Thursday night (3/9/06)

5:23am
And yes I realize it's Friday by now but seriously, here is the Sun-Times Top 5 teams...

BOYS
1. Fenwick: Lost a few seniors but have solid power
2. St. Patrick: Return four of seven hard workers
3. Mundelein: Everyone on varsity is back, expecting greatness
4. Naperville Central: Lost four big bodies but gave Fenwick a scare in 2005
5. Brother Rice: Offense will change with younger team, return three starters

Uhh...where is Latin in there? They finished in 3rd place two years ago, lost to runner-up Naperville Central in the quarterfinals last year, and return basically EVERYONE to their team but one starter, yet they couldn't crack the Top 5??? Otherwise it's a pretty basic preview and listing of top players at http://www.chicagosuntimes.com/output/prep/cst-spt-polo10.html.

4:01am
Woah...I just saw some of the Daily Herald's preseason previews and they actually printed this type of thing for each team (instead of me using area papers as a source, they are using Illpolo...wild):

Hinsdale Central

Coach: Dan Otahal (fourth year, 13-41).

Last year: 8-17, lost to Naperville North in first round of 2005 sectionals.

Illpolo.com 2006 preseason rank: 34.

3:56am
Stevenson's girls improving to 2-0 with an 18-7 win over rival Mundelein. The Patriots had their early lead cut to 8-5 at halftime, but they pulled away early in the second half as Terri Bukofzer scored 11 goals.

9:20pm
Ava!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ava Caffarini of Lincoln-Way Central scored 7 tonight and 6 goals in the last game which means that she has scored 13 goals this year in two games and I am good at Math. And she is good at water polo.

9:09pm
LATIN!!! #2 in my preseason poll and for good reason...the Romans beat New Trier 12-5 with Jordan Himmel scoring a whopping 10 goals in the win and yes I said WHOPPING. Close game early, with the score tied at 2-2 after the first quarter, but Himmel came to life and Latin jumped to a 7-2 lead en route to a 12-5 win. Charlie Gentles scored twice for the Trevians while Rick Farmer added three goals in the loss.

8:44pm
Mundelein beat Stevenson 11-7 tonight...the Mustangs led 9-1 at halftime before the bench came in; a few players missing for each team but the early indications are that Mundelein is GOOD.


7:41pm
I'm writing whatever in this blog tonight so if you have scores, comments, or whatever send them along to illpolo@yahoo.com and they will be of great use...if you don't see your team's score on the site and the game actually happened send it along; it's much easier for me than looking at the Daily Announcements on the Riverside-Brookfield and Highland Park school web sites hoping they posted the score there; I run the announcements at my school and I would definitely post the scores somewhere so the website guy could find them; my motto should be, if you don't see it, I don't know it...I'll be back, I need to order a pizza.

7:25pm
More from the HF-Rita game...Rita led 2-0 early but HF cut the lead to 3-2 and then took a 5-3 at halftime. Rita tied the score at 6-6 as Bob Conrath scored from set with 1:02 left at the end of the third quarter. Finally, with the score tied at 9-9, HF's Jack Oliver scored his second goal of the period with 0:34 seconds left and did not allow a shot in the final moments to win 10-9. Mike Disabato led the Vikings with 5 goals while Oliver (2 goals) scored the game-winner. Conrath led St Rita with 5 goals.

7:10pm
Hoffman Estates head coach Chris Fetterman won the first game of his career tonight over Rolling Meadows 8-4, then proceeded to celebrate by cancelling practice for his team the next night because they had a lackluster effort and a poor attitude after the game. Teach 'em a lesson, that's what I like to hear! (By the way, Chris also released his first rap album last summer as Dr. Detroit under my record label and also plays either bass or drums in the local rock band Temporary Solution...as if you wanted to know).

6:20pm
So far on Thursday night, Conant had no problem with Hersey 18-8 in a matchup between Conant senior Brett Krahn and Hersey's Chris Boudart.

Also, Homewood-Flossmoor had an impressive win over St Rita 10-9, as a young Vikings team has been impressive early on this season. More updates as we get scores from games between Mundelein-Stevenson, Latin-New Trier, and many others as the night goes on.