Benet, Glenbard headed to state
Two heads are better than one, they say. Four have proved to be better still for the Glenbard boys hockey team.
A cooperative of District 87 high schools East, West, North and South, Glenbard will take on Maine for the Illinois State Hockey Varsity Combined championship, 3 p.m. Sunday at the United Center in Chicago.
Benet, whose winning tale we told last week, plays Glenbrook North in the noon game at the United Center for the Red Varsity title. In the semifinals the Redwings dispatched sturdy New Trier 2-1. Benet's title game, featuring Redwings all-state selections Justin Davidson, Tom Feldman and Bobby Ernsting, will be broadcast on Comcast.
Glenbard (36-17-2) has its own all-stater, team captain and center Nick Pietro, a senior out of Glenbard North. He scored a hat trick in Glenbard's 5-2 semifinal win over Rockford on March 15 at The Edge in Bensenville. Maine eliminated defending Varsity Combined champion Waubonsie 4-2 last Sunday.
Joining Pietro among Glenbard scorers were junior forward Sam Weiss and senior forward John Wilt, both of Glenbard South. Glenbard East junior defenseman Connor Shin assisted twice and Glenbard West junior goaltender Jim Bertane stopped 34 of Rockford's 36 shots on goal.
Probably destined for DePaul's club hockey team, Pietro's 68 goals this season shattered the program record of 55 set by Nick Riscossa on Glenbard's 2012 Combined state champions. Riscossa's younger brother, Jake, is a center on this year's team, said 10-year coach Jason Hawkins, a Glenbard South graduate.
Pietro also has 48 assists for 116 points in 55 games.
"We always say, when you've got No. 11 on your team you've got a chance against anybody," Hawkins said.
"We tend to play a wide-open game," he said. "We have a lot of skilled players and we like to let them have the freedom to make plays.
"We have six very good defensemen and all our forwards know how to play in their own zone so they can lock it down in their own zone if we need to - which we did to Rockford. You've got to rely on your goaltender sometimes, and he came up big for us."
Bertane is enjoying a common playoff hockey phenomenon, the hot-goalie run. A first-year starter, he split time with senior Jacob Weisz, who actually has more wins and appearances - 23 and 30 - than the younger netminder. Weisz, out of Glenbard North, even started for Glenbard in the Illinois West league playoffs. (Neuqua Valley coach Dan Granato, whose Wildcats won the Illinois West and compete in the Red Varsity Division, is the 2015 Amateur Hockey Association Illinois coach of the year.)
Since Glenbard earned a bye into the final round of 16, Hawkins is 3-0 with Bertane in goal.
"When you get to the state playoffs you ride the hot goalie," the coach said. "It's nothing against Jacob at all."
The Glenbard co-op formed in the 2007-08 season, drawing each school from other DuPage partnerships. In an attempt to coagulate team colors from the initial trio of Glenbard South, North and West, the uniform scheme was red, white and black. Glenbard East's arrival fit perfectly because those are the Rams' actual colors.
The overall fit of the co-op also works.
"They get along like they all go to the same school," said Hawkins, who started playing hockey at 6 years old. "They've been playing with each other or against each other since they were young kids. There's no cliques."
Last season Waubonsie defeated Glenbard in the finals. From that team Glenbard lost 13 of 19 players to either graduation or travel hockey clubs, returning Pietro, Weiss, Shin, Bertane, junior defenseman Joey Marcuccilli of Glenbard South and senior defenseman Nick Drell of Glenbard West, who missed last year's title game with a broken collarbone.
"He's beyond thrilled this year," Hawkins said of Drell.
Making its third trip to the Combined finals in four seasons, Glenbard knocked out Maine 3-2 in the 2014 semifinals. This season Glenbard defeated Maine 5-4 in a Nov. 11 shootout, then lost 4-3 on Dec. 26.
"They were two very close games and it should make for a great matchup," Hawkins said.
A new personal best
A local treasure on a national scale, North Central College men's cross country coach Al Carius has enough hardware to open an Ace.
The 49-year coach's mantra, "Run for fun and personal bests," has yielded more than 500 All-America athletes and more than 60 national champions spanning cross country and track, for which Carius now holds the title of Cardinals associate head track coach for Frank Gramarosso.
A member of four halls of fame including the national coaches association for track and cross (along with York's Joe Newton), Carius is a nine-time Division III coach of the year and, in fact, was named "Coach of the Century."
With Carius at the top or as Gramarosso's right-hand man North Central has won 90 conference track and cross country titles - 15-0 in College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin indoor track, 41 straight in cross.
All this is prelude to a different honor for Carius. From 9-11 a.m. Saturday at chic Meson Sabika restaurant in Naperville the coach will be gifted the Abraham Lincoln Award at the One Nation Under God breakfast hosted by the Americanism Committee of the Exchange Club of Naperville.
To indicate how strongly this group feels about Carius' dedication and impact, last year's Lincoln winner was outgoing Mayor George Pradel, at least as beloved by Napervillians as the award's namesake. The breakfast and award presentation is open to the public.
Welcome to the club
The East Suburban Catholic Conference announced its 2015 Hall of Fame Class on March 12. Among the group of 13 are two former Benet athletes, baseball player Justin Pierro and football and basketball standout Phil Goforth, son of Redwings athletic director Gary Goforth.
The 10th ESCC Hall of Fame banquet will be held April 16 in McCook. Congrats to the Benet boys.
doberhelman@dailyherald.com
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