A split decision in hockey quarterfinals
Two DuPage County teams found themselves on either side of an immutable truth concerning boys high school hockey.
Benet on Monday advanced to the state semifinals with a 2-1 overtime win over Loyola Gold. On Tuesday Naperville Central lost 7-3 in the quarterfinals to Glenbrook North.
"Any road to a state championship usually goes through Loyola, New Trier Green or Glenbrook North," said Benet coach Jon Grzbek. "We've got to beat them, and our next game is against Green."
New Trier Green is the two-time defending champion in the Amateur Hockey Association of Illinois' Red Division Varsity, the highest level for high school boys. (The Waubonsie Warriors, a co-op of several schools, won the 2014 Varsity Combined division; Thursday, a "Glenbard" co-op is playing in a Combined quarterfinal at The Edge in Bensenville. Glenbard won the division in 2012.)
Benet (43-8-3) will get in three practices at its home rink, Seven Bridges in Woodridge, and a team dinner Sunday before facing New Trier Green in a 6:40 p.m. Monday semifinal at The Edge.
Benet plays in the Chicago Catholic League and captured the CCL's Kennedy Cup this season after going 21-1. The Redwings haven't lost since going 2-1 in a tournament hosted by Loyola over Thanksgiving.
"That was really when the team turned around," said sixth-year coach Grzbek, a 1990 Marist graduate who lives in Downers Grove. "You learn from losses and I hate to sound cliché, but we righted the ship after that. The guys had to take some ownership and they did that right after that tournament."
Loyola beat Benet in the first game of the year, in a rink whose broken air compressors made the ice "a swamp," Grzbek said. On Monday the Redwings turned the tables in a 2-1 overtime victory in Bensenville.
Down 1-0 with 1:46 left in regulation and a faceoff coming in Loyola's zone, Grzbek pulled all-AHAI goalie Justin Davidson for the extra attacker.
Play actually resulted in three faceoffs, each won by Benet senior center Trent Kunas. On the third draw Kunas sent it back to right wing Tommy Feldman, whose shot through traffic rebounded to junior center Bobby Ernsting. On a backhand shot just below the crossbar, Ernsting tied it 1-1 with 1:17 left. Feldman and Ernsting also earned all-state this season.
On Benet's second shift in overtime, Redwings left wing Michael Prasse picked up the puck at his own goal line, skated through three Loyola players and shot it off the post and in.
"It was in slow motion," Grzbek said of the decisive play. "I was looking for the referee to point (signifying a goal) and it took an extra second and he did - and the bench was already cleared and celebrating."
Naperville Central got its celebrating out of the way early Tuesday against Glenbrook North.
The Redhawks led 2-0 on goals by senior center Troy Nelson, another all-stater, and junior left wing Rick Hatton.
Glenbrook North followed with four straight goals. Naperville Central pulled within 4-3 with about 12 minutes left before the deluge hit.
"Glenbrook North went right down and scored to make it 5-3 and we just kind of folded our tents after that," said sixth-year Redhawks coach Jeff Nelson, Troy's father.
"That's the way it always boils down every year," Jeff Nelson said. "The last four years we've lost twice to New Trier Green and we've lost twice to Glenbrook North."
Naperville Central went 20-6 in the Illinois West Hockey League, which Neuqua Valley won at 25-1. Earning all-state nods for the Redhawks were senior defenseman Eric Flakus, senior forward Scott Dunsire and Troy Nelson, who in 26 league games scored 64 points, and 115 points overall.
Nelson joined Benet's Ernsting and Feldman on the 2015 Illinois Showcase Team, which also includes Glenbard North senior forward Nick Pietro and Neuqua goaltender Brad Neal, a senior who in 23 games recorded a 1.13 goals-against average. Like Nelson, Glenbard's Pietro scored 37 goals in league play, 10 of them on the power play.
Both Jeff Nelson and Grzbek are assistant coaches on this year's Showcase staff.
As far as Monday's Red Division semifinal, Grzbek is hoping to win the rubber match. Both Benet and New Trier Green have won games 5-2 in head-to-head meetings.
"It's about not making mistakes, for either team," Grzbek said. "If you make mistakes the puck ends up in the back of the net, either for us or against us. It's all about possession of the puck. If we have it they can't score. That's my philosophy."
Hoopla
Sometimes the timing just isn't right to note players selected as all-state. Here's a list of girls in Class 3A and Class 4A named to Associated Press and Illinois Basketball Coaches Association All-State teams.
The Associated Press Class 4A First Team featured Hinsdale Central senior guard Gabrielle Rush. Benet junior guard Kathleen Doyle was voted to the second team. Honorable mention selections, in order of points by AP voters, included Downers Grove North junior guard Jaida Green, Benet senior guard Emily Eshoo, Naperville North senior forward Kayla Sharples and Benet senior forward Emily Schramek.
In Class 3A Montini sophomore guard Kaylee Bambule was the top honorable mention selection, just off second team. Sydney Bauman, Glenbard South's senior center, joined her.
The IBCA's combined Class 3A and 4A All-State Teams are more expansive, including four teams plus a lengthy special mention group. Many of the names are the same.
Both Doyle and Rush made the IBCA First Team, Bambule and Sharples on second team. Eshoo, Schramek and Green were third-team selections with Bauman on the fourth team. Also on the fourth team were Naperville Central senior Emily Kraft and Neuqua Valley junior Kai Moon.
IBCA Special Mentions included seniors Emari Jones and Kelly Thornton (Wheaton North), Bryce Menendez (Neuqua Valley), Jessica Bianchi (York), Olivia Linebarger (Wheaton Warrenville South) and Peyton Winters (Downers North).
Also, juniors Jamie Netzley (Wheaton Academy), Lea Kerstein (Montini) and Myia Starks (Neuqua Valley).
Back to college?
Late Tuesday the news broke that Pete Froedden had resigned as Wheaton Academy's boys basketball coach and assistant athletic director.
After a 20-9 debut in the 2013-14 season the Warriors slipped to 5-22 this year. Froedden will remain in the athletic department until the end of the school year.
Froedden arrived at Wheaton Academy, along with his son Christian, a talented guard, after five years as an assistant men's coach at Division I Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee.
In a release issued Wednesday by Wheaton Academy, Froedden stated he was "follow(ing) up on some head coaching opportunities at the college level."
doberhelman@dailyherald.com
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