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homerhorizon.com SPORTS the Homer Horizon | August 31, 2017 | 45 Football Celtics give defending 7A champs a battle on the road Chris Walker Freelance Reporter Providence was beaten not long after it had started when it played East St. Louis a season ago in New Lenox. On the road on Saturday, Aug. 26, the Celtics gave the defending Class 7A champs quite the fight before falling 40-28. “They’re a great team,” Celtics coach Mark Coglianese said. “We knew that coming in, but I’m very proud of the way we played, the effort our guys gave. We kept fighting. We were down early and kept battling back.” The Celtics (0-1) seemingly shocked the Flyers when they jumped ahead 21-18 after a 66-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Caden Kalinowski to Nico Planeta with 7 minutes 54 seconds left in the third quarter in the contest. “It took us awhile to adjust to them, and eventually we were able to give Caden time to make some plays,” Planeta said. “Our line did their job and gave DeShon [Gavin] some room to run.” Planeta said it was impossible to simulate the speed of the Flyers in practice, so that was why it took awhile for the Celtics to adjust. “After the first quarter, you can see we were ready,” he said. “I thought we fought them pretty well. They’re the defending Class 7A champs and one of the best teams in the state again, and we were right there with them.” East St. Louis running back Jigg Brown’s 11-yard touchdown run put the Flyers up 27-21, and they extended it to 34-21 on Christian Perez’s 5-yard touchdown pass to Lauwaun Powell, Jr., who would finish with three touchdown receptions. The Celtics displayed some resiliency, though, as Kalinowski found Gavin for a 2-yard touchdown to make it a 34-28 game. That would be as close as the Celtics would get, as the Flyers sealed the game on another Perez-to-Powell touchdown pass with only 1:38 remaining. “This game, even with the loss, feels like a confidence booster for the team,” Kalinowski said. “As a team, we played well. We made some mistakes, so it wasn’t the most perfectly played game, but we felt like we should have won, and that it’ll help us in the long run.” Last year, the game was seemingly over at halftime, with the Flyers jumping ahead 28-0. This time, the Celtics proved to be a handful, and they’re hopeful that it’s going to result in a winning record, something that’s eluded them these past two seasons. “It felt like there wasn’t any time where we weren’t in the game,” Kalinowski said. “There were lead changes late, and it was a great game.” Now, the Celtics find themselves just like they were a season ago, with a must-wintype game against St. John Vianney from Missouri. The Griffins are the defending Class 5A state champions in Missouri, and the Celtics beat them a season ago. “It’s almost a must-win game to give us momentum and get us ready for conference” Planeta said. “East St. Louis is probably the toughest team we’ll see all season long, so were not too down. We’re confident. If anything, we’re more motivated, and if we are able to win on Friday, maybe that gets us going, and we go 8-1 or 7-2 this year.” Cross country LTHS girls dominate, boys get solid results at preseason meet Randy Whalen Freelance Reporter Lockport Township boys cross country coach Tom Razo is a Cubs fan. So he knows that a rebuild project can work. He hopes the one for the Porters does now. Despite having their top boys varsity runner out, the Porters had some good performances last week at the SouthWest Suburban Conference preseason cross country meet Aug. 22 at Dellwood Park in Lockport. Cade Musich led the way for Lockport with a ninth-place overall finish in a time of 17 minutes 41.9 seconds. Junior teammate Marc Schelli (18:05.2) was 13th overall and the next highest placer for the Porters, who are excited about their underclassmen. “It’s a slower course,” said Musich, a senior and four-year varsity runner, of the home course at Dellwood Park. “I should be a little faster, but I’ll take it for the first race. We could be better, but our freshman/sophomore team had a lot of good times.” In the freshman/sophomore race, Lockport sophomores Brendan Diamond (18:34.7) and Aidan Pajeau (18:38.4) were the top two finishers as the Porters placed five in the Top 10. “We’ve got some younger guys that are going to be good,” Razo said. “We’re not rushing them. We’re going to get them some confidence and then move them up.” Rounding out the Top 7 on the varsity for Lockport were seniors George Kosmowski (19:07.8), David Krzysiak (19:37.4), Nick Sulich (19:40.2), junior Alex Kistinger (19:42.4) and senior Dylan McCarthy (19:57.1). Donovan Paske is expected to be the Porters’ top runner this season. The junior, however, is currently out with a stress fracture behind his right knee. “I felt a pop during a run at Dellwood,” Paske said of the injury, which occurred in the second week of August. “The doctor actually said I could come back to running now, but the coaches want to wait to make sure on it. The team is doing well without me, but I’d love to be back out there.” Musich is looking forward to having his teammate back and to the Porters improving throughout the season. “We have to work hard on the distance runs, and we have to pack it in better,” Musich said. “We’ve got to be more aggressive. But the goal is to get to state as a team. I’ve wanted that since freshman year.” The Lockport boys haven’t been to state since the fall of 2009, but Razo cautioned that there’s a long way to go until this postseason. “State would be nice, but it will depend on where we go for the sectional,” he said. “In the meantime, Donovan has to train smart. It’s frustrating for him to be out, but at least it’s at the start of the season.” Sandburg senior Dylan Jacobs (15:53.2) was the individual winner by nearly a minute and 17 seconds over Lincoln-Way Central sophomore Jared Kreis (17:10). Sandburg, which won the Class 3A state tile in 2015, would have easily won the team title, as it had five of the Top 12 runners. MORTGAGE ALERT! CONTACT THE CLASSIFIED DEPARTMENT 708-326-9170 22ndcenturymedia.com LOCK-IN MORE BUSINESS. ADVERTISE LOCALLY. Lockport girls dominate On the girls side, Lockport is off to an outstanding start to the season. At the preseason meet, the Porters placed six of the Top 9 runners and seven of the Top 12. Plus, only one of the runners in that group is a senior. The top finishers were sophomore Madison Polinski (20:58.4, 3rd), freshman Elizabeth Bollinger (21:07.2, 4th), junior Kate Wojcikiewicz (21:09.1, 5th), senior Aubrey Friedrich (21:16.7, 7th) and sophomores Alexandra Skibicki (21:21.4, 8th), Abbey Kozak (21:32.9, 9th) and Anna Kozak (21:46.7, 12th). “The girls came up with that idea for the pack in the first race, and they did it really well,” Lockport girls cross country coach Erin Truesdale said. “They set out to pack run, and it worked well for us. It was a good start to the season, and, as we move forward, we will keep this plan in mind. Now our focus will be to move that pack up.” Bollinger is the younger sister of two-time Porter state medalist Morgan Bollinger, who graduated this spring. “Elizabeth trained with us in the summer and did really well,” Truesdale said of Bollinger. “She’s fit real well into the team, and it’s nice to have her in the top group. We had a good summer of training, and we will be concentrating on keeping everyone healthy. This team is a wonderful combination of experienced girls and newcomers with great potential. We are excited to see where the season takes us. “We’re hoping to make it back to state and place a little higher.” Last year, Lockport, which was making its eighth straight state appearance and 12th in 13 seasons, placed 17th in Class 3A. The SWSC preseason meets were not officially scored team-wise. Lincoln-Way Central had the Top 2 runners, as junior Mackenzie Brownrigg (20:43) was first, and sophomore Rachel Baumgartner (20:45.3) placed second. Lockport would have easily won the team title, as the Porters had six of the next seven top finishers, so they had six of the Top 9 placers. This weekend, both the Porter boys and girls teams are at the Plainfield Central Invite, which starts at 9 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 2, right on the Plainfield Central Campus.
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