State title Sunday
Redwings win championship with Honn helping gain, retake lead
BRIDGEVIEW -- Benet's Kyle Honn had a good day Sunday.
A really good day.
Honn celebrated his 18th birthday by scoring nine goals to help lead the Redwings to a 14-7 victory against St. Ignatius in the Illinois High School Lacrosse Association "B" Lacrosse Cup contest played Sunday morning at Toyota Park.
After celebrating with his teammates, and posing for a few photos with friends and family, he made it back to Lisle in time for Benet's graduation.
"Not a bad day, huh?" Benet coach Tim Hurst said, "Kyle was just tremendous."
Honn came through for the Redwings when they needed him most.
Benet appeared to be on its way to a comfortable victory when the Redwings took a 5-1 lead at halftime thanks to Honn's three first-half goals.
St. Ignatius battled back to tie the match at 6-6 heading into the fourth quarter.
The Wolfpack's Chris Rubey scored 20 seconds into the quarter to give St. Ignatius its first lead at 7-6.
It was the first time the Redwings had faced adversity of any kind against "B" level teams. Benet entered Sunday's championship with a 15-0 mark against teams from its division and with an average margin of victory at 9.8 points per match.
"I was not expecting them to comeback," Honn said. " ... When they went up by a goal I got this feeling in my stomach that I did not want to lose this game at all."
The Wolfpack, who lost 10-1 to the Redwings on May 1 in Lisle, had Benet on the ropes.
But the fortunes of both teams changed with 8:27 remaining when Benet's Bobby Calzaretta and St. Ignatius' Robbie DeKold became tangled up in a heated exchange. Tempers flared briefly as the two players exchanged a few shoves, but DeKold took his actions a bit too far and was ejected from the match, and St. Ignatius received a three-minute non-releasable unsportsmanlike penalty. So, for the next three minutes, the Wolfpack played a man down.
Benet had caught the break it needed and immediately went to work. Honn tied the match with his fifth goal with 7:37 remaining and gave the Redwings the lead for good moments later. In all, the Redwings scored three times with the man advantage.
"We just needed that one goal to get the momentum back so we could tie the game and give us a chance to comeback and get ahead for good, and we just kept going from there," Honn said.
St. Ignatius coach Drew Stevenson said he was told that DeKold had bumped one of the officials thus drawing the ejection.
"It was a huge call," said Stevenson, who said he did not see DeKold touch an official. "I think the official lost his head - a couple of kids were tangled - they certainly deserved an infraction, but to eject and give a three-minute penalty I think is a suspect call in a hotly-contested game when it is that tight."
Hurst gave credit to Calzaretta for walking away after the exchange with DeKold.
"Our boys were ready to win," Hurst said. "We had opportunities and executed."
The victory also means the Redwings will compete at the "A" level next season with other local teams Naperville Central, Naperville North and Neuqua Valley.
Calzaretta and Jason Krogulski each scored twice for Benet, and Tim Tuscher added a goal. Redwings' goalie Vincent Flaska recorded nine saves.
Benet finished 17-2 overall and 16-0 against "B" competition. St. Ignatius finished 15-4 overall and 13-2 against "B" competition - both "B" losses came to Benet.
