On Sunday, the Daily Herald will welcome many of the most excellent prep athletes of this school year to the second edition of Prep Sports Excellence. Two of these honorees are Team Chicago Academy-Santos teammates Rachel Brots (Waubonsie Valley) and Olivia Schmitt (Neuqua Valley).

We’ve again reached out to the schools we cover and have asked them to nominate their top five male and female competitors for inclusion in the event, to be held at the Sears Centre.
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In a change from last year’s format, we’ll be presenting awards to the best of the bunch in four categories:

• Dazzling moments: An award devoted to the top individual moment of the school year for each gender (presented by Woodfield Mall).

• Heart and Soul: For a male and female athlete who have inspired through their actions (presented by Marquardt Buick of Barrington, GMC).

• Spirit of sportsmanship: Recognizing a team or individual from each gender which demonstrated exemplary conduct (presented by Aquafina Flavorsplash).

• Overcoming obstacles: An honor reserved for an athlete of each gender who overcame an unusual challenge to succeed (presented by Alexian Brothers Health Network).

With the Daily Herald’s Joe Aguilar as master of ceremonies and an inspirational speaking appearance by Matt Mayberry, it promises to be a fulfilling afternoon for all who attend.

Team Chicago Academy-Palmeiras got off to a great start in the IYSA State Cup with a stunning 8-0 victory over Tinley Park Bobcats in their first game of round robin play.

The opening goal came off a cross connecting with Victor Cuevas in the 15th minute of the first half. Max Graf tallied the second goal beating the Tinley Park goalie from 20 yards out. The third goal came off of a perfectly executed counter attack play led by Victor Cuevas, who found Aayush who calmly finished the play to give Palmeiras a 3-0 lead going into halftime.

There was no slowing down as the second half featured even more scoring. Dominic Duffy collected a brace inside 15 minutes after finding himself on the end of two great crosses by Bryan Lobkovich. Bryan would then add to the scoring himself when he beat the Tinley Park goalie with a great shot in the far upper corner from the corner of the 18-yard box. Emerson Beinhauer converted a penalty kick and Aayush slotted home his second of the game to round out the scoring. Brady Moody picked up the shutout in goal.

This weekend Palmeiras turns its focus to MRL play in Rockford.

Team Chicago-Huskies took home some hardware from the U10 Girls Division at the Mid-America Invitational in Peoria over the weekend. Going into the final game they were undefeated in their division. The final game was hard-fought and played with lots of heart.

Congrats to the Huskies and Coach Nikki!

Team Chicago Academy-Cruzeiro defeated Cincinnati Cup 6-1 to maintain a perfect record in the U14 Girls Premier I Division of the Midwest Regional League (MRL). With the win Cruzeiro is now 3-0-0 with a goal difference of 12-1.

In the 13th minute Erin “Bean” Sweda broke up a play and found Riley O’Brien on the right flank. Riley played a nice diagonal ball into Jamie Goralski’s feet, and Jamie then spun away from her defender and played a perfect diagonal through-ball into the run of Kerry Abello on the weak side. Kerry calmly slotted the ball home at the foot of the far post. Less than a minute later right-back Sarah Avery doubled the lead after persistent pressure on the Cup defenders inside their 18.

With 12 minutes left in the first half Kerry Abello doubled her tally with a bomb from 18 yards out. Center-back Katie Wieland split the Cup midfield and found Alyssa Bombacino who played a great diagonal ball to Kerry on top of the 18.

5 minutes into the 2nd half Riley O’Brien stressed the Cup midfield and won the ball. She quickly found Alyssa Bombacino with a through-ball and Alyssa made it 4-0 when she walked it in and coolly beat the on-rushing GK to the far post.

Cup got one back midway through the 2nd half, but Cruzeiro closed out the game as Alyssa Bombacino found Kerry Abello on the left flank, and she beat her defender 1v1 and toe-poked it past the GK to make it 5-1. And in the dying minutes Claire Hensley and Madison Zaleski combined to assist on Francesca Marconi’s goal to make it 6-1 final.

Team Chicago Academy-Olimpico opened up U13 Boys MRL play this past weekend against Rockford Raptors. The team came out of the gates a little slow and gave up an early 2-0 lead. Realizing the challenge at hand, the team kicked into gear creating numerous opportunities, and were rewarded when Abraham Antar received a through ball from Gedi Njoya and calmly finished his chance to pull one back just before half time. In the later stage of the game the effort was rewarded again off a great free kick by Liam Duffy connecting with Holden Beinhauer. The goalie initially made a great save, but Gedi Njoya was there to get the game-tying goal. Olimpico narrowly missed out on a game-winning opportunity in the dying seconds of the game on a very tight off-side call. After a strong performance led by Anthony Safo and Liam Duffy, the game ended in a 2-2 draw.

This weekend Olimpico head to Elgin for the next round of MRL games.