St. Viator hopes big win sets the tone
It flew under the radar for many, but St. Viator beat seven-time defending IHSLA state champion New Trier 4-3 on March 20 in the season opener for both teams. Certainly, the teams will grow as the season progresses, but it was quite a start for St. Viator, which previously went 4-0-1 during a preseason tournament in Cincinnati, Ohio against four Ohio squads and another from Louisville, Kent.
“New Trier is synonymous with success, and not just lacrosse, and they’ve earned that,” St. Viator coach Bill Sanford said. “There’s not much luck in winning seven consecutive state titles.
“I think the guys looked at it as an opportunity. I think it does give them an idea of how good they can be, but clearly they have to continue to remember it’s a long season.”
The Lions have been busy despite the fact that the season has just entered the month of April. They took care of St. John Vianney (St. Louis, Mo.,) by a score of 13-4 before a pair of games in the Notre Dame Midwest Catholic Challenge against teams from Ohio and Indiana. Most recently, they had to figure out a zone defense, as Stevenson instituted one which they conquered in a 12-6 win.
“That was a good test because we hadn’t seen one and don’t practice against one,” Sanford said. “It took us a bit to figure out.”
The Lions also recently welcomed Eden Prairie, Minn., for a scrimmage.
Peter Trunk and Dan O’Malley have the paced the scoring attack thus far for the Lions.
“This team is a mixed bag from last year’s roster plus a big group of juniors and sophomores who hadn’t played before,” Sanford said. “I think we’ll struggle a bit against teams of varsity veterans. But, I like the kids, they’re really talented and they respond well to guidance. We just need to stay competitive to the ebb and flow of the schedule.”
A sport for everyone:
One of the knocks against lacrosse is the expense it takes to play the sport safely. There’s all the equipment each player needs, from pads, guards, gloves, sticks and helmets, as well as a place to play it, including balls and goals.
Naperville North is collaborating this spring with OWLS, which is an organization designed to created sustainable lacrosse programs for underserved schools and communities in the inner-city. For more info on OWLS, visit www.owlslacrosse.org.
The Huskies are donating approximately $5,000 in equipment to St. Malachy and Brown Elementary Schools, both on Chicago’s west side. In a couple of weeks, the entire Huskies squad will make a bus trip to deliver the equipment and put on a clinic for the young boys. Later this season, the hope is for the two city teams to scrimmage under the lights before a Naperville North home game.
Visiting Ron Burgundy:
After unseasonably warm weather in mid-March teased most high school sports teams, they were taking the field last week in 40- and 50-degree weather. The Grayslake North boys lacrosse team wasn’t one of those teams.
During the same time that Will Ferrell announced a sequel to Anchorman, The Knights were in San Diego for a three-game stint against notable opponents. The Knights went 2-1 on the trip, ending it with a 10-1 loss to Rancho Bernardo.
The trip got off to a great start behind the defense of Josh Kortenkamp, Shane Pech, Ben Smith, as well as senior Bryce Hermsen, whose task was to defend La Jolla’s top player. Making just his second varsity start in goal, Eric York also shined. The Knights made things difficult all night for La Jolla and prevailed 11-3. Virginia recruit AJ Fish and Matt Schlagetter each had 3 goals and 3 assists. Midfielders Brendan Walker and Dave Collins also scored and were integral to the possession game while Joey Amsler and Jack Mattea also scored.
Grannite Hill was undefeated before it played Graylake North. It isn’t any longer as the Graylake North defense was greedy once again in a 10-6 victory. The midfield once again came up big with Josh Cokefair, Farhan Khan, Nick Stanfel and sophomore Freddie Williams also playing valuable minutes and make big plays. Fish led the way with 5 goals, Schlagetter had 3 assists and Walker added 2 assists.
The Knights finally met their match against Rancho Bernardo. Fish scored early and the teams were knotted at 1-all after one quarter, but the Knights couldn’t do anything else against a stingy Rancho Bernardo defense.
Kortenkamp and Amsler blogged their experiences during the trip. In addition to their success on the field, the Knights enjoyed plenty of team-building exercises. Furthermore, the team reached a consensus that Hermsen is most likely to become the Bachelor and that goalie York, after hammering down seven-and-a-half waffles for breakfast one morning, might be ready to challenge Takeru Kobayshi. The team also enjoyed long runs on the beach, kayaking, sunbathing, surfing and plenty more.
“It was fantastic,” Brad Fish said. “We got to to go to the ocean, had a family host us for dinner and the lacrosse was great. The first two teams we played were very good and the last team we played was a top five team in the state. Just a great trip.”
Without Perry Farrell:
Naperville North hosted its inaugural Huskies Lax-A-Palooza on March 24. Neighboring Neuqua Valley was on hand, as were a pair of schools from Wisconsin, Arrowhead and Marquette University High School.
“It was a round robin that gave a lot of kids a chance to play,” Huskies coach Kevin Benages said. “It went smoothly. We got a bunch of donations from Costco and Sam’s Club and fed all the kids with a nice big barbecue at the end.”
Next year, Benages is considering hosting a larger two-day tournament and inviting teams from a handful of Midwest states.
As for the Huskies on the field, the team is a senior-heavy group with 23 of the 35 roster spots taken by the elder clansmen. “It’s been a pretty cool atmosphere so far,” Benages said. “Like last year we’re going to start slow and begin playing our best lacrosse toward the end of the season.”
Warm-up for peak efficiency:
Shutouts are common in soccer, but in lacrosse? No way. Don’t tell that to Lake Zurich though which posted a pair of shutouts last weekend en route to winning the 5th Annual Hoffman Estates Tuneup Tournament.
“The main story of our weekend was giving up three goals in four games,” Lake Zurich coach Kyle Dresser said. “We had good ball movement on offense as most of our goals were assisted.”
The Bears took care of West Chicago 9-1, shut out Warren 7-0 and Taft 12-0 before handling Vernon Hills 7-2 in the championship game.
Ross Williams and Justin Dweil led the way on offense for the Bears with Williams doing most of the scoring and Dweil assisting in the effort. In addition, Danny Bundra was also a dominant presence, winning more than 70 percent of his draws.
The tournament was a wonderful final tuneup before the busy conference schedule begins. Now in its fifth year, the tournament has blossomed into an eight-team, four-game guaranteed format over three days. Other participants of note included West Chicago, Bartlett, Warren, Vernon Hills, Mundelein and of course, host Hoffman Estates.
“It’s was really competitive and most of the games were pretty close,” Hoffman Estates coach Joe Garofalo said. “When we first started we only had two teams and now we’re up to eight teams so we’ve grown every year. More teams are asking to get in, but this is about the max we can do when using only one field.”
The host Hawks had mixed results over the weekend, recording victories against Bartlett and Mundelein, but also dropping their contests against Warren and Vernon Hills.”
“We don’t have a lot of experience coming back, and on offense the only guy coming back that played significantly was a freshman last year,” Garofalo said. “Our sticks aren’t quite where they need to be yet, but once we figure out how to throw and catch we’re going to be pretty darn good.”
The Hawks do have some experience on defense so that should help ease the transition on offense. The foundation back there includes goalkeeper Doug Johnson (Mount Union) who had a strong weekend of play in the Tuneup. “He really had a lot of key saves and kept us in some close games,” Garofalo said. “We’re going to be leaning heavily on the defense and especially Doug this season.”
LAX great coming to Naperville:
One of the all-time lacrosse greats will be at Naperville North on Friday. Coach Richie Meade, who led the Naval Academy to seven NCAA tournament appearances, including the 2004 season when the Midshipmen came up a goal short against Syracuse in its quest to win the program’s first NCAA championship, is offering a free coach’s clinic on leadership and ethics from 2 to 5 p.m. Meade is also hosting a youth lacrosse clinic on Saturday. For more information on the youth clinic, call (312) 953-0598.