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Offense on fire for Wildkits in early going
Updated: August 30, 2011 8:00PM
Two players each scored three goals in Evanston’s first two wins of the season.
Wildkits coach Franz Calixte isn’t sure if that ever happened before, much less in consecutive matches.
“I don’t know,” the 12th-year coach said. “It’s a good stat to look up.”
But Calixte won’t bother because he’s not too concerned about those novelties.
He’s more interested in the Wildkits avoiding another collapse after a good start. Evanston was shut out in 10 of its final 12 games of the regular season last year.
“We scored a lot of goals early last season, too,” he said after Monday’s 5-1 win over Mather, which followed a 3-3 tie against Buffalo Grove last week. “Then, we couldn’t find the back of the net to save our lives. This is a positive start, and I’m happy about that. We are just trying not to peak right now, like we did last year.”
Senior Frantz Jacques scored three times in the victory over Buffalo Grove, and senior Jamal Banton scored three in the win over Mather, which was coming off an appearance in the championship match at Glenbrook South’s tournament. Banton also had two assists.
“The score doesn’t reflect the kind of game it was,” Calixte said. “Mather is a good team, and they have some very talented players. They are going to be someone to watch for at the sectionals.”
Evanston led 3-0 at the half, and the Wildkits fought off a furious push by Mather to start the final 40 minutes.
“I’m glad we were up 3-0,” Calixte said. “But we didn’t crumble, and we held ourselves together.”
Evanston should be better than last year’s young club that finished 5-12-2 and went 0-5 in the CSL South. The Wildkits welcomed back seven starters and 17 varsity veterans in all, including last year’s standout, Zach Liebman, a senior defender.
“We look for him to hold it down in the back,” the coach said.
Also back in the starting lineup are seniors Nathan Livingston, John Pedtke and Philip Strunk, as well as juniors Manny Quiroz, Daniel Lev and Jonathon Balthazar.
Livingston will share time in goal with varsity rookie Randy Foreman.
“We do have high expectations for this team,” said Calixte, whose club is hosting its own tournament this week. “But we are taking baby steps, always trying to move forward and get better every day.”
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