The renovation of the Muny’s upper plaza...
Read More
Jim Wieners’ Sports Roundup: Football Kickoff
Trinity, Lutheran North Kickoff
2019 Before Visiting East St. Louis
By Jim Wieners
For them first time Trinity Catholic High School and Lutheran High School North Football teams will open the season this Saturday, Aug. 31, instead of playing in October or November.
Trinity will visit Lutheran North’s Bill Lamothe Field, site of the Nov. 3, 2017 classic, for a 7 p.m. kickoff. That was for the Class Two, District Two title as Lutheran North, playing in front of over 2,000 fans, stopped Trinity on a two-point conversion attempt as the Crusaders won 48-46. Two weeks later Lutheran North lost a 7-6 state semifinal heartbreaker to visiting and eventual state champion Lamar.
Trinity and Lutheran North met each year in 2003-2017, twice in 2014, and the Crusaders lead the series over the Titans 14-2. Last year Trinity, which won 13 straight after losing the first two, moved to Class Three and won the first of three state titles (the other two in Boys and Girls Track and Field) in the 2018-19 school year. Lutheran North (10-4) stayed in Class Two in 2018, lost in the state semifinals to eventual state champion Blair Oaks and the Crusaders are looking for their first State Final since 1999 when they won the Class 2A state title, the school‘s fifth in that sport.
Trinity and Lutheran North will each be spending Sept. 7 in East St. Louis, Ill., in the Gateway Scholars Football Classic, a four-game event beginning at 11:30 a.m. Lutheran North will play Archdiocesan Athletic Association Division I champion and Class Three State Runner Up Cardinal Ritter at 5 p.m. Trinity wraps up the Classic with an 8 p.m. classic rematch against Southwestern Conference champion and Class 7A state quarterfinalist East St. Louis.
Cardinal Ritter, 14-1 last season, only lost to Trinity in 2017 (twice) and 2018, and the Lions saw the last two seasons end with losses to the Titans. In 2016, Lutheran
North ended Cardinal Ritter’s season with a 66-0 district semifinal whitewash before the Crusaders fell in the District Two final to eventual Class Two State Runner Up Trinity. Cardinal Ritter opens the 2019 season Saturday, 4 p.m. against defending Illinois Class 7A Champion LaGrange Park Nazareth Academy.
Cardinal Ritter, which is looking for their first state title after finishing second in 2008 and 2016, will not be playing against Trinity thus season. Cardinal Ritter is in Class Two, District Two with defending champion Lutheran North while Trinity is in Class Three, District Three. Since 1999, Lutheran North leads with series with Cardinal Ritter 5-1. Ritter won in 2010.
East St. Louis, 9-3 in 2018, defeated Trinity in a late-night 32-26 triple-overtime game Sept. 1, 2018, to close out the Gateway Scholars Classic. Athletic Director and Head Football Coach Darren Sunkett coached the Flyers for 17 years and won Illinois Class 7A State Championships in 2008 and 2016. In 1998, Sunkett coached Riverview Gardens to the 5A State title.
Both Lutheran North and Trinity Catholic have eight-game schedules. Lutheran North, after playing Ritter, will be off for week three before beginning their Metro League three-peat title quest Sept. 21, 1 p.m. at Westminster Christian Academy.
NORTH COUNTY CHRISTIAN originally announced in December 2018, that 2019 would be the first for football, according to head coach Dusty Thompson. However, According to the NCCS staff, the season start will wait until 2020, but there will be workouts in 2019. The last time varsity football took place at the now-Crusader Stadium was 2000 for the former St. Thomas Aquinas-Mercy, now part of Trinity Catholic.
