Lane v. Whitney Young

I went over to Kerry Wood Field Friday evening to catch the Lane v. Whitney Young baseball game. According to Max Preps, the Champions came into the game with an 8-0 record. Lane Head coach Sean Freeman corrected me when I asked about the spotless record saying that they dropped a couple split squad games to out-of-state teams on their Spring Break trip.

The Dolphins jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first. Champions’ senior right handed pitcher Jack Davis gave up three singles, a walk and two runs with two out but settled down pitching five full innings allowing only one earned run with eleven strike outs and two walks.

I couldn’t stay for the whole game so it’s not going to get the full treatment and a story in the Booster. There will be time for that.

Sean Freeman’s Champions have three division one commits: senior first baseman Ethan Borggren (Northwestern), senior center fielder Henry Murray (Boston College) and freshman right fielder Sebastian Wilson. The talent is there for the Champions to have a great season.

It turns out that the Champions fell to Kenwood 6-4 on Saturday in what might be a telling look at the top teams in the Chicago Public League.

With the weather warming up and league play starting, I will be getting out to as many CPL and CCL games as I can.

The photos are not my best. It was coooold and I didn’t give it the full treatment. I am still getting back in the swing of taking baseball photos.

Morgan Park Falls to St. Francis in 5A Quarterfinal

In a game marred by constant penalties, the last remaining Chicago Public League team, the Morgan Park Mustangs, fell to the St. Francis Spartans 37-14 in IHSA 5A quarterfinals Saturday.

Turnovers and penalties throttled the Mustangs in the first half. The Mustangs had a sixty-two touchdown called back. On the next play, Morgan Park QB Marcus Thaxton throw a side arm pass late down the middle of the field. A big no-no. St. Francis easily picked it off. The Spartans worked the ball down to the Morgan Park nine yard-line and scored on a quick slant to the slot receiver, senior wide receiver Ian Willis. Even so, it was 13-8 St. Francis until late in the second quarter.

Morgan Park (10-1, 7-0) came into the game as the 4 seed with a 10-1 overall record. Its only loss this year was to second ranked Mount Carmel 22-12 in week two.

The Mustangs were 7-0 in the Chicago Public Leagues’ new super-conference, the new Red Division. Before the season, CPS Sports Administration combined the top teams in the Red Division into one sixteen team super-conference. Seven other teams from the conference made the IHSA playoffs the season, Whitney Young, Kenwood, Amundsen, Lane, Simeon, Phillips and Taft. Morgan Park was the last surviving team. It was Morgan Park’s twenty-fifth appearance in the IHSA football playoffs since 1985.

St. Francis in Wheaton came into the game on a hot streak. After getting pummeled 47-0 by Loyola in early October, the Spartans have put together a four-game win streak at the right time. The Spartans come out of the Orange Division of the CCL/ESCC joint Catholic Conference in football this year. The Orange also has two other surviving playoff teams, IC Catholic Prep and Nazareth Academy.

St. Francis is no stranger to playoff football having qualified sixteen time since 1997, winning a state championship in 2005 and advancing to the 4A semifinal game last year.

The game turned late in the first half with St. Francis quarterback Alessio Milivojevic’s eleven-yard touchdown run.

“I like getting hit once or twice on a run. Then I get locked in, clicked in,” said St. Francis senior quarterback and Ball State recruit Alessio Milivojevic. It was the Milivojevic’s 11-yard touchdown run sparked his game on Saturday. Sun-Times Reporter Michael O’Brien captured a video and included it in his Twitter feed. https://twitter.com/michaelsobrien/status/1723424427335925919

After the Milivojevic’s touchdown to make the game 19-8, Morgan Park’s quarterback gave up another interception with under a minute to go. The Spartans worked their way down the short field for a twenty-two yard field goal making the half time score 22-8.

In the second half, Morgan Park scored on a quick bubble screen out to senior wide receiver and Montana recruit Chris Dorr who took it up the sideline 40 yards for the score.

But the second half was just about St. Francis and Milivojevic being able to drive the ball with the run and the pass. Morgan Park gave up two more touchdowns and fell 37-14.

St. Francis advances to play conference rival Nazareth next Saturday in the 5A semi-final. Curiously, the two other surviving 5A teams, Joliet Catholic and Providence Catholic, are also from the CCL/ESCC conference.

Riverside-Brookfield Summer Shootout 2023

Some think Memorial Day, Labor Day, Fourth of July are the best part of the summer. The truth is the best weekend of the summer is the Riverside-Brookfield Summer Shootout.

The 20th Annual Summer Shootout is the premiere summer “Live Period” event in the Chicago area. R-B coach Mike Reingruber and his staff put run a superb event, a well-oiled machine. Eighty high school teams from the area including two from the St. Louis area. The facilities make it easy to watch two games at a time; even the food is good.

It’s a little early to start writing about what teams are going to be the top going into the 23-24 season. The R-B is more about getting a look at emerging players and how teams have changed.

Whitney Young v. East St. Louis. The first game I saw was Whitney Young v. East St. Louis. The Dolphins reloaded and are led by junior forward Antonio Munoz who looked in fine form. Junior point guard Damajay Richardson impressed with some nice moves followed by long jumpers.

Lane Tech v. O’Fallon. Lane Tech v. Downers Grove South. Lane struggled in the first half against O’Fallon but the shots started to fall in the second half. The Champions definitely missed Dalton Scantlebury who did not play. On Friday, the Champions fell to O’Fallon 69-43. They rallied but lost in overtime to Downers Grove South 62-60.

Kenwood v. Oswego East. These are two really good teams. Kenwood got even better in recent days by landing Rivals #43 ranked player in the nation Davion Hannah. At least one report says Hannah is not fully committed to attending Kenwood. Nevertheless, he played for Kenwood today. Kenwood handled Oswego East 67-54 and then Rolling Meadows 77-56. Kenwood looks like the top Chicago Public League, at the R-B, in June.

Oswego East went on to top St. Charles East 68-48.

Simeon v. Marist. Last year’s number one area team, Simeon has a new coach and a whole to look. The Rubin brothers and hugely talented point guard Jalen Griffith have graduated. The Wolverines are smaller but very quick. Senior Rashad Mckinnie is back and played well today. So did senior point guard Jashon Liggett.

DePaul Prep v. Lindbloom. DePaul Prep v. Hillcrest. The Rams come into the R-B newly crowned IHSA 2A champions having graduated their leader Maurice Thomas and lost starting forward Payton Kamin to a prep school transfer, plus standout junior Jonas Johnson is out with an injury. Who was going to fill in? Rams’ junior guard Rob Walls stepped right in. So did sophomore RaShaun Porter. Despite being 2A State Champions, the Rams finished seventh in the Chicago Catholic League Blue with a 6-7 record.

Those who follow the Rams closely will recall that injuries deprived the Rams of two of their best players, Jaylan McElroy and Payton Kamin, for the bulk of conference play. The Rams look to return to top form and will compete for the top of the Chicago Catholic League Blue.

The Rams move up to 3A this year because of the schools ballooning enrollment, either that or the IHSA success factor having been to the State Finals three times in four tries including one championship. DePaul Prep expects an incoming freshman class of 315.

DeLaSalle v. Lyons Township. On Saturday, I wanted to see what Gary DeCesare was doing with his Meteors. They are big and athletic and seem to have picked up where they left off atop the Chicago Catholic League White standings.

St. Lawrence v. Schaumburg. Next over to the Field House to check out the second half of the St. Lawrence Vikings against Schaumburg’s Saxons. The Vikings expect to challenge the Meteors in the CCL White. Today, Byron Burt’s Vikings were led by former St. Rita head coach and now St. Lawrence assistant, Roshawn Russell. Coming with Russell from St. Rita was Nojus Indrusaitis. Nojus is the second ranked Illinois in Prep Hoops in the class of 2024. St. Lawrence is going to be very good and looked every bit the part against a good Schaumburg squad.

St. Ignatius v. Homewood-Flossmoor. It was a bit of an early day for me at the R-B, so this would be my last game of the day. I managed a quick word with the leader of the Pack, St. Ignatius coach Matt Martin. The Pack were a little depleted at this R-B with some players out injured and with others unavailable. Knowing that going in, I was struck by how quick the new group of wolves played. Quick up and down the court and moving the back around for the open shot.

The R-B always leaves one wanting more.

Simeon to Play Kenwood in City Championship Game Saturday

The Simeon Wolverines went to four overtimes, surviving four last shot chances by Curie to advance 64-60 to the Chicago Public League’s basketball championship on Saturday. Kenwood advanced as well with a deliberate but convincing 56-42 win over a newcomer to the City Championship final four, Perspectives-Leadership.

I have never seen four overtimes in a basketball game, until today. Four times Simeon had chances to put away the Curie Condors and four times Curie battled with a shot to win the game at the buzzer. Simeon’s defense wouldn’t allow it.

Curie’s head coach Mike Oliver called times out at that the ends of the second and third overtimes with under nine seconds giving his team not a lot of time to inbound the ball, crack the 1-3-1 pressure from Simeon’s Rubin twins to get up a game winner. Twice the Condors launched desperation shots that were nowhere close to going in, twice they didn’t even get up shots.

In the fourth overtime, Simeon managed to get a lead on Jalen Griffith and Miles Rubin’s free throws that Jeremy Harrington and the other Condors could not overcome.

Simeon’s Jalen Griffith finished with 21 points. Miles Rubin had 10 including two late free throws to seal the victory. Sam Lewis had 9. For Curie, Carlos Harris had, 17 Jeremy Harrington 16, Kros Barrett 13 and Shawn Brown 10. 64-60 was the final with the winner to meet the winner of the following game, Kenwood v. Perspectives-Leadership.

Mike Irvin and his Kenwood Broncos faced the unlikely upstart Perspectives-Leadership Warriors. On January 17th, the Broncos went into Perspectives’ gym and jumped out to a 31-7 lead after the first quarter on the strength of points in transition. The Warriors had no way to stop the lighting quick Broncos.

Until today that is. “We did a better job slowing down the game, playing a half court zone [defense] in the first half. It helped us out a lot. At home, we put a lot of pressure on the ball in half court. They got a head start on us. Today we were able to play a slower game. It worked in our favor in the first half. In the second half, it went the other way,” said Warriors head coach Mike Smith.

Even so, the Broncos were too much for the Warriors. The Broncos pulled away in the second had outscoring the Warriors 31-18.

Perspectives-Leadership’s impressive first half against Mike Irvin’s powerhouse Broncos squad bodes well for the upcoming IHSA 2A state tournament. The Warriors land the #1 seed in the Julian Sub-sectional B. Other top seeds in the Joliet (Central) Super-sectional include Phillips, DePaul Prep and Christ the King.  

Perspectives has taken a big jump in its first year in CPL’s Red Division becoming the first charter school to make it to the City Championship final four. The addition of transfers Jakeem Cole (for Leo) and brothers Gianni Cobb and Kamarion Cobb from Bloom raised expectations. Gianni Cobb and Jakeem Cole lead the Warriors with 16 and 14 points respectively.

Kenwood’s leading scorer was Jaden Smith with 14 points. Darrin “Dai Dai” Ames and 13 points despite sitting much of the second period with two early fouls. Tyler Smith had 12.

Saturday evening’s City Championship at UIC’s Credit One Arena—the old Pavilion, will be a showdown between the old and the new. Simeon head coach is on his victory lap as he plans to retire after this season. Mike Irvin and his Kenwood Broncos fancy themselves the new rising powerhouse in CPS. Never at a loss for words, Mike Irvin said, “we are excited.”

“This is what we worked for all season. We told everbody, we are a great team. We will be here. We changed his name to Disco Dai Dai [Darrin Ames] because he was dancing tonight. We are excited to be here.”

We got the matchup of the best teams. I guess we see how it works out.