Plainfield Central is 2-0 for the first time in nearly 10 years after a beating Lemont 38-33 and Lockport 48-45 during the first two rounds of the Romeoville Thanksgiving Girls Basketball Tournament in Romeoville.

Tied at 45-all, Jessica Kaminski’s basket from Kayla Jackson gave the Wildcats the lead for good at 47-45 with 1:57 left in the game Friday against Lockport Township High School.

“The key thing was we rebounded the basketball well and that dictated control of the game,” Plainfield Central coach Mark Krusz said. “We’re ending up on top of these games right now and I’m excited to see what we do when we fix a lot of these things.”

It was Plainfield Central’s first win over Lockport since 2001.

“We have returning players, injured players are now better and I’m pretty excited about this season,” said Kaminski, who led the Wildcats with seven rebounds.

Plainfield Central’s Lauren Kulaga led all scorers with 11 points and pulled down six rebounds. Teammate Brigid Hanley chipped in nine points, five steals and four assists.

Three runs summarized the first half.

Plainfield Central led 11-2, Lockport went on a 20-4 run to take a 22-15 lead before the Wildcats put together a 13-1 run on their way to taking a 28-25 lead at the half.

Kayla Gustafson’s basket at the buzzer from Hanley gave Plainfield Central a 41-38 lead after three quarters.

A layup by Hannah Hollatz gave Lockport a 44-43 lead with 4:20 left in the game. It was the last basket for the Porters.

The night before against Lemont High School, Plainfield Central allowed one free throw over the final six minutes of a 38-34 victory.

Hanley, returning from her second ACL surgery, led all scorers with 18 points. Kaminski pulled down nine rebounds and had four steals.

Kulaga added 10 points, including a pair of three-pointers, and four steals.

Alex Harrison’s put back with 4:44 to play in the game tied it at 33-33. Hanley’s conventional three point play with 1:27 left in the fourth gave the Wildcats the lead for good at 37-34.

Plainfield Central led 20-14 late in the first quarter. It scored just two baskets over the next 12 minutes as Lemont built a 33-26 lead with six minutes left in the game. 

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It looked as if Plainfield Central High School’s postseason run was about to end.

Lockport had a 25-24 lead and the serve during the third game of the second Aurora West girls volleyball sectional semifinal Tuesday in Aurora.

A serve into the net gave No. 9 Plainfield Central life and it took advantage to post a 25-22, 15-25, 27-25 win over No. 7 Lockport Township High School.

The resurgent Wildcats (23-15) will take on No. 1 Benet Academy (35-3) for the sectional championship at 7 p.m. Thursday.

After Lockport took a 25-24 lead on a hitting error by Plainfield Central, the Porters were in position for victory.

A serve error left the door open for the Wildcats’ third upset in the state tournament.

“We opened the door for them and it is what it is,” retiring Lockport coach Julia Hudson said. “They took advantage of it.”

“We were stunned. Shocked,” Plainfield Central coach Jessica Clark said. “I don’t even know what to say about that one. But (Lockport) played a really great game. They tested us. I have nothing but respect for their team and their coaching staff.”

“That was the best feeling ever because we didn’t have to worry about making a mistake,” Plainfield Central senior setter Taryn Trubich said.

“Oh my gosh! Did that just happen?” Plainfield Central senior outside hitter Erin Hyland said. “I could not believe it. The game was on our side, then. Every team makes errors and good teams feed off that. That’s how we got it done.”

An ace by Shannon Hagen and Hyland’s kill from Trubich sent the Wildcats to their first sectional championship game since 1988.

 “It came down to those last four points,” Clark said. “Those last six or seven points, they really showed how much heart this team has.”

Hyland led Plainfield Central with 10 kills. Trubich dished out 20 assists and Dana Peterson came up with 15 digs. Emily O’Bradovich had a team-high six blocks.

Benet Academy advanced by beating No. 13 Oswego 25-13, 25-16 in the first sectional semifinal contest.

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The pupil beat the teacher and, in the process, ruined the teacher’s dream of making the playoffs.

Romeoville, coached by Jeff Kuna – a former assistant to Plainfield Central coach John Jackson – scored with 38.1 seconds left and beat Plainfield Central 49-46 Friday night. The loss drops Central to 5-4, making it unlikely the Wildcats will have enough playoff points to make the field.

“Give credit to Jeff and his kids,” Jackson said. “They came to play. They weren’t playing to knock us out of the playoffs. They were playing for pride.”

Quarterback Jake Bambule hit Duvaun Goodlow with a 14-yard touchdown pass with :38.1 left, answering a Plainfield Central touchdown by Tim Blake that came with 2:29 to go.

Bambule was 23-of-37 for 288 yards and four touchdowns on the night, with Goodlow catching eight passes for 107 yards. Tim Welch grabbed eight balls for 145 yards for the Spartans (3-6), while Perez Ford ran for 82 yards and two touchdowns in 11 carries and threw a 26-yard touchdown pass to Welch.

Romeoville grabbed a 20-0 lead early on, but the Wildcats roared back, taking advantage of four turnovers and outscoring the Spartans 33-8 in the second and third quarters. Romeoville then put up 21 points in the fourth quarter.

“Our kids have no quit in them,” Kuna said. “We had some turnovers, but we came back and made plays when we had to. I am proud and happy for our seniors, who played their best game of the year in their final game.

“This is a special group of kids to me. This is my fourth year here, so they are the first group that’s been with me the entire way. For them to walk off this field with a win like this makes me so happy for them.”

Plainfield Central’s Jordan Ellingwood scored four touchdowns, three on the ground and one on a 36-yard reception from Blake. The other Wildcat scores came from Blake, Tyler Erdmann (3-yard run) and A.J. Apiquian (2-yard fumble return).

Ellingwood’s TD reception gave the Wildcats their first lead, 33-28, in the third quarter. After a Romeoville punt, he broke free up the middle for a 32-yard TD run that put Central up 39-28. He finished with 88 yards on 14 carries.

But Romeoville’s offense caught fire again, as Bambule hit Goodlow for a 19-yard score to make it 39-34 with 9:25 to play and then connected with Welch on a 50-yard touchdown to put the Spartans ahead 42-39 after Ford’s two-point conversion.

“Jake made some great throws tonight,” Kuna said. “And our defense got stops when we needed them to. We put them in some bad spots with turnovers, but they dug in and did the job when they had to.”

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All four Plainfield School District 202 boys and girls prep teams took away something from the Southwest Prairie Conference cross country meet Saturday in Oswego.

It was a learning experience for the Plainfield South boys and a coming out race for the Plainfield Central girls.

The Cougars took second to six-time championship Minooka, 42-53, in the boys race.

The Wildcat girls took third place, their highest placing in a conference meet since 2006.

“Our hat’s off to Minooka and its program,” Plainfield South boys coach Jason Crowe said. “They are raising the standard in the conference every year and that’s a good thing. Plainfield East did great today, so it’s great to see this conference becoming more and more competiive.”

Upstart Plainfield East was missed two of its top runners, but still managed to take fourth with 71 points. Plainfield Central placed sixth (158 points) and Plainfield North was seventh (217).

“Today was a learning experience for our guys,” Crowe said. “We’ll got back to the drawing board after today. We’re a little disappointed with the second-place finish.”

Sophomore Dan Lathrop led the Cougars by taking fifth in 15:47. Tyler Ryan was seventh (15:51) and Cody Dyer posted a top-10 finish, taking ninth (15:57).

Joseph Suarez of Plainfield East took sixth in 15:49 and Jake Runnion was eighth in 15:54.

Plainfield Central’s lone all-conference runner was Brad Anderson, who took 14th in 16:13. 

Minooka placed five runners in the top 16 to score 42 points and win its sixth straight league championship.

“The goals are to advance to the sectional and state and those two goals are still out there for us,” Crowe said. “We’ve got two weeks to get ready for the sectional and that’s what we’re focusing on right now.”

Plainfield Central’s triumphant trio of Grace Lawrence (third in 18:58), Emily Wihnanek (sisth in 19:15) and Nicole Pease (seventh in 19:19) propelled the Wildcats, who scored 68 points, just three back of champion Oswego.

Jackie Aremka’s eighth-place finish in 21:06 led Plainfield North, which took fifth (109).

Plainfield East placed sixth (147) and Plainfield South (168) came in seventh. Anissa Rodriguez was the Cougars’ lone all-SPC performer, taking 14th in 21:42.

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The fireworks show after the game paled in comparison to the Plainfield Central? offense during ?Plainfield South?’s homecoming Friday.

The Wildcats scored two touchdowns within seven seconds in the first quarter en route to a 26-19 Southwest Prairie Conference win over the Cougars.

Tim Blake threw for three touchdowns and Jordan Ellingwood
struck pay dirt three times to put Plainfield Central (4-2, 2-2 in the SPC) a win away from playoff consideration. Plainfield South fell to 3-3, 2-2.

“I thought it would be something like this,” Plainfield Central coach John Jackson said. “We knew we were going to have to score and play the field position game.”

Mike Leffler recovered a fumbled punt that led to Blake’s first touchdown pass of 10 yards to Ellingwood with 9:07 left in the first quarter.

Derek Bernascik pounced on a fumbled kick off and Blake found Gino Gerritano from 24 yards away for a 13-0 lead with 9:00 left in the first quarter.

“We knew they were going to make mistakes and we had to
capitalize on them,” Blake said. “The line was blocking great and our receivers were catching everything. It was up to me to deliver the ball and they did the rest.”

Blake finished the night 10 of 16 for 151 yards.

“The first quarter, we knew we had to come out hard,” Ellingwood said. “That’s what we did. We capitalized on their mistakes and their turnovers.”

Ellingwood rushed 16 times for 96 yards and a third-quarter touchdown run. The junior also caught five passes for 52 yards and two touchdowns, including a 6-yarder from Blake that gave the visitors a 20-0 lead with 7:58 to play in the second quarter.

Plainfield South got on the board when Ricky Luna threw 23 yards to Josh Harris to cut the lead to 20-6 at the half.

Austin Howarth’s 7-yard touchdown pass to Dantrell Wright with 5:40 left in the third quarter put the Cougars within 20-13.

Ellingwood’s 10-yard run with 1:54 left in the third bumped the lead to 26-13.

Howarth’s second touchdown pass went to Joshua Harris from 14 yards out, cutting the deficit to 26-19 with 6:02 left in the game.

Plainfield South’s final drive ended at the Plainfield Central 38 with 1:40 left in the game.

Howarth went 24 of 42 for 292 yards. Wright caught 12 passes for 115 yards. However, the Cougars rushed for just 17 yards.

“It’s a tough situation for our guys,” Plainfield South coach Ken Bublitz said. “I know they were focused on the game and didn’t perform as well as they could. Unfortunately, the mistakes we made last week that we thought we cleaned up surfaced again tonight.”

“We knew they were an explosive and tough team,” Jackson said. “Offensively, I thought we ran the ball well and Tim threw the ball well tonight.”

With a win over ?Plainfield East? at 1 p.m. Saturday during homecoming, Plainfield Central would be considered playoff-eligible with five victories.

“They made a mistake on the punt and the kickoff and we were
able to capitalize on them,” Jackson said. “Now, we’re 4-2 and we’re going to have to get after it against next week.”

“We’re going to the playoffs,” Blake said.

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The Plainfield Central? Wildcats and Oswego East Wolves were both looking for their first conference win and to get back above .500.

The Wildcats prevailed 14-13 thanks to a fourth quarter rally and a missed extra point by the Wolves in the third quarter. 

In the end, it all comes down to the little things. 

In the first half, neither side could even get that much right. Neither side made a serious scoring threat for almost the entire first half. The Wolves (2-3, 0-3) got as close as the Wildcats’ 20, but couldn’t convert on fourth-and-six. The Wildcats (3-2, 1-2) got to the 10 with one second remaining in the first half, but junior Mike Fisher’s 27-yard kick was partially blocked by Wolves defenders. 

The second half proved to be much more lively. 

On Oswego East’s first play in the third, quarterback Dakoda Skenandore made a brilliant fake handoff to RB Jake Aceret and ran down the sideline for an 88-yard TD to break the scoreless tie. Late in the third, Skenandore threw a 37-yard TD pass to his brother Chase to put the Wolves up 13-0. They missed the PAT, however. 

The Wildcats’ offense, which had been listless to that point, went to work on the subsequent possession. Quarterback Tim Blake seemed to energize the offense with a 14-yard QB sneak near the very end of the third quarter. 

“He (Blake) was able to read the defense a little bit better and we went into a hurry-up offense a little more,” Wildcats coach John Jackson said. 

The Wildcats, led by running back Jorda Ellingwood, pushed their way deep into Wolves territory and finally got on the board with a 2-yard TD by junior Tyler Erdman early in the fourth quarter. 

The Wildcats went on the prowl midway through the fourth and it was Ellingwood again leading the charge on the ground. Blake did the rest with a one-yard QB sneak for a TD. 

The Wolves tried to put together a last-minute drive, but they couldn’t convert. Dakoda’s deep pass to his brother Chase on fourth-and-long with 40 seconds left was into deep coverage and was, on what could have been pass interference, batted away by the secondary to seal the win. 

The Wildcats play Plainfield South? on Sept. 30. The Wolves host Minooka on Sept. 30 for their homecoming game.

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Down 14-0 early to Plainfield Central? in the first quarter, Plainfield North? went to the arm of quarterback Kurt Palandech to turn around this crosstown Southwest Prairie Conference matchup Friday night at Plainfield North High School.

The 6-foot-2, 180-pound junior signal-caller got his offense in gear, throwing for three touchdowns on 17 of 26 passes for 264 yards in the Tigers’ 35-28 victory. ?North? evens its record at 2-2 and 1-1.

“Kurt is such a great kid. I am so glad he bounced back after the game we had last week as a team,” said Plainfield North coach Tim Kane, who has a record of 24-27 running the Tigers’ program. “I was really proud how we persevered the way we did and made plays on both sides of the ball.”

Gino Giarratano, who had eight carries for 118 yards, scored on runs of eight and 58 yards to give the Wildcats (2-2, 0-2) an early 14-0 advantage.

In the second quarter, Jay Roberts (one-yard run at 8:46) and Quest Young (74-yard pass from Palandech at 5:52) tied the game for North at 14. ?Central? retook the lead on Tyler Erdman’s one-yard run with 1:36 remaining. Roberts (19 carries for 122 yards; two catches for 40 yards) took a screen pass from Palandech 26 yards for a North score with 7.4 seconds left to tie it.

“Jay (Roberts) did a great job,” Kane said. “He didn’t come off the field much at all. I think he runs the ball fairly hard, puts his pads down and gets some tough yards for us.”

Matt Fenza’s 25-yard touchdown catch and Roberts’ 44-yard run helped North take control in the third with a 35-21 lead. Central’s Jordan Ellingwood’s five-yard run with 3:27 left in the fourth pulled the Wildcats close.

Ellingwood was the game’s leading rusher with 172 yards on 15 carries. Young had five catches for 124 yards, Fenza had four for 55 and Alex Starks had five for 23 for North.

The varsity football rivalry between the two Plainfield schools began in 2006. ?Central? won the first three contests (49-0 in 2006, 21-6 in 2007 and 16-14 in 2008). North won the next two games, 28-17 in 2009 and 33-14 last season. Now the series is tied at 3.

“I thought we played really well”, said Plainfield Central? coach John Jackson, who has a record of 74-65 heading the Wildcats’ program. “Offensively, we moved the ball well, but shot ourselves in the foot at times. We made some crucial mistakes here and there. We fought hard, defensively. You have to give them a little credit. They had a good game plan. They knew they were going to have difficulty running on us, consequently they threw. I’m very proud of my kids. They fought hard.”

Up next for Central? is a home date Friday against Oswego East, while North travels to Romeoville.

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“Surviving High School – A Guide for Freshmen and their Parents” will be presented from 7-8 p.m. Tuesday, August 16, 2011 in the school auditorium, 24120 W. Fort Beggs Drive, Plainfield. The program is intended for PHSCC parents, however students are also welcome to attend. Registration is not required.

Administrators will share information on important topics including:
• The transition to high school
• Student services and administration introductions
• School calendar and important dates
• Attendance policies
• Code of conduct and school rules
• Graduation requirements
• Programs and courses
• Four-year high school plan
• Extracurricular activities
• Plainfield High School resources

Please contact PHSCC Associate Principal Darcie Kubinski for more information at (815) 436-3200 or dkubinski@psd202.org.

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The Niehus Award was established in 1986 to honor the legacies of former District 202 Superintendent of Schools Walter Niehus and his wife, respected former teacher Juanita Niehus.

It is given each year to either certified personnel or support staff members, nominated by their peers, who show extraordinary commitment to district students, parents and employees. The Plainfield Foundation for Excellence administers the Niehus award.

Klaas is the 26th recipient of the Niehus Award, which has been presented annually since the award’s inception. She received the award at the June 27, 2011 District 202 Board of Education meeting.

Foundation Chair Carla Erdey praised Klaas as a compassionate and inspirational leader for thousands of students and colleagues.

“As a Department Chair, Lisa sets the bar high and earns the respect of her staff by setting a stellar example of what it means to be a teacher,” Erdey said.

Klaas started her education career in 1982 as a physical education teacher at Indian Trail Middle School. She was nominated by two colleagues, including PHSCC Athletic Director Dave Stephens.

“While physical fitness is not always a popular topic with high school students, Ms. Klaas has made fitness a priority for our young people,” Stephens wrote in his nomination.

“Lisa has shined a light on the importance of physical education and has been ahead of the nation fight for kids to be healthy,” he wrote.

Fellow teachers have reported that students have benefitted from Klaas’ efforts to highlight the impact of physical activity on student learning, Erdey said.

However Klaas’ efforts go well beyond the classroom, Erdey said.

Klaas recently helped a student’s family raise money to pay for funeral expenses and to buy a headstone for their daughter.

“Her leadership helped to unite students to do something positive with their grief and cope with the tragic loss of their friend,” Erdey said.
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This non-competitive event will be held in the PHSCC auditorium and main gymnasium. PHSCC is located at 24120 W. Fort Beggs Drive, Plainfield. Admission is $6 for adults and $4 for students and senior citizens.

Two bands from each of District 202’s four high schools will perform. The Plainfield Middle School Honor Band, under the guest direction of Charles Staley, will open the festival with an 8:15 am performance.

Concert bands from Lemont, Fenton, Naperville North, Joliet West, HD Jacobs, Thorton Fractional South, Yorkville and New Trier high schools will also perform.

Prominent university band conductors will evaluate and critique each band’s performance. Judges include Mark Heidel from the University of Iowa; Linda Moorehouse from the University of Illinois; and Bruce Moss from Bowling Green State University.

Please contact PHSCC Band Director Dan Valkema for more information at (815) 436-3200, or dvalkema@psd202.org

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