Chesterton Academy of the Holy Family, based in Lisle, Illinois, has rapidly risen over the last few seasons from a developmental program to a D2 contender and finally to State Champion in 2025.
The Saints started the season strong, with a blazing 78-5 victory over the Taft Eagles. Senior winger Luke Paliakas crossed four times to start his final season in style. Center and captain Dan Groth and junior loosehead prop Connor Sirota both had a brace of tries, and Sirota went 9 for 12 from the tee for an additional 18 points.
Luke “Hollywood” Paliakas scores for Chesterton Academy
A short turnaround against the Morton Mustangs, whom the Saints vanquished in last year’s title match, led to a disappointing result: a bruising slugfest that saw them on the losing side at full time. “It was like running into a brick wall for an hour and a half,” junior flanker Eamon Shine said. Junior 8-man Ronan Spang was the bright spot of the evening, scoring two long range tries and adding more than 20 tackles in defense.
Saturday is a rugby day, and an early kickoff on April 18th saw the Saints get back on form with a 64-7 trouncing of Fenwick. Paliakas added another hat trick to bring his season total to seven tries after only three games. Sirota also added three, and senior debutante Antonio Ramirez scored his first ever to bring down the house midway through the second half.
John Paul Tierney carries the ball vs Taft
Ahead of the Saints are some serious challenges! La Salette is next on the docket, followed by conference-leading St. Rita’s. Then it's off to Indiana for the Midwest Invitational.
“It’s a challenging season” head coach Chris Lyon said “but we relish the opportunity to take the best this league has to throw at us and keep coming at them, phase after phase. We have a talented squad with huge amounts of heart and not an ounce of quit in them, so it should be a great ride down the stretch!”