Most of the 12 teams scheduled to play Public league schools this week are resorting to Plan B if the city teachers go out on strike Tuesday. But Mt. Carmel, St. Laurence and Ridgewood have been unable to find new opponents.
”We may be forced to issue an all points bulletin for a game,” said Mt. Carmel coach Frank Lenti. ”We`re not going to play St. Laurence because we`d have to play them again in the league (Catholic League South) in three weeks, and Ridgewood would not be a game for us. The only thing we have is a tentative date for a controlled scrimmage against Rich East this week.”
If the teachers do strike, these schedule changes have been made:
East St. Louis Lincoln, scheduled to play Julian, will instead play at Homewood-Flossmoor Friday. H-F was originally paired against Chicago Vocational.
Gordon Tech will play St. Patrick on Friday or Saturday, depending on the site. Gordon was to have played Robeson; St. Patrick had Lane Tech on its schedule.
Montini will erase Steinmetz to play St. Viator Friday at Forest view. St. Viator`s original foe was Du Sable.
Whiting, Ind., a school of 300, will meet arch-rival Hammond Clark if it cannot play Austin.
”No one wants to play us,” said Lenti, whose team is scheduled to meet Lindblom on Friday. ”We`ve asked everyone.”
St. Viator athletic director Bob Artman looked at the other side of the coin, explaining that the great football reputations of St. Laurence and Mt. Carmel actually hurt them. ”Sure, we could play a St. Laurence or a Mt. Carmel, and even if we could win, we know we`d get some kids banged up,” he said. ”I think most teams are more concerned with the conference schedule. I know we are. We don`t need to have our kids hurt.”
St. Laurence coach Bob Fabrizio wants to be optimistic. ”We`re going through our practices as if we were going to play Whitney Young,” he said.
”If we don`t, then we don`t, but we can`t do anything else.”
Ridgewood coach Alan Marks has been looking, but he says the size of the school makes rescheduling difficult. With an enrollment of little more than 600, Ridgewood is considered too small for most schools. A game against either of the Catholic League powers would be one-sided and out of the question.
”But I am still looking, and I`ve made a lot of phone calls, but nothing has come of it,” said Marks, whose Rebels are scheduled to meet Schurz on Saturday.
”This week is so important because most of the improvement a team makes is between the first and second game,” says Lenti. ”But maybe all this is fate. ”We had a couple of kids banged up (in a 42-0 romp over Kenwood)
Saturday night. This will give them a chance to rest. It will be a long season anyway. Maybe eight games will be just as good as nine. Who`s to say?”
In a battle of strong Public League teams Sunday, Robeson defeated Julian 22-14 in three overtimes. Julian led 8-0 going into the fourth quarter, but Robeson`s Anthony Johnson scored from seven yards out and then ran over the two-point conversion. Johnson provided the winning points on a 10-yard pass reception from Jermaine Flemming.
In another Sunday game, Leo beat Providence 26-0 behind Levitius Johnson, who scored the Lions` first TD on a 65-yard run.
Homewood-Flossmoor`s running attack amounted to 45 yards in 25 tries in a 32-14 shellacking of Lincoln-Way Friday night, but the way coach John Wrenn sees it, the better Jeff Lesniewicz passes, the better the running will become. Lesniewicz completed 17 of 27 passes for 279 yards and threw for three touchdowns in the first two quarters. ”We were so far in front in the first half, I was able to run the ball in the second half,” said Wrenn. ”We`ll get better, don`t worry. I don`t think anyone can call us a one-dimensional team this early in the year.”
Deerfield scored touchdowns on 57- and 66-yard drives the first two times it had the ball in Friday night`s season-opener at Rolling Meadows. Four minutes into the fourth quarter, however, Rolling Meadows held a 20-12 lead and was driving on Deerfield. It looked as though the Warriors would suffer their first regular-season defeat in two years until Mike Golden recovered a Rolling Meadows fumble. Suddenly, the momentum turned, and Deerfield scored two quick touchdowns in three minutes on a 44-yard pass by quarterback Andrew Johnson and a 75-yard run by fullback Mike Engelhardt. Coach Paul Adams was understandably ecstatic about the 26-20 victory. ”They showed a lot of character tonight,” he said of his team. ”We`re still a green team and we made some mistakes, but that was really something. To be honest, I was probing a little and looking for something to work with no success until we came back in the second half. Mike Engelhardt did a super job.” Engelhardt bulled for 153 yards on 12 carries, easing somewhat the pain about the loss of junior running back Pete Caris, whom Adams said is out for the year after suffering a knee injury in the second quarter.
Rolling Meadows coach Fred Lussow watched his team fail on two running plays inside the 2-yard line in the final minute of action. ”There were a million mistakes out there,” he said. ”We kind of gave it away.” When asked about Johnson`s TD bomb, which changed the momentum in the final quarter, Lussow said, ”Yeah, that hurt. But they did exactly what they always do. They`ve done it for 15 years.”
After losing to Joliet Catholic 27-7 Friday, St. Laurence coach Bob Fabrizio thinks the Hilltoppers could be the best Class 5A team around. ”They`ve got big kids almost everyplace with lots of skills,” he said. ”They`ve also got a great football tradition working for them now, no matter who is doing the coaching. We laid out their quarterback, Jonathan Voss, four times, and he got up and came back to run the show. They`ve got speed in the backfield, too. They`re solid almost everyplace.” . . . St. Laurence linebacker Todd Beckley suffered a leg injury and will be out two weeks.
Best performance of the weekend was by Walther Lutheran`s Eric Baugh, who scored on pass receptions of 51, 6, 52 and 31 yards from Jeff Braun and returned a kickoff 73 yards for a TD in a 50-6 romp over Westmont. Those were his only catches of the game. Braun was 11 of 14 for 242 yards.
Stevenson`s Cliff King might have been winded after a 34-16 victory over Fenton Friday night. King opened the scoring with a 97-yard TD run in the first quarter, and to prove it was no fluke, he scored on a 90-yard scamper in the second period.
Marian Catholic`s Todd Bishop was the workhorse in the Spartans` 19-6 triumph over T.F. North with 38 carries for 208 yards and one touchdown.
Washington`s 23-14 victory Friday over Simeon wasn`t as costly as first suspected. When quarterback Alex Fernandez went out late in the first quarter, it was diagnosed as a broken collarbone, but the injury was later diagnosed as a strain of the right clavicle, and Fernandez will be out only a week to 10 days. However, the Minutemen may have found a replacement in wide receiver Barry Leavell, who took over for Fernandez and ”did an outstanding job,”
according to coach Ted Krza.
The Little Seven Conference is seeking four new members so it can split into two six-team divisions based on enrollment starting in 1990. Those interested should contact league president Dominic Marchiando at Sycamore High School.
Fenton coach Bob Ciancio hopes to see the 10-team North Suburban Conference split into two divisions. ”Right now, we don`t play any nonconference games,” he said. ”Even if we have to add a couple of teams, I`d like to see it happen.”
Several schools have joined the growing ranks of those playing under the lights. Schools that have added lights this season include Stevenson, Marist, Lake Zurich, Barrington, Riverside-Brookfield, Homewood-Flossmoor and Leyden. Trying to increase attendance is one major motivation for the shift.
Volleyball
Add St. Charles` Marv Leavitt to the growing number of Chicago-area coaches who believe that Illinois is slowly inching up on California as the nation`s top volleyball state. Last year, Volleyball Monthly ranked Illinois Class AA champ Richards as the No. 1 team in the nation, marking the first time a non- California team has won the magazine`s mythical national title. Off-season club play is the reason for the steady growth, according to Leavitt. ”I don`t think there`s any doubt about that,” he said. ”That`s the positive aspect of club play, as long as people don`t abuse it. As long as we don`t pressure the kids that they have to do it, it`s an opportunity that gives them a chance to grow and still do other things.”
Riverside-Brookfield coach Anita Krieger`s `86 squad finished 26-12, with all of the losses coming against highly regarded teams. Krieger believes that R-B is unlike most other schools, at least in one respect. ”Girls` sports here are always better than the boys, for some reason,” she said. ”Girls in the area are more into sports. These kids here are all-around athletes.” Krieger sees a bright future for collegiate volleyball in the state, if the top high school players learn to stay closer to home. ”They always seem to go to California,” she said. ”We need to keep them here and get them into coaching. Then we`ll be where California is. But I`m happy to see the University of Illinois program finally catching hold.”
Minooka coach Steve Houghton wants it known that the school with the Indian name has a team to contend with in `87. ”We never felt like we got the recognition we deserved last year,” Houghton said. The aptly named Indians, co-champions of the Northeast Conference with Lemont, finished with a 29-5 record and seven tournament championships last year but bowed out early in the Class AA regionals. Colleen Dooley, a 5-foot-9-inch senior setter, returns with 5-7 junior outside hitter Heather Florence to lead the current squad.
”Colleen is all-state material, but no one`s heard of her because of our location,” said Houghton.
Sacred Heart of Mary in Rolling Meadows has merged with St. Viator in Arlington Heights.
Soccer
New Trier, The Tribune`s No. 1 team, proved the rankings correct by defeating Lake Forest 5-0 Saturday night to increase its record to 4-0. The Trevians have outscored opponents 29-1. Saturday, striker Morry Steinbach scored twice, with junior halfback Steve Snower, midfielder Dan Segel and junior forward Brandon Linn getting one goal apiece. The shutout went to Glenn Taxman, who hasn`t allowed a goal in four matches. The lone goal scored against New Trier was a penalty kick against junior goalie Scott Brown. The big gun for New Trier thus far has been midfielder Vince Jajuga, who added a pair of assists Saturday to increase his statistics to 6 goals and 5 assists. ”We felt we had the potential to do what we`re doing,” said Trevian coach Tony Schinto. ”We just weren`t sure if we`d have the production up front or not. We`ve basically been a defensive-oriented club, but I felt we had the potential to score last year. Balls were hitting posts or going wide then. This year, everything seems to be going in.”
Another early-season title went to Buffalo Grove, which captured the Maine East Tournament. The Bison defeated Maine East 2-0 Friday to take the crown. Sophomore Brian McBride and senior Rich Drozdowski, a pair of forwards, scored for Buffalo Grove. Senior Doug Wessel recorded the shutout. Besides its victory over Maine East, Buffalo Grove tied Oak Park 1-1 last Monday and Francis Parker 2-2 Wednesday. ”The tournament was a little tougher than we expected,” said Buffalo Grove coach John Erfort. ”We knew Oak Park and Maine East were good, and Francis Parker really surprised all of us. We had the leads in the games we tied and could have won, but at least we played well all the way. We`re passing well and doing other things right. We`ll be okay this year.” Five players in Erfort`s lineup are seniors, five are juniors and one is a sophomore.
Tennis
Anna Sloan of Oak Park won the No. 1 singles title in the New Trier Invitational on Saturday. Sloan is a two-time state doubles champion with partner Kristen Beaudoin, who has graduated. She defeated Julie McKeon of Glenbrook North 6-3, 6-2 in the finals. Kim Anderson of New Trier defeated Tricia Mark of Glenbrook South 6-2, 6-0 to capture the No. 2 singles title. In doubles, Amy Holt and Suzie Jacoby of New Trier won the title at No. 1. New Trier won the team title, with Oak Park second and Glenbrook North third.
Cross country
Pontiac established itself as one of the top teams in the state Saturday by winning the St. Charles Invitational with 41 points to 51 for runner-up St. Charles and 60 for third-place Schaumburg. Downers Grove North was fourth with 88. Pontiac`s Todd Lopeman won the 3-mile race in 15 minutes 36 seconds, two seconds ahead of Troy Maddox of Streator Woodlands.
