DePaul Prep falls to Providence 66-60

The DePaul Prep Rams girls’ varsity fell 66-60 to GCAC rival powerhouse Providence Catholic (22-3, 5-2) on Tuesday. These are two of the top girls teams in the area. The Rams are ranked No. 9 in Kyle Williams Super 25 in the Sun-Times. Providence is ranked No. 12.

The Rams fell behind 9-0 to open the contest but battled all the way take a 31-29 lead at the close of the second quarter on Ava Giordano’s three-point.

This was very high level basketball. It was a back-and-forth affair. I wish I had the bandwidth to properly cover the GCAC. Providence has these two sisters, Layken Callahan and Landrie Callahan who made life very tough on the Rams.  

Even so, the game was tied at 56 with 2:44 left. The Celtics edged that Rams in the final minute holding off the Rams’ comeback.

The Rams historic regular season continues with Simeon on Saturday and then the Girls Catholic Athletic Conference tournament next week where the Rams have a change to avenge their defeats at the hands of other very high quality GCAC teams. It appears that both Friday’s home game against Taft and Saturday’s game against Simeon will not go ahead because of the cold. The DePaul Prep athletic director is working to reschedule the senior night game.

It’s been fun watching this senior starting group, Ava Giordano, Grace Lee, Kaitlin Totaro and Lucia Trautman, along with the addition of sophomore standout Ramiyah Puckett grow into an elite squad among the best in the state. They rival their counterparts on the boys team in that respect. I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the work off the bench put in by sophomore Grace Poleski, seniors Kaitlin Reap and Vivian Lightfoot, and junior Caley Wood.

The Rams host a regional in the 4A Maine South Sectional. The seeds will not be announced until about 4 pm on Thursday, February 5th so will don’t know who they will face. Based on the assignments, the Rams are likely to be a 2 or 3 seed in the sectional.

DePaul Prep Defeats Lane 54-36 in National Women and Girls Sports Day Event

The seventh ranked DePaul Prep Rams girls basketball team (17-3) defeated the Lane Tech Champions 54-36 Saturday afternoon at Lane Tech’s National Women & Girls Day Event. It was a great event with many elementary school girls teams in attendance.

It was a very competitive game in the first quarter but the Champions had no answer for Rams star center Grace Lee who finished with 33 of the Rams 54 points. The Rams jumped ahead in the fourth quarter outscoring Lane 16-4.

The Rams have put together an historic season winning their first fifteen games under second year coach Corey Morgan. Interestingly, the DePaul Prep girls team has the same record, 17-3, as DePaul Prep’s reigning state champion boys teams.

The Rams have four games left in their regular season: Plainfield North, Providence (GCAC conference game), Taft and Simeon. DePaul Prep will host an IHSA 4A Regional playoff series. The move to 4A this year has landed the Rams is a very tough sectional which includes Loyola who the Rams lost to just ten days ago.  

DePaul Prep Slugs St. Ignatius 10-3

[a preview of next week’s Inside—Booster article.]

By Jack Lydon

Chicago, Illinois—It was a game of big hits. DePaul Prep’s junior right fielder Quinn Roberts put two into the parking lot east of Kerry Wood Cubs Field. The Rams had a total six extra base hits and dropped the St. Ignatius Wolfpack 10-3 Thursday evening. St. Ignatius’ Cam Andrews also put one over the left field fence for two runs in the top of the sixth.

The dimensions are just a little shorter than Wrigley Field at Kerry Wood Cubs Field. 363 feet in the outfield gaps and 327 down the lines.

“That's my first two home run game ever actually. That’s a good milestone right there. It's pretty fun hitting them at Kerry Wood. It's pretty deep out there,” said Roberts, who ended the game with two home runs, two walks and three runs batted in.

“So that second one of the game was my fourth of the year actually. I hit one at Providence two days ago. I just try and do my best. I try to swing hard enough, but not too hard to where it makes the coach totally angry. I just try to put them in play and see what happens from there.” Roberts ended the game with two home runs, two walks and three runs batted in.

“Quinn is gonna be great. He's playing well. He had to kick in last year as a sophomore when we got hurt. We're really experienced, even the juniors, even the younger guys. They’re experienced. They had to dig and fight in these Catholic League Blue games last year. So they know what this is about and I think it shows,” said Sam Colon, DePaul Prep’s manager, a 2014 graduate of Gordon Tech. Colon took over as head baseball coach for DePaul Prep from legendary Gordon and DePaul Prep coach Chris Haas in 2023. Colon took the Rams to the 2A State Finals in his first year at the helm and a super-sectional game last year.

Although the game ended 10-3, it started a little rough for DePaul Prep’s senior lefthander Owen Rog. Rog walked the first three batters of the game. Not to worry. He struck out the Wolfpack’s Jaiden Ponce swinging and the next hitter Ben Marasovich dutifully bounced into a 6-4-3 double play to end the innings and get Rog out of the jam.

Even with all the extra base hits, it was defense and solid pitching that secured the Rams first Chicago Catholic League Blue Division win of the season. Despite the gaudy 19-4 season record for the Rams, all four of their losses this season have come to CCL Blue rivals Brother Rice and Providence Catholic. The Catholic League is loaded with excellent baseball teams this year. Brother Rice and St. Laurence are the first and fourth ranked teams in the state by Max Preps.

The Rams turned three double plays in the game. In addition to the one in the first inning, first baseman Dylan Hecht fielded a sharp ground ball right to him, through it to shortstop Vance Kurokawa at second to fired it back to Hecht for the bang-bang 3-6-3 inning ending double play in the third.

In the top of the fifth, with a man on first, Rams’ third baseman Charles “Chuck” Pribyl fielded a ground ball, throw to second baseman Beni Espinosa who fired it down to Hecht at first for the third double play of the game.

Owen Rog pitched three innings giving up three hits and one run on four walks and three strikeouts. He was relieved by Gavin Glibowski in the fourth who finished the game giving up four hits and two runs on the aforementioned homerun by Cam Andrews. Glibowski did not walk anyone and struck out six.

The Rams continue with their difficult Catholic League schedule with another game against St. Ignatius, then IC Catholic and Mount Carmel in coming days.