Big night for Vikes, Bulldogs
An exciting night of basketball is in store at both Batavia and Geneva on Friday night.
At Batavia, the Bulldogs girls team will host Geneva. Both teams are unbeaten with Batavia playing Sycamore tonight.
At Geneva, Batavia's boys teams takes its 7-0 record into a matchup with 6-2 Geneva.
The Bulldogs haven't been challenged in any of their seven wins. Their bench has had a chance to play extended minutes, giving players like Stewart Charles, Ben Potter, Jordan Coffey and several others a chance to show their talents.
The Batavia bench has helped make its starters better by pushing them in practice. And the starters have responded by blowing out all of their opponents, giving the bench plenty of playing time.
"We've got some guys working to get better like anyone else and hopefully that will continue," Batavia coach Jim Roberts said. "We've had some pretty competitive practices."
Senior forward Jordan Smith is playing well in his return from a season-ending injury last year. He tied David Bryant with a team-high 16 points last week against DeKalb.
"He's worked hard to get back into the swing of things," Roberts said.
The one newcomer to the starting lineup is sophomore Ricky Clopton. He's fitting in well with a group of unselfish teammates like Bryant, Nick Fruendt and Phil Albrecht.
"It's so awesome," Clopton said. "They are all great guys, they dish the ball. It's a lot of fun.
"A little (nerves), I'm not going to lie," Clopton added about starting with the four returnees. "They help me through it a lot. They are all there for me."
While Clopton is the new guy in Batavia's lineup, the Northwestern-bound Fruendt is the veteran, now in his fourth year starting.
"Time flies by when you are having fun," Fruendt said of how fast his four years at Batavia have gone.
Wide open in the SCC: Aurora Central is 2-0 in the Suburban Catholic Conference, a race that Driscoll coach Nick Latorre predicts will be up for grabs.
"I think it's wide open," Latorre said. "I think it's a very balanced league. Anybody can beat anybody on a given night. Everybody is pretty good and can sneak up and bite anyone on any given night."
The Chargers have a key early season test Friday night at St. Francis.
Cadets keep the faith: Driscoll got off to a good start in its SCC opener against Marmion last Friday.
The Cadets were 4-0 entering that game but lost by 21 points. They will try to rebound this weekend against Montini and St. Francis.
The Cadets are playing more consistently, first-year coach Rashon Burno said.
"Having so many days off between games, and anything involving team sports is a rhythm, and we're out of rhythm," Burno said. "In the big scheme of things we'll be fine."
Burno, a former guard at DePaul, has nothing but good things to say about his new job.
"I'm enjoying it a lot," Burno said. "Any time you can reach young men at this age is a blessing. I'm very lucky to inherit a real good bunch of kids and work at a fine institution. The future is very bright. The kids are starting to understand what it takes to be a successful program."
Time to retool: St. Charles East and St. Charles North both play nonconference games tonight.
While the North Stars travel to Wheeling, the Saints host Libertyville. Both teams will try to shake off lopsided Upstate Eight losses last week to Neuqua Valley and East Aurora, respectively.
Saints coach Brian Clodi isn't pushing any panic buttons after his team's 2-5 start.
"It's early, we're not going to say it's eight steps back, but the guys have to know players make plays and we've got to be disciplined on offense," Clodi said.
"These guys believe in what we are doing. It comes down to execution. We know we have to get tougher. It's (the East Aurora game) going to be an eye-opener on film. But the good thing is everything is fixable."