Panthers gear up for postseason
After starting from scratch in 2008, the O’Fallon boys lacrosse program is quickly making a name for itself.
The Panthers, in their third season overall and their second varsity season, are ranked second out of 41 teams in the state Class B rankings. Coach Jim McIntyre’s squad takes a No. 6 seed and a 13-5-1 record into the Illinois High School Lacrosse Association playoffs and will face the winner of No. 11 West Chicago and No. 22 Champaign Centennial in a second-round game. The time and location of the game hadn’t been determined on Monday, but McIntyre hopes it will be played Friday at O’Fallon.
“We feel like we have a pretty good shot to win it all and the kids have thought that from the beginning,” said McIntyre. whose team had a first-round bye for the second year in a row. “A lot of teams say ‘we want to win state’ because they don’t want to say anything less than that, but these guys honestly believe that it’s an achievable goal. They will be disappointed if they don’t win state.”
O’Fallon is 13-5-1 overall and has won seven games in a row. The Panthers are 12-1-1 in their last 14 games and finished second in a recent tournament in Chicago.
“The kids get better each year and that’s an indication of how hard they’re working, not only in season but in the offseason,” McIntyre said. “They’ve kind of taken the state by storm so far.” The team has 15 seniors, including several who have been recruited to play in college.
“We obviously have a lot of leadership, both on and off the field,” McIntyre said. “Some of those seniors are role players and we’d be at a loss without them. Conversely, our man up team, which is our special offense and our best six players, will only lose three to graduation. Of our starting six midfielders, we only lose two to graduation. We have a tremendous sophomore class, so the future looks pretty good as well.”
The Panthers’ senior captains are Josh Meidel, Chris Stapchuck and Danny Morse. Stapchuck feels that team chemistry has played a big role in O’Fallon’s success.
“We’ve had all these people playing for a couple years – we have a couple new guys, but they caught on really quick,” he said. “At the beginning of the season we didn’t know each other that well, but we gradually clicked and starting winning game after game. I think we’re going to win state this year.”
One of the most pleasant surprises for O’Fallon this season has been senior goalie Nate Wilson.
“He had never held a goalie stick until about two weeks prior to the season, but we had a sophomore goalie who broke his hand in the offseason and there was an opportunity,” McIntyre said. “Nate is very athletic and had a fantastic football season as an inside linebacker.
“He gave it a try and not only has he accepted his role, he’s taken it by storm and he hasn’t looked back.”
En route to posting a .500 record as a first-year varsity squad in 2009, the Panthers may have taken some of their more established opponents by surprise. That’s not the case this year.
“We’re not going to sneak up on anybody,” McIntyre said. “The good news about these guys is that they don’t yet believe their own headlines. They’re not sitting back and saying ‘we’re ranked second in the state’ or anything like that. They’ve got a job to do and they know what it is and they’re excited about doing it.”
As good as the Panthers have been so far, junior Brian Furrow feels that the best is yet to come.
“We’ve learned to click as a unit and we’ve figured out our strong points and who we can rely on the most,” Furrow said. “Once you click, everything else comes into place.
“Our main goal is to go to state and win it. Just like any other team, you tend to break down a little bit at times and there are those basics that you can’t perfect yet. If we get those down, we’ll be untouchable.”
