creating something special. We're
- 4:06always giving up goals like that. The Panthers had one final opportunity
- 4:11to force overtime in the waning seconds, sending a corner kick toward
- 4:15the box. Plainfield North's Eli Bell got his head to the ball
- 4:18before keeper Jakob Powlik made the save to seal the game. More
- 4:23importantly, it sealed the postseason's breakthrough the Tigers have long been waiting
- 4:28for. I feel like we have good seasons, and then we seem
- 4:32to not break through that next level, that door. And today we
- 4:35did, Mayuski said. We live to play for another couple practices, couple
- 4:40more days together, so I think that's what the boys want.