The following are posts related to specific shoots. And other things that I cannot stop myself from writing about.
The DePaul Prep Rams entered Catholic League play Thursday evening at St. Rita High School with a 59-14 victory over the Mustangs. The Rams improved to 5-0 and 1-0 in the Catholic League.
Tomorrow is the Chicago Elite Classic where the Rams will face neighbor Lane Tech in the final game of the night.
The DePaul Prep Rams are peaking at the best time of the season. They handled the Teutopolis Wooden Shoes 45-17 in the IHSA 2A semi-final in Champaign. I was told that 17 points is the lowest point total in IHSA playoff history. Teutopolis struggled to even get shots up. This was probably the Rams best performance of the year.
The Rams difficulties in the Chicago Catholic League, going 6-7 in the Blue, were clearly frustrating, even disconcerting, for the Rams and their fans.
“We got the injuries when we had Rita, Mount Carmel and DeLaSalle so we took our lumps early,” said DePaul head coach Tom Kleinschmidt. “But we learned from that. And now we are a little bit seasoned.”
Advancing in such dominant fashion to the state championship game must be satisfying, even vindicating, for the Rams. But even more than that, the Rams and their coach Tom Kleinschmidt clearly want it. They are driven to get this championship.
The defensive effort of the Rams, particularly in the second half, was something really special--truly a historic defensive effort. Teutopolis did not score in the fourth quarter. Their seventh and final point came midway through the third quarter.
“We executed our game plan. We fronted the post on the big. We wanted to turn them into passers with back side help. We shaded [Teutopolis’s Brayden Niebrugge and Garrett Gaddis]. We wanted to make the other guys score on us. [Teutopolis’s James Niebrugge, Brayden’s cousin] hurt us,” Kleinschmidt continued.
“We wanted to run that clock in the fourth quarter. So we called a longer set. We wanted to take a minute and a half [off the clock with every possession] and have them chase us. We wanted to wear them down where they had to chase and foul. And then we could do what we did, flash and get back door cuts.”
DePaul’s senior guard Maurice Thomas nearly beat Teutopolis himself with sixteen points. Junior forward Jaylan McElroy had ten points. PJ Chambers with seven. Payton Kamin with six. Jonas Johnson and Henry West each with exclamation point buckets at the end. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention senior Dane Barkley’s beautiful no look assist to Henry West with 1:12 left.
The Rams advance to face the Bloomington Central Catholic Saints on Saturday in the 2A state championship game at 12:45.
Be careful what you wish for. Bloomington Central Catholic defeated Rockridge 57-44 in the other semi-final. The Saints have Cole Certa. Certa finished with nineteen points, sixteen of which came in the second half. If you have not heard of Certa, you soon will. The heavily recruited junior guard is the third highest rated 2024 prospect in Illinois behind only St. Rita’s Morez Johnson and James Brown.
Stay tuned. The Rams will have to duplicate, or maybe improve their defensive effort to bring home the school’s first basketball state championship.
No other way to put this, the DePaul Prep Rams took a shellacking at the hands of the St. Rita Mustangs, 12-0, at Kerry Wood Field Saturday morning. I wasn’t there to write a story so I am a little short on details. The details wouldn’t be pretty anyway.
I was there to get some good daylight baseball photos. There was a low haze this late morning. A little overcast too. I set up the 5D with the 24-300mm 5.6 to get some behind the plate. I set the shutter speed at 1/2000. It worked. I got some good shots with a frozen baseball. I had to push the ISO to 400 but that doesn’t make much of a difference on a full frame 5D Mark IV. The photos from the 70-200mm 2.8 are noticeably sharper that the 24-300. I really need to get one of those 300mm 2.8 lenses.
I wanted to settle on the best positions for baseball as well. It seems that the first and third base sides just back the dugouts are the best place for the most shots. Behind the plate is only good for photos of the pitcher. One can’t get good shots of action in the field from there.
So here are the photos. I have a lot more work to do getting good photos of this year’s edition of Rams Baseball.
Dissappointing seasons came to an end for both the DePaul Prep Rams and St. Rita Mustangs on Saturday (Oct. 20, 2018) with a 40-0 whitewashing of the Rams by the Mustangs. I had high hopes for the Rams at the beginning of the season. They had some athletes, a little bit of size. I thought they could pick up some quality wins. It wasn’t to be.
I saw St. Rita twice. They gave a good game to a very good Brother Rice team. 3 and 6 is a surprising record for such a good team.
Both programs will bounce back. On to basketball.
Hope you like the photos.
Brother Rice hosted St. Rita Friday night (Sept. 28, 2018) in a Chicago Catholic League Blue showdown. The Crusaders maintained their lead in the conference with a 21-14 defeat of the Mustangs.
The Crusaders opened the scoring early in the first quarter with a 73 yard touchdown pass and run from senior quarterback John Bean to senior wide receiver Dylan Summers.
The Crusaders took the 7-0 lead into half time and opened the third with a long touchdown run by John Bean. The Mustangs answered immediately thereafter with a kickoff return touchdown by St. Rita sophomore wide receiver Henry Wilson to make the score 14-7.
In the fourth, Brother Rice senior cornerback Danny Fitzgerald picked off an errant pass and returned the ball deep into St. Rita territory. The Crusaders capitalized on the Fitzgerald INT with an inside touchdown run by senior running back Jessi Plunkett.
Despite a late St. Rita touchdown drive, Brother Rice held for the win improving its record to 6-0 overall and 3-0 in the Catholic League Blue.
