If you don’t give up, you still have a chance.

Fenwick’s variation is if you don’t give up any goals, you still have a chance.

The Friars didn’t score during Sunday’s BodyArmor Sports Series tournament game against Chicago Academy, dropping the 0-0 game in a PK shootout.

Fenwick (6-4-1) has already tripled the number of wins it had last year (2-13-3) and the Friars are relying on a strong defense and stellar goalkeeping from Dominik Ballarin. They allowed 37 goals last year. Now, with just three weeks remaining in the regular season, the Friars have surrendered just 10.

“I think the most goals we’ve given up in a game is two,” Fenwick coach Shannon Seymour said. “Dominik Ballarin has been phenomenal between the posts. He missed our last game and (senior) Paddy (Callaghan) had his back and stepped up.”

Junior Kevin Jancewicz and seniors Luca Ponzio, Truman Sabatino and Conrad Sperry have developed into a greedy backline for Ballarin and Callaghan.

“They are just a few of the names that have contributed big minutes,” Seymour said. “We’re seeing them become a tighter unit each and every game. Over the last four games we’ve kept three clean sheets. We’ve seen adjustments, seen progress.

“We try to set little goals each week. We’ve had good mentality of bouncing back from tough ties like St. Rita (1-1 on Sept. 18) and tough losses like De La Salle (1-0 on Sept. 9). We want to be a force to be reckoned with, with good momentum going into October. We’re not quite where we want to be, but we have a few weeks before the postseason to catch a good stride and head into the postseason schedule.”

Fenwick is also pursuing its first winning season since going 10-3-1 in 2020. That team also didn’t give up many goals, surrendering just 14 in 15 games during a spring season due to the pandemic.

St. Francis visits River Forest

St. Francis (6-2-2, 3-1) has won four of its last five. The Spartans travel to Fenwick on Thursday.

“We’re taking care of what we can now,” Spartans coach Jim Winslow said. “Generally I’m pretty pleased with where we’re at. It’s probably one of the better groups I’ve had going into the state playoffs. My senior group has been fantastic. We’ve been competitive in every game.”

Sophomore Brady Hamman leads the Spartans with 13 goals and is tied with seniors John Coco and Misael Diaz with a team-high four assists. Coco and Diaz each have five goals.

“Everybody knows who Brady is now, and he’s very good,” Winslow said. “I haven’t seen a forward better than that (this season). Our goalkeeper (Nathan Magnuszewski) is really good and Junior Diaz doesn’t get a lot of attention in the midfield. John Coco’s been here three years. It’s a typical good team with the scoring and goalkeeping.”

It’s 106 miles to Chicago…

Glenbard South has beaten Nazareth, tied St. Francis and has a match against Riverside-Brookfield to look forward to on Oct. 7. Those three schools, along with St. Francis and Timothy Christian, will be joined by 15 Chicago schools in the Class 2A De La Salle sectional this postseason.

The Raiders (3-6-5) also tied Providence and lost to Geneva and Marmion this fall as they’ve tried to familiarize themselves with 2A opponents to best prepare for the IHSA’s state series.

“I was absolutely not prepared for the IHSA to send us to a sectional that has 15 of the 20 teams in the city,” Raiders coach Willie Fajkus said. “We have no relationships with teams, no knowledge of these teams and three of the four regional sites are in the city. And those three fields are narrow, a couple yards wider than a football field so that changes the style of play. So we’ll see where we get seeded.

“I feel we are in the top half, but we might get stuck with a play-in (game) because no one knows how good these teams are, and one of the things I tried to do is build relationships with local 2A schools. We’ll play Lemont. We’ve played Geneva and Marmion this year and Providence, but none of those are in our sectional so I was semi-brilliant. I think we have a shot of winning a regional, it depends on how lucky we get on the draw.”

The Raiders are looking for offense.

“We’re in every game, but we have an inability to score goals right now and it’s biting us in the butt,” Fajkus said. “We’re experimenting with some things and have worked for a little bit in trying to create more chances. It’s a good group. Looking back two years ago in my first year we scored two goals and gave up 47 in nine games before the split of the conference. We’ve been in every game this year and a couple game scores are misleading.”

Throw-out-the-records Thursday

One good way to capture some momentum as the postseason approaches is to beat a team that shares some of the same name.

Those who are looking to double dip on the action can do so, too, this Thursday as Hinsdale South (5-7-1, 0-3) travels to Hinsdale Central (5-8-2, 0-2) for a 4:30 kickoff at Centennial Field while Downers Grove North (7-9-1, 1-1) is at Downers Grove South (3-8-1, 1-1) at 6:30 p.m.

Last year, the Mustangs prevailed on PKs after a 2-2 tie while the Red Devils beat the Hornets, 3-0. Well, technically, the Mustangs and Trojans tied but an unofficial shootout was used to determine who was awarded the Downers Derby Cup. Perhaps they’ll have to do it again?