Regular Season Comes To A Close

Here is a quick recap of the final day of the regular season:

BOYS
Fenwick won the MCAC Championship, holding off St Patrick 15-8 behind 4 goals from Tom Parolin. The Shamrocks got to within one goal in the third period, but the Friars responded with goals by John Barrett, Chris Wendt, and Luke Baldwin. Earlier, the Friars advanced with a 13-4 win over Brother Rice, while St Patrick knocked off St Ignatius 13-5 in the other semifinal. Sean Coghlan scored 8 goals to lead the Crusaders to third place, as they defeated St Ignatius 15-9.

Elsewhere, Lyons wrapped up the WSC Championship with a 19-8 win over Oak Park. Von Steuben, led by another strong performance from Adnan Ovcina, cruised to the CPL title, and Homewood-Flossmoor upset Naperville North 6-5 at the Stevenson Tournament.

Awaiting scores from the CSL Championships and the rest of the Stevenson Tournament and the CPL Championships.

GIRLS
Fenwick held off Mother McAuley 16-12 to claim the MCAC Championship on Saturday afternoon. The Mighty Macs tied the game late in the third quarter and were always close until the end, but Fenwick's Morgan Bonk and Farren Rixter each scored 4 goals in the win, while Maggie Wood led McAuley with 8 scores. To advance, Fenwick beat St Ignatius 21-10 while McAuley defeated Loyola 13-8. In the third place game, Kathleen Maloney scored two straight goals in the second overtime period as St Ignatius came from behind to stun Loyola 12-11.

In other action, Oak Park emerged victorious from the WSC Tournament, as they beat Hinsdale Central and Lyons to wrap up the title. Earlier, Lyons upset York 10-9 to advance to the final game.

Mundelein won their tournament, beating Latin 10-3 and earning wins over Palatine and Buffalo Grove as well. Latin finished second after beating both the Pirates and the Bison, and Palatine took third after upsetting Buffalo Grove 6-5.

New Trier and Evanston advanced to the title game of the CSL Championships..awaiting a score on this game; also, Glenbrook South beat Glenbrook North for 3rd place and Highland Park beat Deerfield for 5th.

Awaiting scores from the Stevenson Tournament and the CPL Championships.

Girls Conferences/Tournaments

CSL-New Trier earned the #1 seed after knocking off Evanston and going undefeated in the CSL; the teams appear headed for a Saturday showdown for the conference tournament championship if they can avoid upsets against teams like Glenbrook South and Highland and Park.

CPL-The Public League is up for grabs, as Young appears to be the favorite but must deal with Curie tonight and either Lane or Northside on Saturday at UIC.

MSL-Prospect/Wheeling went undefeated in the MSL and won the conference championship game over Barrington 4-3 on Thursday night.

MCAC-McAuley earned the #1 seed with a win over Fenwick earlier this year, and both teams earned a first round bye in the MCAC playoffs. McAuley plays the Loyola/Viator winner and Fenwick gets either Ignatius or Marian.

NSC-Stevenson went undefeated in the conference, beating Stevenson in the regular season and in the Lake County Tournament midway through the season.

SWSC-With no conference tournament, Sandburg wins the overall crown after posting a 14-0 conference record. Lincoln-Way Central, Andrew, and Lincoln-Way East tied for the second position.

WSC-York went 5-0 in the conference and heads to Lyons for the WSC's postseason tournament on Saturday.

Boys Conference Results/Tournaments

CSL-New Trier beat Evanston to go undefeated in the CSL in 2006; the teams appear headed for a Saturday showdown for the conference tournament championship if they can avoid upsets against teams like Glenbrook South and Glenbrook North.

CPL-Mather is the #1 seed while Von Steuben has played a tough nonconference schedule, and the two could meet for the Public League final on Saturday at UIC.

MSL-Palatine ran the table in the conference, going 10-0 in the regular season and beating Prospect/Wheeling in the East-West championship game.

MCAC-Fenwick went undefeated in the regular season, and the final four is set...with the Friars, St Pats, St Ignatius, and Brother Rice advancing to Saturday's semifinal games.

NSC-Mundelein went undefeated in the conference, beating Stevenson in the regular season and in the Lake County Tournament midway through the season.

SWSC-With no conference tournament, Lincoln-Way East wins the overall crown after posting a 14-0 conference record, holding off 12-2 Sandburg.

WSC-Lyons and Hinsdale South earned first round byes in the tournament, and York and Oak Park advanced to tonight's semifinal games with first round wins on Thursday night. Lyons is the #1 seed after going undefeated in the conference.

Palatine Wins MSL Championship

Earlier tonight, Palatine wrapped up a perfect season in the Mid-Suburban League with an 11-5 championship game win over Prospect/Wheeling. Led on offense by Skylar Davis, Kevin Wood, Mitch Tucker, Chris Wolocha, and Mike Nocella and on the defensive end with Steve Gryzbek and goalie Spencer Blackham, the Pirates now gear up to host their own sectional as the #1 seed after their impressive weekend showing at the Stevenson Tournament and a successful defense of the MSL crown in 2006. Video of the game coming once I pick a song.

Video from the Sandburg vs Ignatius game from Tuesday night also coming soon, once I edit the 34 minutes of footage.

Sorry about the lack of posts by the way...going back to work has been rough; I'm very thankful to the makers of Red Bull, Amp, and all other associated drinks.

Naperville Central 11 Mother McAuley 10 (2 OT)

Nikki Nelson scored with 0:17 seconds left in the first overtime to tie the game at 10-10, then scored the game winner in the second overtime with just 0:16 seconds left as #5 Naperville Central stunned #3 Mother McAuley last night in Naperville.

The Redhawks were forced to come from behind, as the Mighty Macs' Laura Perez started the game off with three straight goals, and Maggie Wood added another score midway through the first period as McAuley jumped out to a 4-0 advantage. Central's Sarah Pucci finally got the Redhawks on the board with a late goal in the first period to make the score 4-1 after one quarter of play.

Perez and Wood would both score in the second period, giving McAuley a 6-2 lead at one point late in the half, but Central's Kara Wilson scored twice before halftime to cut the lead to 6-3 at the break.

Central responded at the start of the third quarter, as Wilson scored on a counterattack in the opening minute, while Nelson would add two straight goals to tie the game at 6-6 less than two minutes into the period. Lily Cortes answered for the Mighty Macs with a goal, but Wilson tied things at 7-7 with 1:37 remaining in the third. Then, with under 0:30 seconds left, McAuley regained the lead as Perez tallied her fifth goal of the evening to make the score 8-7.

The teams traded goals in the fourth quarter, as Wilson tied the score at 8-8 in the first minute, followed by Cortes' second goal of the half to put McAuley back on top. Central's Denise Oldenburg tied the score at 9-9 with a goal from two meters just seconds later, and the teams would fail to capitalize on scoring opportunites before the end of regulation and the game carried on into overtime.

In the first extra session, Wood scored from four meters out to put McAuley ahead 10-9, but Nelson would score in the closing seconds of the first overtime to even things at 10-10. Both teams would draw an ejection early in the second overtime, but neither could score, and then Nelson finally scored the game-winning goal with 0:16 seconds left to play. McAuley would have one last opportunity to send the game into a third overtime, but their last chance was deflected back to Central goalie Brittany Walk as time expired.

Wilson led the Redhawks with 5 goals, while Nelson scored 4 times and Oldenburg and Pucci added one goal apiece. Perez led the Mighty Macs with 5 goals, with Wood adding 3 tallies and Cortes scoring twice. Brittany Walk had 12 saves for Naperville Central, while Bridget Kelly stopped 10 shots for McAuley.

Stevenson Tournament Videos

10 NEW VIDEOS from the Stevenson Tournament are on the way. Took about a day to edit all of them but the coverage should be worth it. I hope. Uploading all 10 takes a few hours, but expect links to everything sometime early in the morning after my quick nap before work.

Best matchup of the Monday night games is #3 Mother McAuley at #5 Naperville Central. Just six more days until the postseason...

Stevenson Tournament - Day 1 Report

Stevenson 8 Brother Rice 8
In the tournament opener, the Patriots jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the first quarter, as Brian Mitchell scored 3 goals and Kevin Alland and goalie Dmitry Simonoff added one score each. After falling behind 7-2 late in the second period, the Crusaders battled back, using a 6-1 run, started off by a Sean Coghlan goal late in the second period and completed with the game-tying goal with just :26 seconds remaining after a timeout.

St Patrick 8 Oak Park 3
With the score tied at 2-2 late in the second quarter, James Ridgeway scored twice before the half to start the Shamrocks on a 5-0 run, leading to an 8-3 win over Oak Park.

Fenwick 10 Mundelein 4
The Friars jumped out to a 7-0 lead en route to a 10-4 win over Mundelein in the first round game. Junior Tom Parolin scored 3 goals to lead the way for Fenwick, while John Barrett and Like Baldwin each scored twice in the victory.

Naperville Central 7 Stevenson 3
Ryan Alberts recorded 3 goals and Pat Leclair scored twice as the Redhawks held on for a hard-fought 7-3 win over Stevenson.

St Patrick 12 Palatine 10
In the evening's best game, St Patrick recovered from a 9-7 deficit late in the third quarter to squeak past Palatine 12-10. James Ridgeway led the Shamrocks with 6 goals and Joe Przekota added 4 scores in the win. Palatine's Skylar Davis led the Pirates' upset bid with 6 goals.

Fenwick 13 Lake Forest 3
Luke Baldwin scored 3 goals and John Barrett, Tom Parolin, and Tom Grusecki each tallied 2 goals by halftime as the Friars coasted to a 13-3 win.

Friday Update

The IHSA has finally listed the times for all of the sectional games, so likewise, I have everything listed in the Sectional Center and everything should be accurate by now.

Stevenson and Fenwick went to overtime last night, with the Friars winning in the second overtime and, as always, the video will be loaded up for viewing within an hour or so.

Weekend tournaments are going down at Stevenson (boys) and Lockport (girls) on both Friday and Saturday, with Latin hosting for both boys and girls on Saturday morning/afternoon. Should be some interesting matchups all over the place this weekend.

One more week to go after this 'til Sectionals!!!

Back In Business

After only a few games were played last night because of the sectional seed meetings, we are back to business as usual with a full slate of games on tap for Thursday night (18 boys games, 19 girls games).

All eyes should be on #1 Fenwick vs #2 Stevenson in Lincolnshire at 5:30pm. The rematch from last year's title game is one of the biggest games of the year, as the two teams have yet to play in an all-deep pool in the 2006 season.

Other games of interest include:
BOYS
Fremd at Palatine: Rivals clash in what is normally a very close game
LWE at H-F: Can the Vikings hand the Griffins their first conference loss?
Lyons at Neuqua: Lions are on a roll, with their next stop against John Mikuzis and Neuqua Valley
LWC at Andrew: Tommy Hosty and LWC travel to Andrew to take on Tim Arif and Co.
Latin at Evanston: Romans looking to bounce back after tough games against Fenwick and Pats

GIRLS
Meadows at Hersey: Interesting matchup between 6-3 teams in the MSL
Stagg at Sandburg: Sandburg can clinch a conference title with a win over the Chargers
Evanston at Latin: Potential sectional semifinal preview pits the Wildkits against the Romans
Richards at Naperville Central: Upstart Bulldogs thinking upset against #5 Redhawks

Hinsdale Central 10 LWC 9 (OT)

Amy Werkema scored with under two minutes left in the second overtime and Olivia Denton made a key save with 0:10 remaining as Hinsdale Central held off Lincoln-Way Central 10-9 in two overtimes on Wednesday night.

The game went back and forth throughout the first three periods, as Werkema and Lincoln-Way Central's Ava Caffarini recorded the bulk of the scoring for each respective team. Hinsdale Central led late in the second half after goals by Werkema and Whitney Anderson, but the Knights' Emily Watson made a steal with 0:13 seconds left in regulation and drew an ejection on the Red Devils' goalie, then assisted a driving Stacey Wymer for an open net goal to tie the score at 8-8 and send the game to the extra session.

In the first overtime, Hinsdale goalie Amanda Murphy made a save on a powerplay situation to keep the score tied, but Wymer scored again to give Lincoln-Way Central a 9-8 lead with two minutes to play in the first overtime. Knights' goalie Tricia Ramsey made a brilliant save to prevent a goal late in the first overtime to preserve the one goal lead, diving to catch a lob shot that was headed for the back of the net in the shallow end.

In the second overtime, Anderson scored again for the Red Devils from two meters to tie the score at 9-9, right before Werkema would connect from the left side to give Hinsdale Central a lead they would not relinquish over the final two minutes.

The win was the first in a three-game span for Hinsdale Central over Lincoln-Way Central, as the Knights beat the Red Devils twice on Saturday at the St Charles East Tournament. Both teams will also be in attendance at this weekend's Lockport Tournament on Friday and Saturday.

NOTE: Video due on Thursday morning.

Wednesday - Week 7

After 40 games on Tuesday night, just 9 total games are on the slate for this evening (due in part to the Sectional Seed meetings). Buffalo Grove takes on Prospect/Wheeling in boys' action to determine the MSL East champion at 4:30pm, with the winner advancing to the MSL championship against Palatine next Wednesday. St Ignatius also travels to Oak Park in a boys' matchup, while Lincoln-Way Central takes on Hinsdale Central to highlight a night with only three girls games.

As for the sectional seeds, I will likely receive about half of the seeds tonight and the rest of the information by tomorrow morning. Everything will remain unofficial, especially the game times, until sometime Thursday afternoon when the IHSA posts the official schedules. Most of the seeds aren't a mystery, but there are a few sites where teams that split their games in the regular season or have never played each other and vote will be necessary to determine the appropriate seeding.

Anyone have a Neuqua Valley vs Hinsdale South boys score from last night? Anyone? Buehler?.... Buehler?....Buehler?.....Buehler?

39 Games

Woah...I just looked at the schedule for today to see that there are 39 games scheduled. I'm no math major but that means there are 78 teams in action on a Tuesday night. I can't even come close to figuring out which game to attend...please help by sending scores in scores after the games are completed!!!

Videos, Stats and Thoughts

There's about 9-10 new videos on the main page of the site...36 total videos so far this season. The latest includes last night's game between Fenwick and Latin.

Also new to the site are the Strength of Schedule and Ratings Percentage Index listings. SOS probably is easier to understand since it is basically measuring who has played the more difficult schedule so far after six weeks of water polo. The RPI is a little more in-depth and attempts to balance out strength of schedule with quality wins, number of wins, etc. And depending on your outlook of things, you could pretty much use any of the rankings to determine how well your team is playing or at least provide a little better picture as to where each team stands. If you're not into statistics or anything, then you might not even care to look at the links. Anyways...

I was just randomly thinking at 1am what a shame it is that the boys and girls state tournaments have to be played on the same weekend at the same site. I'm pretty sure no other sport in high school has that same setup, and, I understand the logistics issues and such but, wouldn't it be much cooler to have 16 teams advance to state instead of 8? Then at least the teams that advance to the Sectional finals get to play on the main stage in front of everyone instead of just at their small sectional site where no one outside of the teams involved gets to watch them play in their last game. I'm not gonna get into seeding or ranking the teams, but last year, just like in years past, a couple of the top teams in state didn't get the chance to play at state because of the way the current system is set up. I know I get the chance to see pretty much everyone throughout the course of the regular season, but most people do not get that same opportunity.

Two Weeks To Go

Just two short weeks remain in the regular season...Sectionals are fast approaching, the Sectional Seed Meeting will take place on Wednesday night to determine who plays who and when they will play at each site...

Four new videos are posted on the site from the past week or so, with 4-5 more fresh videos coming either later tonight or by the end of the day tomorrow. I should also have the Sectional Center ready to roll sometime this week, as well as some either new stuff in addition to the usual features.

That's all from my end, time to go watch Sopranos.

Easter Weekend

Spent the weekend at Naperville Central and Sandburg, so basically all of the boys scores are covered and the video highlights are coming soon. The question is, where are the girls scores? Honestly, I have not gotten ANYTHING from YORK, VERNON HILLS, STEVENSON, or WHEELING for any scores or reports so if you want to know who won and who did what and who had a great performance and who scored and who did what, well, all I know is that Lincoln-Way Central won the St Charles East Tournament over Hinsdale Central Tournament and that's about it. No one else bothered to help. Thanks. Or something.

See, there is this site called Illpolo.com and it has scores and standings and this other stuff so if you play, ya know, send the scores!!! Happy Easter.

The Homestretch

Friday night marked the beginning of some very interesting water polo matchups over the next few days. #5 Naperville Central easily handled #4 Mundelein 14-4 at the Best of the West Tournament on Friday night, setting up a potential showdown with Naperville North in the championship game at 1:30pm tomorrow.

Meanwhile, #5 Lyons and #1 Fenwick set up a game for Saturday afternoon at 1:00pm in Oak Park, their first matchup since as long as I can remember. Fenwick will follow that game by hosting #2 Latin on Monday night, while Lyons will play host to Naperville Central on Tuesday night.

Evanston also plays New Trier next Tuesday might, as both teams enter that game undefeated in the CSL conference and could also meet at Sectionals. In girls action, #1 Fenwick is slated to take on #2 Stevenson on Thursday night, then the big tournament at the end of the week is at Stevenson for boys, with Fenwick, St Pats, Mundelein, Naperville Central, Brother Rice, Palatine, Oak Park, Stevenson, and Lake Forest all in attendance.

But that's next week, when everyone else is in school and working hard and I'm on Spring Break. More on that probably every single day that the sun is shining and the sky is clear on a 70-degree day while everyone is in school except me and like a few other people. I'll let you know how it goes.

STATE BRACKETS ***URGENT***

BOYS
Bracket drawing:
Game 1 - St. Ignatius Sectional vs Palatine Sectional

Game 2 - Waubonsie Valley Sectional vs Sandburg Sectional
Game 3 - Lincoln-Way Central Sectional vs York Sectional

Game 4 - Vernon Hills Sectional vs Glenbrook North Sectional

Semifinals
Game 5 - Winner of Game 1 vs Winner of Game 2
Game 6 - Winner of Game 3 vs Winner of Game 4

Consolation - Loser of Game 5 vs Loser of Game 6
Finals - Winner of Game 5 vs Winner of Game 6

GIRLS
Bracket drawing:
Game 1 - Waubonsie Valley Sectional vs York Sectional

Game 2 - Vernon Hills Sectional vs Lincoln-Way Central Sectional

Game 3 - Glenbrook North Sectional vs St. Ignatius Sectional

Game 4 - Sandburg Sectional vs Palatine Sectional

Semifinals
Game 5 - Winner of Game 1 vs Winner of Game 2
Game 6 - Winner of Game 3 vs Winner of Game 4

Consolation - Loser of Game 5 vs Loser of Game 6
Finals - Winner of Game 5 vs Winner of Game 6

Tuesday Night

Fenwick most definitely DOMINATED tonight against Naperville Central. Both boys and girls. The boys won 14-3 while the girls won the later game 17-4, with both games being played at Fenwick.

Elsewhere, Palatine wrapped up the MSL West with a convincing 8-2 victory over Conant, handing the Cougars their first MSL loss in the process. (BOYS)

And St Ignatius held off Latin this evening 6-5 in a potential preview of the UIC Sectional coming up in three weeks. (GIRLS)

Still waiting for some more results as I try to update the site and download some video footage as I drive down 290 while steering with my knee...or something.

Monday Nitro

BOYS
So far this evening, Brother Rice came from behind (down 7-3 going into the 4th quarter) to beat Latin in overtime 9-8 at Latin. Palatine beat Stevenson for the second time in three days 12-8 as they head into their MSL West showdown with Conant.

Stevenson beat St Ignatius with a well-balanced attack in girls action...with video coming shortly.

More later....maybe.

St Patrick All-Tournament Team

St Patrick won their tournament over the weekend, with Loyola placing second and Brother Rice placing third. Here is the All-Tournament Team, as voted on by the participating coaches:

Joe Przekota (St Patrick) ***MVP***

James Ridgeway (St Patrick)

Sean Coghlin (Brother Rice)

Brandon Schawel (Mundelein)

Nathan Leroy (Loyola)

Andrew Peterson (Mundelein)

Grant Gucinski (Waubonsie Valley)

Pat Szyska (St Patrick)

Joe Frantz (Brother Rice)

Kyle Drake (Waubonsie Valley)

Bob Conrath (St Rita)

Looking Ahead To Monday...

I'm actually kinda depressed today since there is no water polo to cover. Anyways, here is what's going on for Monday:

BOYS
#17 Stevenson hosts #15 Palatine in a rematch from the Latin Tournament this weekend, where the Pirates won 5-4. #12 Waubonsie Valley travels to #18Oak Park, #11 Sandburg takes on #23 Lincoln-Way Central, and #10 Brother Rice heads to #2 Latin.

GIRLS
#4 St Ignatius takes on #2 Stevenson in a rematch from the Fenwick Tournament; the Patriots won the first meeting 8-7. #7 Sandburg plays host to #18 Lincoln-Way Central, #20 Waubonsie battles #17 Oak Park, and #23 Fremd plays at #11 St Viator in other Top 20 action.

Players To Watch - 2006

New list for today...the Players to Watch list follows up on the All-Illpolo Teams that came out last week. It includes a large amount of players who have emerged for their teams in 2006 after five weeks of water polo action. The point is to try and recognize as many players as possible, plus I like lists, so there you have it...

More Saturday Tournaments

As quickly as I can before the Saturday night begins...Loyola beat St Ignatius (girls) to win the Ignatius Tournament at UIC. Colleen Shaw and Jackie Sershon had big offensive games for the Ramblers and Shaw ends up as the unofficial MVP of the tournament. Look for an article about this one in the SunTimes tomorrow.

At St Viator, three teams went 4-1 so the tournament ended up going to point differential, so Prospect/Wheeling took that crown (+29) over St Viator (+26) and Huron, MI (+20) even though St Viator beat P/W in the final game 6-4, since Huron beat Viator while P/W beat Huron and my head just spun in a circle firguring that out. Similar to how 6 teams went 1-2 at the Ignatius Tournament for three-way ties in both brackets that also were determined by tiebreakers.

It would seem as though St Patrick will win their tournament; they dominated against Loyola 14-3 in the first place bracket, while Loyola defeated Rice 12-11 (the final game was between Pats and Rice). Hopefully we will have those scores and the All-Tournament Team voted on by the coaches there later tonight.

Stevenson won the Lake County Tournament over Mundelein 14-6, Barrington took third with a 6-4 win over Libertyville, and Highland Park jumped to fifth place in the tournament with wins over Vernon Hills and Deerfield over the weekend.

It was already mentioned that Naperville Central won their tournament over the likes of Oak Park, Stagg, and Fremd...

...Glenbrook South went 3-0 to capture the small tournament at Highland Park (boys)...

...and Latin went 3-0 at their tournament, beating Stevenson, Palatine, and Neuqua Valley in the process of winning that title. Palatine also knocked off Stevenson and Neuqua, which are impressive wins, while Neuqua held off Stevenson 13-9.

There were a couple other tournaments out there, but I haven't heard of who played, when they played, where they played (well I guess I know that), or even if they played...so if you are one of those teams without scores or games listed and you know for a fact or are at least pretty sure that you played today....uhh, eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-maaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiillllllllllll me at illpolo@yahoo.com. PEACE be unto you.

Naperville Central Tournament

Naperville Central won their tournament on Saturday, closing things out with an 8-5 win over Oak Park to claim the title. Earlier in the day, the Redhawks beat Fremd 9-1 and Lane 8-1 to advance to the title game. They were led by Denise Oldenburg (5 goals), Nikki Nelson (3 goals), Sarah Pucci (3 goals), and Brittany Walk (34 saves).

Oak Park finished in second place, beating Stagg 6-4 and Young 12-1. Lauren Daggett led the Huskies on the day with 5 goals.

Fremd finished in third place, beating Stagg 9-3 after an 8-3 win over Lane.

Friday Night

The big news so far on Friday night comes from the St Pats Tourney, where Loyola defeated Mundelein 6-5. In the game, Nate LeRoy scored 5 of the 6 goals for the Ramblers, drawing two 4-meters and another ejection in the win.

The St Ignatius Tournament has already seen two shootouts in three games, as Homewood-Flossmoor beat Marian Catholic 6-5 in the second game, followed by Naperville North knocking off Waubonsie Valley 5-4 after the shootout session.

Otherwise, Pats has won twice at their tournament, while Rice has won their first game and is currently taking on Waubonsie Valley for the second time in 8 days.

St Ignatius has already beaten New Trier (girls) and leads Waubonsie 4-1 in the first quarter of their second game. Loyola also knocked off Lyons 12-4.

Final report and scores coming as the games wrap up for the evening. I'll be at Richards, Ignatius, Naperville, Ignatius again, and Viator before the weekend is over. Woo hoo!

Spring Bracket Drawing

I made a call to the IHSA today to find out when the brackets will be drawn for the state tournament in 2006. Their plan is to draw the brackets randomly on Wednesday, April 12th at around 9:00am or 10:00am. I was thinking about going down to their headquarters and film the drawing like the NBA Lottery is done, but uhh...perhaps I'll just on my computer and click reload every two minutes to find out how things will play out this year.

Anyways, next Wednesday, check back either here or directly on the IHSA site for the bracket drawing. They will list them; I will make brackets and set everything up and analyze and do whatever I need to do soon after on that day.

And obviously, the way the brackets are drawn makes a major difference in how the teams place at state; the right draw or the wrong draw can sometimes determine whether a team has a chance at a state trophy at the end of the season.

Wednesday Night

Some big matchups this evening in water polo. In boys games, St Ignatius defeated New Trier 9-6, Evanston knocked off Stevenson 6-4, and Latin held off Naperville Central 9-6. On the girls side, Naperville Central beat Latin 8-3 and Ignatius got past Evanston 8-5. More updates and some new videos once I finally make it home at some point tonight.

Tuesday Night

There were a TON of games tonight...40 if I know how to count this late in the night. I saw two one-goal games at Fremd and New Trier (not exactly right next door to each other, but I made it to both places). I have close to half the scores updated...I'm gonna try to stay up late enough to get everything completely updated as the scores come in but, be warned, I'm gone on that Nyquil so I might fade out earlier than normal. We'll see...two videos to edit next.

Tuesday Morning

Last night, Northside Prep beat Whitney Young last night on a last second shot. Max Swaitlowski drew a kickout in the last few seconds to set up the winning goal. Max Kakacek scored four goals to led them in the win. Also, I should have video highlights from the Prospect/Wheeling vs Rolling Meadows (girls) and Loyola vs Brother Rice (boys ) games later this evening.

A lot of games are scheduled for tonight! Where to go........

Monday Night Live!

I love a good, live blog report as much as anyone, but I didn't expect it to be waiting at a McDonald's next to the National Tire and Battery as I wait for them to replace the flat tire that I got on my way home this evening. Regardless, I did find out that they still have shamrock shakes so umm, I made them SuperSize one for me and I don't even think they do that for pop anymore....

I did see two good games though, Prospect/Wheeling, led by Patti Blatter, beat Rolling Meadows...after a slow start, the Wild Knights built a 5-2 lead at halftime en route to the win. Then, Loyola beat Brother Rice for the second time in three days by a score of 10-7, as the Ramblers got a balanced attack from Ryan Egan, Matt Stonequist, Nathan LeRoy, etc. and Adam Weissart was sharp in goal.

Other than that, send me some scores and I will post them LIVE! from the McDonald's booth I am sitting in.

Monday Morning

The MIdseason All-Illpolo Teams have been listed...the twist this year should hopefully be a good one that allows for more players to be included. I basically broke the lists into four regions, with the North and Northwest Suburbs bunched together, teams from the South and the Southside bunched together, and then the East and West regions. It's not really all that important who is where I guess , but it just helped in the organization of the lists.

This obviously is much different than the usual First Team, Second Team, etc. but it is probably a bit more fair and at least easier to compile, since it is becoming increasingly difficult to determine who is on which team, considering some teams haven't played as many games as others or some players haven't started playing since the first game of the season and on and on...

I also just listed the players in each region in order of their overall ranking, and the players from each team are just randomly listed; so there is really no particular method to how everyone is listed other than the regions.

And with that, I'm out for awhile.

Midseason Illpolo Teams...

...will be ready to go tomorrow sometime in the morning. They are basically done, just need to fix a few things and make sure a few names are correct.

We are back to a full slate of games tomorrow as Spring Break has come to an end for most of you. If you could fly back in last night, as I know many flights were cancelled from coming in due to the weather...I didn't even notice it was even raining.

And if you read a surprising post about the site not being updated anymore last night, or have heard about it from someone else who read it, all I can say is that yesterday was April 1, 2006. That's all I hope I need to say...

New videos

New video footage has been added from the Lincoln-Way Central vs Lincoln-Way East game from last night. Another video is on the way from the Hinsdale South vs Richards game from the same tournament.

I'll have some other new updates later this evening.

Rice Tournament Update

Fenwick just beat Mundelein 11-9 in the Brother Rice Tournament championship game. Fenwick beat St Patrick in their final game in the perliminary round to advance to the final game, while Mundelein beat both Brother Rice and Sandburg today. Loyola ended up in 5th place after a 12-10 victory over Brother Rice.

UPDATE
And now....St Pats beat Sandburg for third place 11-6. Another interesting score was Sandburg shutting down Waubonsie Valley 11-5 earlier in the day.

Lincoln-Way East Tournament

In the third place game, Hinsdale South fought off Richards in a closely contested 13-9 battle. The Hornets held an 8-6 lead in the third quarter, but Angie Drwal cut the lead to one for the Bulldogs and Jessica Nelson tied the score late in the period with a goal. But Hinsdale South's Heather Stephenson was in the right place at the right time twice in a row, as she responded with two rebound goals, and the Hornets never looked back in a 13-9 win.

In the title game, Lincoln-Way East rushed out to a 2-0 lead on scores by Rachel Peyton and Erin Reilly, before Emily Watson cut the lead in half off an assist from goalie Tricia Ramsey. Ramsey then denied Peyton on a breakaway chance at the buzzer at the end of the first period, only to see Peyton win the next one-on-one battle just ten seconds into the second quarter to give the Griffins a 3-1 advantage. Ava Caffarini responded with a goal on a penalty shot, but Peyton continued to excel, scoring her third goal on an outside shot with 4:00 left in the half, then adding her fourth tally just one minute later. Caffarini scored just seconds later from midpool to cut the lead down to 5-3, but Reilly tacked on her second score of the half to make it 6-3. Before the end of the half, Caffarini scored her third goal from outside seven meters after drawing a foul to narrow the deficit to 6-4.

In the third period, Watson scored twice in a row to tie the game at 6-6, and Central appeared to have the momentum early in the second half. She recovered a loose ball at two meters and scored to get the lead down to one, then her third goal of the game came from outside seven meters. Lincoln-Way East was able to respond, as the Griffins scored twice before the end of the period to lead 8-6. Both defenses then took over in the fourth period, as neither team was able to score, and Lincoln-Way East won their own tournament 8-6 on Saturday night.

Saturday 2

More notes from Saturday...at the Rice Tourney, Mundelein has advanced to the championship game after beating Brother Rice and Sandburg today. My notes are a little choppy, but they should end up playing the winner of Fenwick/Pats, which takes place in about half an hour. Other than that, the winner of Rice/WV is unknown to me, so that determines who plays who in the 3rd and 5th place games.

I believe Lincoln-Way East will play Lincoln-Way Central this evening at the LWE Tourney, which should make for a good rivalry game.

George Mason plays at 5pm so hopefully they can beat Florida.

And by the way, I am done with the site as of this evening. Don't expect any more updates as I am moving out of state in less than a week. Sorry.

Saturday Afternoon

I just added video highlights from this morning's Sandburg vs Loyola game. Sandburg won it 9-8, as Sam Cody scored three straight goals in the fourth quarter to put the Eagles ahead for good. Colleen Shaw got the Ramblers to within one goal with two straight goals, one after drawing a four-meter and the other a rebound goal off her own breakaway miss, but Loyola could not get a shot off in the final seconds with a chance to tie the game.

I'm now headed to Lincoln-Way East for their tournament this afternoon. Wait...Schaumburg to Wilmette to Schaumburg to Frankfort (Lincoln-Way) to Schaumburg. Grr. I hate gas prices too. The only trip that could be further is if I went to Lake Forest or maybe McHenry first. I'm not talking myself out of this. Later.