Ignatius Wolfpack Lacrosse Club Championships
2009 Class B State Champions – Toyota Park
Wolfpack Win IHSLA State Championship!!
The Saint Ignatius varsity lacrosse team won the Illinois High School Lacrosse Association (IHSLA) Class B state championship title with a convincing 7-3 victory over Marian Catholic (Chicago Heights) in a Sunday morning affair on the lush green grass of spacious Toyota Park stadium in southwest suburban Bridgeview. Shortly after Father Brian Paulson celebrated Mass at the pre-game festivities on the feast of the Holy Trinity with a congregation of nearly 200 Wolfpack players, families and friends, the groups' prayers were answered with a championship win. Davoren Enright scored four goals in the win and he earned most valuable player recognition while he lead the Saint Ignatius lacrosse team to it's first championship title in the six-year history of the program.
Both teams started the game slowly and cautiously, but Enright gave the Pack, dressed in their home whites, a one goal first quarter lead with his first tally at the 3;49 mark of the initial frame. The Wolfpack offense then broke the game open with four consecutive second period goals. Enright netted his second goal of the game at 9:48 of the period on a pass from Mike Klein to double the Pack lead to 2-0. Just under a minute later at 8:55, the soon to be champions jumped to a 3-0 lead when Joe Kent scored a man-up goal on a pretty feed from Jake Kopczyk. A mere fourteen seconds later, Evan Mulchrone scored the game-winning goal after the defenseman made an end -to-end rush set-up by fellow sophomore Jake Hutton and the Wolfpack led by an impressive 4-0 count. As the second period drew to a close, Davoren Enright ended the quarter the same way he started it, with a goal, and the first half ended with the Pack holding a comfortable, well modestly so, 5-0 lead.
Saint Ignatius added to their lead early in the third period on the second goal of the game by Tufts-bound Joe Kent and, midway through the period, on the fourth tally of the contest by MVP Enright. The Pack then played the passing game to befriend the clock and the period soon ended with the Pack leading their bewildered opponents 7-0. Halfway through the final quarter, the black-jersied Spartans mounted their first sustained offensive flurry of the game when the battling foes scored three consecutive goals in a three minute span. But, the huge scoreboard clock winded down and, at the sound of the final horn, the happy Wolfpack players and the young, aspiring call-ups rushed together onto the green in celebration of the 7-3 championship win while, in the stands, the large crowd of Wolfpack parents, students and friends hugged and cheered and beamed the sparkling look of victory.
The IHSLA president soon presented the Wolfpack seniors with the Lacrosse Cup in recognition of the team's championship triumph. The victory represents a storied ending for the seniors, many of whom started the program on its rise with Coach Drew Stevenson just four short years ago. But, the win also is just a beginning for the rest of the Saint Ignatius lacrosse program who now leave the IHSLA Class B designation as champions and, in 2010, move into the challenging and uncharted Class A grouping. As Father Paulson remarked at Mass to start the day, like the strength of the Holy Trinity, the togetherness of the lacrosse team can be a powerful force and, together, the team will achieve lofty goals---just ask the 2009 Champions!!
2008 Class B State Championship – Toyota Park
The Wolfpack reached their goal of the Class B State Championship on June 1, 2008 at Toyota Park in Bridgeview but fell short in the finals by a score of 14–7.
2008 Chicago Metro League Champions
2007 Chicago Metro League Champions