Fate frowns on Conant in unusual tourney tiebreaker

Rock, paper, scissors is a game kids use to settle who gets to pick first on the playground. Usually you don't hear of adults settling things this way, but that was the case for the Conant boys lacrosse team this weekend at the Deerfield tournament.

Conant ended up 2-1-1 in the tournament and finished in a tie with Deerfield who they had beaten earlier in the tournament 7-6. Unfortunately for the Cougars, the tiebreaker wasn't head-to-head record.

"They went by whoever had the least amount of goals scored against them," Conant coach Martin Kulak said.

The Cougars had 12 goals scored against them during the tournament, the same amount as Deerfield. So the next tiebreaker was a game of rock, paper, scissors to determine who would go to the championship game.

"My captain Austin Smith told me to throw three papers," Kulak said.

Kulak took the first throw, but lost the next two, sending the Cougars to the consolation game against Grayslake North.

"It was tough," Kulak said. "But we knew we still had a game to play."

With some late goals by junior mid-fielder Phil Murray and sophomore attacker Rico Prestia, Conant ties Grayslake North 4-4 take a share of third in the tournament.

"I thought we played really well in this tournament," Kulak said. "We had a lot of guys step up."

Conant collected wins from Champaign Centennial and Deerfield before losing to Mundelein to force the tie with Deerfield.

Fremd 9, Conant 4: After the tournament, Conant came back Tuesday looking to ride the momentum against Fremd. The Vikings' defense forced turnovers all night which hurt the Cougars as Fremd beat Conant 9-4.

Fremd was led by attackers senior Justin Hart (4 goals) and junior Sam Dillon (3 goals).

"We came out slow and it hurt us," Fremd coach John Cygnar said. "We had two sluggish days during the week, but fortunately we were able to pull this one out."

The Cougars' next test will be when they play the MSL leading St. Viator Lions at home Thursday at 7:30 p.m.

Fremd was scheduled to play Evanston on Thursday at home. The Vikings play Hoffman Estates tonight at Hoffman at 6 p.m.

Schaumburg 7, Conant 4: The cross-town rivalry exists, even in lacrosse. The Schaumburg-Conant rivalry is historic in all sports and it lived up to its name last Friday.

"It doesn't take much to get the team fired up for this game," Schaumburg coach Jon Novotny said. "Most of these guys have played together at one time or another, so they want to beat them."

Both teams came out fired up, buy Schaumburg built an early 5-1 first half lead thanks to their zone defense that had Conant guessing all night.

"We just didn't adapt well to the zone defense," Kulak said. "You have to work the ball around against that defense and we didn't do that."

In the second half the Saxons kept up the defense and held on to the lead for a much needed 7-4 win.

"We created a lot of turnovers which turned into goals," Novotny said. "Our defense played great all game."

The Saxons were led by two hat tricks, by senior mid-fielders Dan Knudson and Blaine Skinner, and some great goaltending by senior Mike Toren (8 saves).

The Cougars couldn't seem to find the goal all night, but junior midfielders Ryan Bauch and Nick Menella both found the back of the net in a disappointing loss.

St. Viator: The Lions are riding high after three wins against conference foes Barrington, Fremd, and Hoffman Estates.

"We're making more good decisions than bad ones right now," coach Bill Sanford said. "And when you do that, you'll win more games than you lose."

On April 17, St. Viator took on Barrington.

The Lions' defense stepped up and played well behind senior Pat Magee (4 points) and some lockdown defense by sophomore Nick Juris, as they defeated the Broncos 6-5.

"Our defense won us that game," Sanford said. "We had a 3 minute illegal stick penalty and our defense didn't allow them to score."

St. Viator 11, Fremd 4: St. Viator looked to keep rolling last Saturday, but came out flat against Fremd.

"We played sloppy for 3½ quarters of that game," Sanford said.

The Vikings hung with the Lions until midway through the fourth, when Fremd collapsed.

"We had no depth," Cygnar said. "We were missing three guys, and (St. Viator) is a good team. We just ran out of gas."

The Lions recovered, however, and beat the Vikings 11-4, scoring 7 goals in the last seven minutes of the game.

St. Viator went on to beat Hoffman Estates Monday 15-1.

St. Viator's next game will be Thursday at 7:30 p.m. when they travel to Conant.

Naperville Central 12, Schaumburg 7: The Saxons looked to take down the No. 9-ranked team in the state in Naperville Central, but to no avail. The Saxons were overmatched.

"We came out flat," Novotny said. "My coaches and I both saw that in warm-ups. It was the flattest I've ever seen these guys play."

The few bright spots for the Saxons was Skinner's second hat trick in a row and senior attacker Brendon Jaekel added 2 goals of his own.

The Saxons were scheduled to play at Palatine on Thursday.