Rams Retake Lead in 71st Minute, Withstand Roadrunners Furious Attempt to Draw Even

[A reproduction of my story that in Chicagoland Soccer website: https://www.chicagolandsoccer.org/news_article/show/1368567]

CHICAGO — DePaul survived a late charge from Nazareth to win 2-1 in a Chicago Catholic League cross-over match and their final game of the regular-season.

Rams’ senior forward Max Kerber got on a corner kick that came over scrum in front of the goal and found a spot inside the near post to score the game-winner in the 71st minute.

DePaul (8-7-0) opened the scoring late in the first half after controlling possession for most of the first half. Rams senior midfielder Bennett Herrmanns scored from in front of the goal after a Leo Parra assist with 6:34 left in the half. The game was by no means over at that point.

The Roadrunners (3-14-1, 2-4-1) dialed up the pressure to break the Rams control of possession.

“Credit to Nazareth,” said DePaul head coach Kyle Kreider. "They adjusted. They started to leave more guys forward. They left two high consistently. I think it was no. 8 [senior midfielder Michael Duffy] that was a problem for us. He’s big. He’s physical. He’s really fast."

The tale of two halves saw the Rams get the better of the possession game in the first half. Not so much in the second half. Nazareth pushed the ball deep into the DePaul end consistently.

“We have been trying to really hammer the possession game. Knocking the ball around and moving it around,” said Nazareth head coach Roberto Cianci. “This last week or two we have really come into our own. We are just playing. That was the idea.
Just playing our brand of soccer and making them chase it. We did a darn good job of it today.”

DePaul could only withstand the pressure for so long. At the end of the 63rd minute, Nazareth senior striker Giovanni Cianci, the coach’s son, scored from in front of the goal. His chance came after Michael Duffy's shot was blocked. 

DePaul's focus might have aided Nazareth's second half turnaround.

“We got a little too ahead of ourselves,” Kerber said of the Rams’ defensive woes in the second half. "We committed too much on trying to get a goal when we needed to focus more on having enough defenders in the back. So they took advantage of putting enough attackers on our defenders, and they got a goal from it.”

From then on, both teams drove back-and-forth deep into each other’s ends and produced multiple corner kicks testing the defenders.

It was the Rams who would capitalize. With 9:20 to play, DePaul had a corner kick that sailed over the box. Rams’ senior Max Kerber, a Roscoe Village resident, fielded the ball and launched a shot.

“I noticed that they had been marking a lot. They had been leaving the back posts open. I just saw it. It was a good ball and I just went back post with one,” Kerber said.

“I just tried to put it (into the crowd in front of the goal), maybe someone would get a head on it. Lucky enough, it just found its way to the back of the net.”

Roberto Solis assisted Kerber’s second goal of the year.

The late strike produced no quit in Nazareth. With under four minutes to play, the Roadrunners continued attacking with increased urgency. Striker Cianci eluded two Rams defenders and fielded a long pass just outside the box with a defender all over him. 

“I had [an] opportunity. It was right in front of me. I picked my head up. I saw the keeper coming down,” Cianci said about the potential game-tying chance against DePaul goalie Thomas Phillips. "I went to chip it. Tried to put it over his head. He just got his hands on top of it."

DePaul head coach Kyle Kreider pointed out a solid effort from first half goal-scorer and senior Bennett Herrmanns.

“I thought in the first half [Bennett] made a difference for us. He puts his body on the line. He is always going to fly into his tackles and his challenges. He is a very physical player,” Kreider said.

“We know that he can withstand a lot. He was also getting the ball on the ground, moving it really well. I thought that Bennett was someone who really stepped up. He showed up on the score sheet in the first half. He was doing everything else — kind of the dirty work.”

Despite the loss, coach Cianci was pleased with the Nazareth effort.

“We put good minutes together. We had a couple ugly moments there. Especially in the first half, there was about two minutes when it was ugly on us. We just needed to get readjusted a bit,” he said.

“I thought the boys played tremendous. That’s a 3A school (1,290 students, multiplied). We are barely AA (based on 796-student enrollment). We are playing right at the right moment. Let’s put it that way. That has been our season. It’s been 2-1 games all season. By the good grace of God, it’s going to have turn around. Hopefully it starts in the playoffs.”

DePaul, which finished with a 3-4-0 mark in the Chicago Catholic League White Division, will train up to the playoffs.

The 11th-seed has a hard road ahead of it. The Rams open against Loyola on Oct. 19 in the St. Patrick Regional. The Ramblers defeated DePaul 2-0 on Sept. 29. The third-seeded host likely awaits the winner.

Seventeenth-seeded Nazareth plays at no. 16-seed Soto in an Argo Regional quarterfinal Friday. The winner meets top-seeded Juarez.


Starting lineups

DePaul
GK: Thomas Phillips
D: Olin Yee
D: Kieran Madden
D: Riley Lim
D: Dylan Quintero
MF: Leo Parra
MF: Federick Koning
MF: Max Galindo
MF: Bennett Herrmanns
F: Charlie Reinhart
F: Elias Harrison

Nazareth
GK: Owen Paquet
D: Mathew Schaffer
D: Ian Sloan
D: Brody Prempas
MF: Cooper Stasys
MF: Nathan Barrera
MF: Michael Duffy
MF: Liam Remedi
F: Bradley Aulinskis
F: Andrew MacLean
S: Giovanni Cianci

Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Bennett Herrmanns, sr., MF, DePaul


Scoring summary

First half
DP: Bennett Herrmanns (Leo Parra), 34'

Second half
N: Giovanni Cianci (unassisted), 63'
DP: Max Kerber (Roberto Solis), 71'

DePaul Prep’s goalkeeper Thomas Phillips makes a brilliant save on Nazareth’s Giovanni Cianci’s attempt to tie the game late.

Heidkamp Builds Basketball Powerhouse at Benet

SPORTS SPOTLIGHT BY JOHN MONTGOMERY

It’s always a pleasant feeling to return home as a state basketball champion.

Things have changed for former St. Patrick basketball player Gene Heidkamp, a 1988 graduate who grew up in Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood and played for legendary coach Max Kurland.

He competed against Benet, Marist, St. Joseph and Notre Dame, then returned to his alma mater as an assistant coach under Mike Bailey. After 12 years, he became head coach at Nazareth in 2002. He didn’t have much success at the La Grange Park school. Known as a football power, Nazareth has won six state football championships while winning only three regionals in basketball since 1980. In three seasons, Heidkamp’s teams were only 24-57.

So Heidkamp moved on to Benet Academy in Lisle in 2008. A longtime basketball power, Benet won 367 games and qualified for the state finals on three occasions under coach Bill Geist, who also played at St. Patrick. Geist’s successor, Marty Gaughan, who played at Weber, won 259 games.

“I owe my career to Mike Bailey,” Heidkamp said. “I view him as a mentor. Mike Bailey taught me how to coach the high school game of basketball. Mike Bailey taught me how to run a program. There is a lot of Mike Bailey’s influence in our program at Benet.”

At Benet, Heidkamp is a history teacher who is doing well on and off the basketball court. He guided the Redwings to the Class 4A championship last season and his current squad is 20-1 and ranked No. 1 in the Chicago area. His annual return trip to St. Patrick was successful last Friday night as Benet prevailed 53-43 for its 17th consecutive victory. It was St. Patrick’s third loss in 17 games. Benet’s only setback was to St. Ignatius (19-2). Perhaps Heidkamp was recalling last year’s 53-49 loss to St. Patrick.

“It was surreal to coach against St. Patrick,” Heidkamp said after Friday’s game. “It was a great high school basketball atmosphere tonight. St. Patrick has a great team. It is always special to come back and play at St. Patrick. We knew we were in for a tough game.”

Benet used its two-headed basketball monster of 6’8” junior Ed Stasys and 7-foot senior Colin Stack to prevail against the Shamrocks and their twin towers of 6’8” RJ McPartlin and 6’7” Omar Ajanovic. It is rare at the high school level to see four players at 6’7” or taller battling against one another. This was a heavyweight fight until McPartlin picked up his third foul late in the third quarter. The Redwings took advantage with McPartlin on the bench, scoring six straight points to take a 36-29 lead entering the fourth quarter.

“You take a big kid like McPartlin out of the game against their players and it makes a big difference,” Bailey said afterward. “Benet has a really good basketball team.”

McPartlin finished with only nine points in the duel of basketball titans while Stasys scored 14 and Stack accounted for 12 while guard Jayden Wright added 12, including seven in the final period. Ajanovic led St. Patrick with 12.

If the Shamrocks hope to return to State Farm Center in Champaign, they will need more consistent scoring to support McPartlin, who is having a fine season. The road won’t be easy because St. Patrick likely have to beat Loyola (17-4) and last year’s Class 3A champion DePaul Prep (17-3) or Evanston (16-3) at sectional play in Wilmette.

Growing up in Rogers Park, Heidkamp was aware of Kurland’s success at St. Patrick. In his long career, he won 658 games, but he never managed a trip to the state finals.

“I grew up coming to St. Pat’s games,” Heidkamp recalled. “It was such a great environment for basketball and such a great place. I always wanted to come here. Max was a legendary coach but he was even a better person.”

Benet and St. Patrick are coming off banner seasons and could face each other in the Class 4A championship game. Heidkamp lost three state final games before winning in Class 4A in 2025. In 18 seasons, he has posted a 441-109 record. Heidkamp was inducted into IBCA Hall of Fame for basketball players and coaches after last season.

“It was a little bit of relief to finally win a state championship after getting so close in the past,” Heidkamp said. “I was happy for our program and happy for our past and present players who built this program. Winning state championships is great but there are more important things in life.”

Heidkamp has a low key approach on and off the court. You could say he has built Benet into one of the state’s premier programs.  He is quick to give credit for his success to Kurland and Bailey.

“I would never say we have the best basketball program in the state,” he said. “I hope we can compete with the other teams. I hope we run a quality program.”

Heidkamp’s chief assistant, John Bonk, has a good read on his boss. “He is very dedicated and committed to every kid on the roster from 1 to 20. He is a super communicator and cares about kids and their success on and off the court,” Bonk said.

“I am not surprised at his success,” Bailey said. “When he was in our program, Gene had that it factor and communicated well with the kids. The one thing he still does well today is communicate with his players.”

It will be March Madness in this year's Class 4A state basketball tournament. The road to repeat as champions won't be easy for Benet.

Benet Coach Gene Heidkamp

Nazareth Comes Back to Defeat Marist 39-29

Less than three minutes into Friday’s night CCL/ESCC interdivision Blue/Orange matchup, Marist Redhawks jumped out to a 14-0 over #3 Nazareth Academy. A Marist punt return followed by a quick score, then a fumble return for a touchdown and the Roadrunners were down two scores.

Slowly, Nazareth clawed back. It was 14-13 at the half. In the third quarter, the Roadrunners added two more touchdowns. Marist added one as well. In the fourth, despite keeping a Marist drive alive on a personal foul which led to a Redhawk touchdown, the Roadrunners added still two more touchdowns and held the Redhawks. It was pretty much over midway through the fourth.

Nazareth looks as good as I have seen this year. Mount Carmel is close.

i hope you like the photos.

Football is Here--Lots of Changes this Season

It’s game day. Start of the high school football season. I have basically taken a month off since the last of the summer basketball tournaments, but I’m back and so is football. Big changes this year so let’s get into it.

Opening night.

The area’s top teams are starting with out-of-state opponents. Sun-Times #1 Nazerath and #2 Loyola play out-of-state. The highest ranked City of Chicago teams, Simeon and Phillips also have out-of-state games to start the season. Opening the season against out-of-state opponents is just dumb. Who cares about that? But don’t get me started.

The marquee matchup of the evening, in Chicago at least, might be #14 Mount Carmel v. Curie at Mount Carmel’s new Barda-Dowling Stadium on campus at 64th and Dante. It should be fun to see Mount Carmel with a true home field. I might have to head down to that one.

We have Lane v. Lake View to entertain us this afternoon in what I am christening the 47th Ward Bowl. Both schools are located in Chicago’s premier neighborhood and the athletic programs at both are on the rise. My alma mater, St. Viator takes on Prospect this evening. Hersey was the usual opening week nemesis back in my day. Now it’s neighboring Prospect High School to open the season. The Lions should have their paws full.

Chicago Catholic League and East Suburban Catholic League Combine for Football.

This football season is gonna be different. The Chicago Catholic League and the East Suburban Catholic Conference have combined for football—again. The CCL and ESCC have formed one combined conference with 24 teams in 6 divisions. Basically, all the Catholic high schools that play football in the Chicagoland area will be in what amounts to one large conference with six mini-conferences inside based upon the school size, football participation numbers and program success. Here is a link to the combined schedule: click here. According to the press release on the ESCC website, there was a unanimous vote in favor of the combination by all the principals of the CCL and ESCC schools.

As explained to me but DePaul Prep’s Athletic Director, Pat Mahoney, the ten member ESCC was have difficulty with some larger schools having successful programs and others struggling to compete. The larger fourteen school CCL, which was divided into four divisions based upon enrollment, football participation and programs success was able to split into divisions that provided a chance for the smaller schools to be competitive.

Older readers among you may recall they tried this before. From 1996 to 2002, the CCL and ESCC combined into the “Metro Catholic Conference.” The difference between then and now is that the Metro Conference required member teams to play a full schedule of conference games. There was no room for regional or historic rivalries. And no room for traveling out-of-state for games either.  The new arrangement has fixed that. The new CCL/ESCC will have only seven conference games. Each team can schedule two non-conference games.

I am looking forward to the new arrangement. It should give some the smaller Catholic school a chance at six wins and some playoff births.

DePaul Prep Football Preview.

Frequent viewers to this channel will recall that much of my coverage has been on DePaul College Prep teams. Big changes on this front as well.

Long time head football coach and Gordon Tech state championship team member, Bill Jeske, is out as coach of the Rams. Bill lead the Rams to much success during his tenure even with the challenge of declining enrollment at Gordon and declining participation in football on Chicago’s northside.

But Bill is not gone. He is staying on as freshman football coach. Something of Gordon remains.

Taking over for Bill as varsity coach is Michael Passarella. Coach Passarella comes from a stint as a game analyst with the Cleveland Browns, an assistant and offensive coordinator at the College of DuPage and as an assistant coach at a high school in Texas.

“Coach Passeralla has brought a new enthusiasm to the program. The kids are excited about football. We have increased participation. Winning six games and making the playoffs is not outside the realm of possibility this year,” Pat Mahony told me.

He might just be right. This year’s DePaul schedule is tough but doable. DePaul Prep Rams look to rebound from last year’s winless season. The Rams lost to Marmion, Chicago Hope, Leo, Fenton, Wheaton, St. Joseph, St. Ignatius, DeLaSalle, St. Rita and St. Laurence.

With the maturing of a young team lead by talented senior quarterback Zach Burhans and Sr. WR Michael “Mikey” Flynn, the Rams will surprise some people.

The CCL/ESCC schedule provides some significant changes as well. The Rams will take on Roosevelt (2-5 in 2018), Sullivan (6-5), Carmel (4-5), Leo (3-7), St. Laurence (4-7), Marian Catholic (1-8), Providence (5-5), Joliet Catholic (10-4 and 5A State Champion) and St. Joseph (1-9). Hopefully for the Rams, the addition of two CPS teams and the addition of Marian Catholic to the Red Division will give the Rams a fighting chance at a winning record. Carmel, St. Laurence, Providence and especially, Joliet Catholic will be long shots. Upset one of those teams, handle the rest, and there you have it—the IHSA playoffs. Once you’re in, who knows. Just ask Tom Kleinschmidt. The Rams basketball team won 3rd in state last year. Maybe the Rams football team could find itself in DeKalb come Thanksgiving. Just saying.

Preps Coverage.

In other news, Mike Clark took over for Beth Long covering football in the Sun-Times. We will be well served by the professional in-depth coverage by Mike Clark. Michael O’Brien will continue his coverage as well. It’s great to see the Sun-Times dedication to prep sports coverage. Michael O’Brien and Joe Henricksen do such a great job on basketball. Michael and Mike will be great working on football.

It seems the Chicago Tribune has completely abandoned covering high school sports. I looked at the Tribune website high school sports page. The last story published was from July. Embarrassing. There is such a void in coverage out there; a million stories to tell; a  million photos to publish.  

There you have it. My first long form blog post. It’s not exactly journalism. Not exactly commentary. I will try to do more. Throw in some news, analysis, commentary and photographs. Hope you like it.