St. Charles learns from getting Culver-ized
St. Charles knew Culver Academy (Ind.) was very good. It didn’t know the Eagles were this good, though.
With Walter O’Malley (’22) and George Steinbrenner (’48) as noted alumni, perhaps St. Charles was thinking of Culver as more of a baseball school.
In a game that was played during a steady rain, featured more than a 30-minute lightning delay, saw a broken crosse go flying over a goal and a goalkeeper’s mouthguard disappear into a puddle of mud, the hosts could not solve Culver’s offensive firepower, losing 16-4 on Friday night at the East Side Sports Complex in St. Charles.
“This is the best team we’re going to see all year, but you obviously have higher expectations than playing them 16-4,” St. Charles coach Andy Thompson said. “They were more athletic than we thought and they did just what we thought on offense. They had shooters though. They had guys that could really shoot.”
Culver (11-2) has won the state title in Indiana the last four years and is ranked No. 1 in the Midwest by Inside Lacrosse. The Eagles will travel to Maryland, Michigan and Ohio, as well as host a Midwest prep tournament this year. They were also upended 10-6 by Lyons Township on Saturday.
A combination of athleticism, speed, vision and patience made Culver seemingly impossible to defend.
“I didn’t realize how good their offense was going to be until we started playing,” St. Charles’ Trace Evans said. “Our goalie Pat McGushin is one of the best in nation and going to Stony Brook, and they put it wherever they wanted to on him. That’s how good their shooters were and how disciplined they were.”
St. Charles tried to slow Culver with a zone defense, but that did little to negate their scoring attack.
“I think we have some really talented offensive players and they ran a zone on us,” Culver coach Jon Posner said. “When you have good sticks and good athletes it just allows you to have some success and we worked the zone for good shots.”
Unaccustomed to losing, and especially to getting beaten handily, St. Charles will relish the opportunity it had to play a national power and continue pursuing its own goal of a state championship.
“I told the guys it’s a blessing in disguise because they’re not in our state and we don’t have to beat them to win a state championship,” Thompson said.
“Hopefully we can bounce back from this and use it as a good learning experience,” Evans said. “It was a bit of an eye-opener and we’ll have to become more disciplined in practices and film sessions and get on each other to make sure everyone is in it for the ride.”
Rematch with momentum: Hinsdale Central went nine days without a game before beating Hoffman Estates, 11-3, on Saturday. It was the fourth straight win for the Red Devils.
“We’ve kind of found ourselves on offense after a slow start,” Hinsdale Central coach Vic Pasqualicchio said. “This has been a very good stretch for us.”
The Red Devils’ last loss came on April 7 against Lyons Township as the Lions cruised to a 15-3 victory. The teams will rematch on Thursday and the Lions are coming off a huge 10-6 win on Saturday over Culver Academy (Ind.), which has won state titles in eight of the past 12 years. The Lions have lost three games this season but they’ve come to perennial powers, Lake Forest, Loyola Academy and New Trier.
Brendan Flaherty and Sean Embree both scored 3 goals and Jack Kelly had 2 goals and 5 groundballs in the win over Hoffman Estates. Mike Baker added five groundballs and along with Teddy Parsons and Zach Kerrigan won 13 faceoffs. On the defensive side, Matt Stefani and Mike Kaesler each had four groundballs.
Coming into their own: The Aurora Christian/Batavia Eagles lacrosse program is only in its fourth year but after finishing 12-4 last year and winning convincingly in their first two games this season, the team hopes to contend for a title in the NILAX league.
The Eagles have been victims of the lousy weather this spring so they’ve had their share of postponements. When they’ve had a chance to take the field so far, they’ve beaten Arlington 18-11 and Glenbard 18-3.
“We’re led by our four captains,” Eagles coach Scott Salvati said. “We anticipate we’ll be in the hunt for the whole thing.”
The team captains include midfielders Justin Siensick and Jake Ettelbrick, both who have committed to Judson University, along with defender Patrick Marvin and junior attackman Connon Eberhardt, who is the only one of the four that attends Batavia High School.
The Eagles play their home games at Rotolo Middle School in Batavia, but will travel to Illinois Benedictine on Wednesday for a rematch against Glenbard, a team featuring players from Glenbard South, Glenbard East, Glenbard North and Immaculate Conception.
Attackmen stepping up: Wheaton Warrenville South won its fourth straight with an 11-6 win against Evanston on Saturday. The 5-goal difference was a nice change of pace for the Tigers, as their last 3 wins have been decided by 3 goals or less.
“Right now we’re playing really well and the guy we expected to play well have been coming out strong each day,” senior midfielder Tyler Cook said. “Coming into the season with only one attackman back we felt some extra weight on our shoulders in the midfield, but attackmen like Ryan McNeill have been coming up huge.”
The Tigers will look to get some revenge on St. Charles this Saturday. The Tigers lost 5-3 to St. Charles in the championship of the preseason North/South shootout.