Wisconsin Soccer Central

Milwaukee Marquette continued its recent dominance of the Jesuit Classic last weekend.

The Hilltoppers swept their two matches at the 13th annual event in Arlington, Va., extending their winning streak in the competition to nine games.

Alec Philippe scored two goals and Chaney Christensen added two assists in a 5-2 victory over Kansas City Rockhurst (Mo.) on Friday. Philippe scored again in Saturday morning's 2-0 win over Regis for Marquette, which has won all of its Jesuit Classic matches since a 1-1 tie against Rockhurst back on Sept. 17, 2010.

This year's tournament was hosted by Washington, D.C., school Gonzaga at Long Bridge Park, which is in the shadow of the Pentagon.

• Marquette moved up in both national rankings after the successful weekend, jumping 13 spots to No. 37 in the Top Drawer Soccer Fab 50 and edging up one place to No. 20 in the National Soccer Coaches Association of America Top 25. The Hilltoppers moved up two spots to sixth in the TDS Great Lakes Region rankings and remained third in the NSCAA Region VI poll, which also includes No. 9 Madison West, No. 10 Whitefish Bay, No. 12 Eau Claire Memorial and No. 13 Brookfield East.
• Marquette hits the road again this weekend, playing in the Gateway City Classic in the St. Louis area. The Hilltoppers will open Group C play Friday against Lexington Dunbar (Ky.) in O'Fallon, Ill., then take on host O'Fallon Township or Lee's Summit West (Mo.) – ranked ninth among Missouri's large schools – in their first match Saturday. Marquette is making its sixth appearance in the event, but didn't participate last fall. Beloit Memorial, which has been receiving honorable mention in the Wisconsin Soccer Coaches Association state poll, is the other state team in the 59-team tournament and faces Springfield Catholic (Ill.) in its Gateway City Classic debut Friday. Depending on results, the Purple Knights could face Cicero Morton (Ill.) in Group D play Saturday – the Potters are 13th in the TDS Fab 50.
• Winneconne was moments away from winning its first Eastern Valley Conference championship in outright fashion Thursday night, but Ryan Stoeger's 90th-minute goal gave Appleton Xavier a 2-2 draw with the host Wolves and the teams shared the league title with 7-0-1 records. Winneconne (15-1-3) is unbeaten in 16 matches (13-0-3) since its lone loss, a 4-0 setback against Luxemburg-Casco back on Aug. 26.
• Zach Rampetstreiter, Zach Hanson and Zach Stone scored and Dan Dombrowski posted the clean sheet as Oregon blanked host Fort Atkinson 3-0 on Tuesday night to clinch at least a share of its sixth consecutive Southern Badger Conference title. The Panthers (11-1-2, 5-0-0) have outscored conference foes 20-1 this season heading into Tuesday's league finale against second-place Madison Edgewood (8-7-1, 4-1-0) and are unbeaten in their past 37 Southern Badger matches (36-0-1) dating to a 3-2 double-overtime loss to Edgewood on Sept. 23, 2008.
• The Big Eight Conference championship will be determined next Tuesday night at Mansfield Stadium as Madison Memorial (9-0-7, 6-0-2) plays host to Verona (13-4-1, 6-2-0). The Spartans, unbeaten in their past 17 league matches (15-0-2) will clinch at least a share of the title with a tie and take the title outright with a victory. Depending on that result, Madison West (12-0-5, 5-0-3) also could be in the championship picture, provided it beats Janesville Parker the same night.
• Sheboygan Christian-Lutheran (15-1-1, 10-0-0) clinched its second straight Central Lakeshore Conference crown Thursday night, shutting out visiting Random Lake 3-0. The co-op team, which closes out its conference schedule next week against Kohler and Cedar Grove-Belgium, has won 22 consecutive CLC matches over the past two seasons.
• The showdown between host Sheboygan North (16-0-1, 9-0-0) and Bay Port (13-1-0, 9-0-0) that will determine the Fox River Classic Conference champion originally was scheduled for Thursday, but was moved back a week to Oct. 9.
• Four teams are still unbeaten heading into the final 10 days of the regular season: Madison Memorial, Madison West, Sheboygan North and Seymour (16-0-3).
• At least a few state programs have taken a new approach to junior varsity matches, opting to play 8v8 games. Howards Grove coach Todd Fischer explained in an email that his program doesn't have enough players to play full-sided, 11v11 JV games, but has several players – mainly younger players – on the varsity roster who see little playing time. "This way we can keep these kids active in the program," he wrote. "I like to think of them as development games." Games are played on shorter fields and they still count toward the WIAA's seasonal 48-half limit for players. The Tigers were scheduled to play Ozaukee in an 8v8 game Tuesday, while Random Lake and Kohler also were set to play a small-sided JV match.