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Preview

Quarterfinal #1: St Ignatius (25-8) vs Schaumburg (24-8)

Game Time: 4:30pm; Friday, May 20

Coaches: St Ignatius-Brian Drumm (4th year) / Schaumburg-Tom Gallagher (6th year)

How They Got Here: St Ignatius beat Latin 12-9 at the UIC Sectional. Schaumburg beat Conant 11-9 at the Barrington Sectional.

Previous 2011 Meetings: None.

Current Rankings: St Ignatius - #4 / Schaumburg - #15

Top Performers: St Ignatius (Mark Alvarado - 124 goals) / Schaumburg (Mike Gergen - 139 goals, Randy Carr - 117 goals)

The Goalies: St Ignatius (Mike Fratto) / Schaumburg (Mike George)

Talking Points: Momentum. Not much of a factor. The Wolfpack closed out the regular season with six wins a row, finished in third at the MCAC Tournament, then had three solid performances at sectionals to get back to state. The Saxons handed Palatine their only conference loss late in the year, then clinched their first trip back to state since 2008 with two narrow wins over Conant and Fremd. Experience. Definitely on the Wolfpack's side, as they made a run to finish third at last year's state tournament with a similar lineup, while the Saxons return four players who were just freshmen when the team qualified three years ago. Tournament opener. For all of the hype of the state tournament, there's something about the first game of the day that can lead to potential upsets. The crowd is still filing in, there's not much time to think between school, the drive to Lincolnshire, warmups, and so on...and before you know it, the game is underway. Schaumburg is the clear underdog coming into this game, but if they can grab an early lead and play solid defense early on, this could be one of those games. Don't miss it!

Other Players to Watch: 

St Ignatius (Brayden Amendola, Jaime Juarez, Kevin Barth, Paul Bouschlicher, Tom Maloney)

Schaumburg (Alex Koehl, Brandon Luke, Jack Martin, Justin Chen, Marty Kwiatkowski)