Palatine enjoys intriguing matchups ... and 3 victories
Palatine enjoyed a highly successful and intriguing week.
The Pirates finished 3-0 — but what made their week especially interesting were the relationships involved in the matchups.
Palatine held off Fenwick 10-6 on Monday night as junior midfielder Joe DeSario scored 3 goals. The Pirates led 6-2 at halftime and held off a late Fenwick rally.
Wednesday produced a big cross-town rivalry game against Fremd, whose assistant coach Mike Sutton played for Palatine coach Heath McFaul. In addition, former Fremd coach John Cygnar is now an assistant at Palatine.
“There’s always a lot of energy and emotion when we play Fremd,” McFaul said. “Mike also teaches at Palatine so we see each other during the week and there’s always a lot of friendly banter. It’s nice to see a kid I coached who still loves the sport enough to be back coaching, and it’s even more fun to beat them.”
Palatine has dominated the rivalry in recent years, compiling a 10-3 record against the Vikings since 2005.
The Pirates concluded their perfect week with a 14-5 win over Hoffman Estates and coach Joe Garofalo. Prior to taking the head coaching job at Hoffman Estates, Garofalo served as an assistant for McFaul at Palatine.
“I have a lot of respect for him and his team,” McFaul said. “It made Friday more enjoyable but also more nerve-wracking. Last year they shut us out at their house and I never let our kids forget about it so we kind of circled it on the schedule.”
Defense keyed the Pirates’ victory.
“They had 39 clearing out opportunities and failed on 27,” McFaul said. “We really dominated the game from start to finish. It really was our defense that took them out of their game.”
The Pirates have not surrendered a goal in the first quarter and have given up only 3 goals in the first half this season.
“Ryan Sullivan is our lead defenseman and he’s probably one of the more premier ones in the state. He’s just been phenomenal,” McFaul said. “And our goalie, Mike Pfeifer, has been tremendous with a high success rate and in getting the transition game going.”
The Pirates have a tough matchup against Lyons Township on Tuesday.
No sign of Elvis:
Wheaton Warrenville South and Naperville North were both in Memphis, Tenn., last weekend on spring-break trips.
The Tigers finished 2-1 with a 19-8 victory over Houston and a 12-2 decision over Christian Brothers before falling 9-8 in overtime to Memphis University School. Longstick midfielder Sam Prete and midfielders Tyler Cook and Seth Fuller had strong performances, according to Tigers coach Mike Blouin.
“With three solid games the team is starting to jell and is ready to go,” said Blouin, whose Tigers kick off the conference season Tuesday at home against Neuqua Valley.
The Huskies finished 0-2, losing 8-3 to Christian Brothers and 15-6 to Memphis University School. They host Glenbard West on Thursday.
How do you say Louisville?
Regardless of whether or not St. Charles and Libertyville players and coaches pronounce the city in Kentucky correctly, both teams had successful trips.
Libertyville finished 2-1 in Kentucky. The Wildcats opened by edging Kentucky Country Day 8-7 and Division 2 state champion Christian Academy 5-4.
They came up short against St. Xavier, last year’s Division 1 state champion, dropping a 13-12 decision as all three of the Wildcats’ contests were 1-goal decisions.
During the three-game span, Junior Zach Friedman had 7 goals and 2 assists, senior John Luehrsen had 5 goals and 3 assists, senior Bill Stock finished with 3 goals and 3 assists and sophomore A.J. Schmidt had 2 goals and 6 assists.
“Our defense played very well, led by seniors Matthew Molitor and goalie Griffin Adams,” Libertyville coach Brady Sullivan said.
A big matchup against Lake Forest awaits the Wildcats on Tuesday.
St. Xavier Louisville and Louisville Collegiate had been undefeated until St. Charles came to town. St. Charles beat St. Xavier Louisville 13-12 in overtime March 26 and concluded its three-game trip with a come-from-behind 7-6 win over Louisville Collegiate on Tuesday. St. Charles lost 10-4 to Trinity Louisville last Monday.
“I was really happy with how things went,” said St. Charles coach Andy Thompson. “The competition was a perfect level for what we were looking for early in the season and I think it prepared us very well for the regular season.”
Thompson estimated that eight or nine different St. Charles players scored at least 1 goal and five or six players had multiple goals.
“It was very spread out with different spots attacking,” Thompson said. “It was good to see a lot of playmakers.”
Another positive was how St. Charles bounced back from deficits as it trailed in all three games.
“I tell our guys every year that you’re going to be down in games, but are you going to lay down or step up to the challenge and battle back,” Thompson said. “In two out of our three games we battled back.”
Penalties made it difficult for St. Charles to overcome Trinity Louisville.
“We’ve got to learn more about each other not only on the field, but on the time away from it,” Thompson said. “That’s one of the big reasons we do the spring break trips like we do.”
St. Charles received some good news about senior Cooper Jones, who was injured in the March 20 preseason North/South shootout. Jones, who is recovering from an ACL injury in one knee, sustained a PCL injury in his other knee but is expected to return to the lineup within a week or two.
The Sunshine State:
St. Viator spent six days in St. Pete Beach in late March competing against a smorgasbord of teams from around the country. The Lions beat Boulder (Colorado) and St. Luke (Connecticut), tied Holderness (New Hampshire) and lost by 3 to Millbrook (New York).
“Nearly 20 schools from all over the country, mostly New England prep schools, were there and our team was able to see skill level and athleticism that we will likely see in the early part of our schedule with Lyons Township, Stevenson and Loyola Academy,” said St. Viator coach Bill Sanford. “The experience was valuable and the coaching staff was encouraged by the performance of the team.”
St. Viator lost 9-1 to Lyons Township on Tuesday, as Brian Goss scored the team’s only goal.
“They were the physical, smart team that we expected,” Sanford said. “We learned a lot of that game and hopefully it was a lesson to our guys.”
The Lions rebounded Thursday to defeat Stevenson 13-5. Goss and Danny O’Malley had 4 goals apiece and Goss added 2 assists. Sanford praised the play of Chad Holsworth, Conney Murphy and Michael Krzoska. Each had five groundballs.
“Our defense is pretty stingy and when we got out early, our offense picked up a lot of confidence,” Sanford said.
Grayslake North visited Florida last week, beating North Broward Prep 17-5 on Tuesday, clobbering American Heritage Del Rey 14-2 on Wednesday and closing the trip with a 20-4 loss to Pine Crest — a team coached by Doug Shanahan. The name made sound familiar to lacrosse fans because Shanahan played professionally for the Chicago Machine and was a coach at Glenbrook South and the University of Illinois.
Colid Chatten led the Knights with 7 goals in the win over North Broward Prep. A.J. Fish contributed 7 assists and 4 goals and Matt Schlagetter chipped in with 3 goals and 3 assists. In the victory over American Heritage Del Rey, the Knights received 2 goals apiece from Fish, Patrick Walker, Brandon Bong and Jack Mattea. Chatten led the team with 3 goals and Schlagetter paced the Knights with 3 assists.
No place like home:
Teams didn’t have to travel out of state for exciting lacrosse action. Lake Zurich and Conant squared off in a classic on April Fool’s Day — with the Bears prevailing 11-10. Thomas Logan scored 4 goals and Tyler Cohn had 3 goals, and Markus Hofer made 6 saves to lead the Bears.
A fine debut:
St. Francis played its first two games in program history Saturday. The freshman/sophomore team beat Grayslake Central 7-1, and the JV team rallied from a 4-1 deficit in the fourth quarter to earn a 4-4 draw.
“I couldn’t be more pleased with the team’s play in our inaugural lacrosse games,” said St. Francis coach Dan Tuskey.
Midfielder Danny Donati, defenders Jack Webb and George Turner and goalie Jack Los led the way for the freshman/sophomores. Max Porter scored all 7 goals.
For the JV team, Ryan Kaltenmark ignited the rally, winning three straight faceoffs that led to three breakaway odd-man runs and scores. Evan Los scored twice.