Fanthorpe, Wenger lead North Central football team
North Central quarterback Aaron Fanthorpe (Naperville North) and linebacker Matt Wenger were honored as College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin players of the week for their roles in last Saturday's 41-24 victory over Elmhurst.
Fanthorpe, the Offensive Player of the Week, completed 18 passes for 169 yards and 2 touchdowns and carried the ball 19 times for 98 yards and another 2 touchdowns.
"Aaron's just a tough kid," said North central coach John Thorne. "He took a lot of hard hits, but go up after every one of them and just smiled.'
On the other side of the ball, Wenger, the Defensive player of the week, set a career best for tackles with 17, including 2.5 tackles-for-loss. He helped the Cardinals defense hold the Bluejays to only 31 yards rushing, while gaining 5 turnovers.
"He's a beast," said defensive coordinator Tim Lester. "He was getting double-teamed but he was still all over the field making plays. Other teams have to game-plan for him."
Women's golf: North Central's Tye Thompson was honored as the CCIW Women's golf coach of the year in a vote by his fellow CCIW coaches.
Thompson, in his fourth season, led the Cardinals to the highest finish in school history at the CCIW championships last weekend.
The Cardinals placed fifth, tying their previous high, and freshman Alyssa Gaudio took home North Central's first-ever individual title with a score of 153.
Wheaton: The men's soccer team, whose record stands at 9-2-1 under first-year coach Mike Giuliano, is in the midst of a six-match winning streak. The streak was extended last Saturday with a 4-1 win at Wisconsin-Oshkosh.
Senior Strider Elass (Wheaton Warrenville South) leads the team with 8 goals and 7 assists. Matt Swartz, a transfer from Creighton, has added 4 goals and 6 assists and sophomore Jason VanderVeen (Wheaton Academy) and senior Steven Poppe (Wheaton Academy), have each contributed 2 goals and 2 assists.
"There is always a learning curve with a new coach," said Giuliano. "I think the team is understanding our system right now and I'm hopeful that we can keep this going."
Women's soccer: The top-ranked Wheaton women's soccer team (16-0-0) rang up its 34th consecutive victory last Saturday, a 2-0 win over College of St. Benedict.
The win ties Wheaton for the second longest wining streak in Division III women's soccer history with The College of New Jersey (2000, 2001). Ohio Wesleyan, with 60 straight wins from September of 2001 to October of 2003, holds the consecutive victory record.
Sophomore Taryne Lee (Wheaton Academy) leads the Thunder with 17 goals and 7 assists and senior Sarah Richardson has put in 14 goals and added 12 assists.
DuPage: Battling a rash of injuries and sporting a 9-7-4 record, the College of DuPage men's soccer team will begin Region IV playoff action against Kishwaukee Community College in Malta this Saturday.
"We're pretty depleted with injuries right now, but we're in the process of improving and hopefully we'll be healthy for region competition," said Chaparral coach Willie Fajkus.
DuPage goes into Saturday's game after playing a pair of double-overtime games last weekend. The Chaps tied South Suburban 2-2 last Saturday with Paul Fafendyk and Michael Filipiak scoring the goals, and then they lost to Jefferson College (Mo.) 2-1 at Lincoln College on Sunday, with Mauricio Ramirez netting the loan DuPage score.
Benedictine: With Saturday's 20-17 double-overtime victory, the Benedictine football team defeated Aurora University for the first time since 1993.
The win was especially sweet for Eagles coach Jon Cooper, who was a member of the Aurora coaching staff for 19 seasons prior to taking the reins at Benedictine.
Tailback Ryan Schwartz ran for 136 yards on 32 carries including a 30-yard touchdown run in the third quarter. Linebacker Devin Montgomery led all tacklers with 14 stops and Anthony Borsellino (Montini) recorded 9 tackles. For the second week in a row defensive back Pat Daniels, last week's Illini-Badger Football Conference defensive player of the week, grabbed 2 interceptions.
Women's soccer: Benedictine (6-4-1) extended its current unbeaten streak to six matches last Saturday as Laura Omsberg (Glenbard East) scored 2 of her team's 3 goals in a 3-0 shutout over Maranatha Baptist. Omsberg's goals tied her with teammate Kimyenna Abron for the team lead with 7.
Volleyball: The Eagles improved to 21-3 overall last Wednesday with a sweep over rival Aurora University. Freshman Kayla Leyden led the Eagles with 14 kills, 4 blocks and 16 digs.