Chicagoland Soccer Top 25
By Patrick Z. McGavin
The stage is almost set.
As the small-school programs compete in regional play, the large schools are locking in for the final week of the regular season, looking to get healthy, get sharp and prepare for the free-for-all that is the state tournament.
This penultimate regular season poll holds fairly steady from a week ago. Wheaton Academy makes a big push into the Top 25 as does Fenton, who ended St. Edward’s 21-game winning streak and pulled out an impressive 2-1 victory over Leyden. Carmel and Buffalo Grove made significant moves up.
In the game of the week at Waukegan, top-ranked Libertyville fought off a 1-0 deficit to reach a draw with the Bulldogs. Junior Waukegan keeper Marcos Garibay made a spectacular save off a Ryan Wittenbrink penalty kick attempt to preserve the result. Libertyville and Waukegan share the North Suburban Conference title. The teams are the top two seeds at Fremd.
New Trier avenged an earlier loss with a 3-1 win over Glenbrook North in the Central Suburban League championship game. The Spartans and Trevians are the 1-2 seeds respectively at the New Trier Sectional.
The next three weeks look to be riveting, an echo of what has come before and a projection of what to expect.
Games through 10-7
By Patrick Z. McGavin
The stage is almost set.
As the small-school programs compete in regional play, the large schools are locking in for the final week of the regular season, looking to get healthy, get sharp and prepare for the free-for-all that is the state tournament.
This penultimate regular season poll holds fairly steady from a week ago. Wheaton Academy makes a big push into the Top 25 as does Fenton, who ended St. Edward’s 21-game winning streak and pulled out an impressive 2-1 victory over Leyden. Carmel and Buffalo Grove made significant moves up.
In the game of the week at Waukegan, top-ranked Libertyville fought off a 1-0 deficit to reach a draw with the Bulldogs. Junior Waukegan keeper Marcos Garibay made a spectacular save off a Ryan Wittenbrink penalty kick attempt to preserve the result. Libertyville and Waukegan share the North Suburban Conference title. The teams are the top two seeds at Fremd.
New Trier avenged an earlier loss with a 3-1 win over Glenbrook North in the Central Suburban League championship game. The Spartans and Trevians are the 1-2 seeds respectively at the New Trier Sectional.
The next three weeks look to be riveting, an echo of what has come before and a projection of what to expect.
Games through 10-7
Rank | LW | School | W | L | T | Comment |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | Libertyville | 12 | 0 | 0 | Plays Waukegan to draw |
2 | 2 | Naperville N | 18 | 1 | 1 | Ethan Harvey is big-time player |
3 | 4 | New Trier | 16 | 3 | 0 | Jeffrey Urban sparks Central Suburban title |
4 | 5 | Waukegan | 13 | 2 | 2 | Share conference title with Libertyville |
5 | 3 | Glenbrook N | 14 | 3 | 1 | Mason Rose is back |
6 | 6 | Morton | 15 | 1 | 2 | Survives Leyden in shootout |
7 | 8 | Dundee-Cr | 16 | 0 | 2 | Best regular season team in school history |
8 | 11 | SC North | 10 | 2 | 4 | Jake Persenico is offensive catalyst |
9 | 10 | OPRF | 13 | 3 | 1 | Jai Hsieh-Bailey is elite defender |
10 | 13 | Lyons | 14 | 4 | 1 | Joey Fitzgerald sparks offensive surge |
11 | 9 | Prairie R | 16 | 2 | 0 | Loses wild one to Jacobs |
12 | 7 | Bradley-B | 14 | 3 | 0 | Upset by Stagg |
13 | 12 | Naperville C | 11 | 4 | 3 | Rokas Stadalninkas is top-notch defender |
14 | 20 | Carmel | 13 | 2 | 1 | Ian McKernan is another strong weapon |
15 | 15 | Barrington | 16 | 3 | 1 | Back in the MSL Cup |
16 | 25 | Buffalo Grove | 15 | 4 | 1 | Michael Botello keys team turnaround |
17 | 14 | Evanston | 12 | 3 | 4 | Threat at Fremd sectional |
18 | HM | Wheaton A | 15 | 4 | 0 | Metro Blue champs on 10-game win streak |
19 | NR | Fenton | 15 | 6 | 0 | Snaps St. Edward winning streak |
20 | 22 | Leyden | 14 | 3 | 2 | Francisco Toral is player to watch |
21 | 19 | Mount Carmel | 16 | 4 | 0 | Best in the Catholic League |
22 | 17 | St Edward | 21 | 1 | 0 | Green Wave suffers first loss |
23 | 18 | Woodstock | 20 | 1 | 0 | Grayslake Central ends streak |
24 | 16 | Streamwood | 10 | 5 | 1 | Michael Rubio is exciting player |
25 | 21 | Plainfield Central | 14 | 2 | 2 | Wildcats looking to regain magic |
Look out for: Round Lake, Lane, Solorio, St. Ignatius, Loyola, Young, Reavis, Geneva, West Aurora, St. Patrick, Latin, Lockport, Bulls, Oswego, Bremen