When Althoff's Megan Pawloski scored two goals in a 5-1 girls soccer victory over Belleville East on March 26, the Crusaders' scoring dynamo may have broken the girls' individual goal scoring record for the St. Louis area.
According to my research, Jordan Agee of Pacific, Mo., held the record at 106, but Pawloski, who entered the season with 102 goals, had a hat trick on March 24 in a 5-0 triumph at O'Fallon before breaking the record.
After five games, she was at 113, including a four-goal effort in a 10-0 victory over Marion. Her 13 goals and an assist not only sparked the unbeaten, No. 1-ranked Crusaders but left Megan in a two-state scoring duo lead with junior Kelsey Dinges, whose 33 points on 10 goals and 13 assists topped the St. Louis area.
Listed by the Illinois High School Association as tied for 33rd place at the start of this season, the 5-foot-5 Pawloski is a long way from the state career goal record of 227 set in 2004 by Ashlee Pistorius of Normal U. High, but Megan is the only active player among the IHSA's Top Fifty.
"Tell her to keep setting goals, and to play relaxed and under control," said Agee, now Mrs. Paul Fryer.
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A math teacher and junior varsity boys and girls soccer coach at Mehlville, Mo., High School, Jordan said 100 was her goal her senior year, which she concluded with a 36-goal season at Pacific High.
Moved to the midfield her junior year at Lindenwood U. in St. Charles, Mo., she not only achieved NAIA All-America status in soccer but also was an Academic All-America.
The University of Illinois bound Pawloski scored a career high 43 goals last season after netting 37 as a sophomore and 22 as a freshman. During her career, the Crusaders were 14-6-1 in 2007, 25-4-1 in '08 and second in the Class AA finals in '08, and 24-3-1 in '09 when they lost to Chatham Glenwood, 4-3, in the Super Sectionals.
OVERTIME: When Michigan State knocked Northern Iowa out of the Elite Eight of the recent NCAA men's basketball tournament in the Midwest Regional in St. Louis, the 59-52 loss did not end the focus on junior forward-center Lucas O'Rear.
Also a baseball pitcher, O'Rear remains the object of attention from Major League Baseball scouts even though UNI dropped baseball after last spring.
A former Nashville, Ill., All-State high school basketball player, the 6-foot-6, 255-pounder repeated as the Missouri Valley Conference Sixth Man of the Year this season and was an integral part of the Panthers' amazing postseason run.
But during much less action in baseball (15 strikeouts in 17 1/3 innings) at UNI and then while playing for Rochester, Iowa, last summer, his fast ball was clocked at 90 miles per hour, meaning the 21-year-old right hander now faces decisions.
While he remains at UNI located in Cedar Falls, Iowa, he could play for a nearby team in Waterloo, Iowa, team, or attend pro workouts to give scouts additional looks before the June 7-9 amateur draft.
Despite limited baseball experience, he's come a long way since 2005 when he helped Nashville to the State Class A quarterfinals. As recently as 2007 when he did not play baseball his freshman year at Northern Iowa, he still was ranked by Baseball America as the No. 11 prospect among prep and collegiate pitchers from Illinois.
Also a leader on Nashville's state basketball quarterfinal team in 2007 (under current Collinsville coach Darin Lee), O'Rear has displayed a competitiveness against taller opponents that has made him a UNI fan favorite.
To get an evaluation of O'Rear in baseball, I asked Kyle Cassity, a sophomore basketball player at St. Louis U., who was familiar with O'Rear from their prep days.
Also a baseball player in high school at Pinckneyville, Cassity was a junior when he batted against O'Rear, then a senior at Nashville.
"Oh yes," Cassity said. "He can bring it."
If O'Rear is drafted, it will be interesting to learn how much money he is offered since he still has the option to return to Northern Iowa, play basketball, and earn a degree in education.
EXTRA INNINGS: On March 27, the late Bill Phillips, who starred for 25 years in the Belleville City fast pitch softball League, was inducted into the Amateur Softball Association of Illinois Hall of Fame.
Phillips, who died on Nov. 5, 1999, his 52nd birthday, developed his pitching skills while serving in the U.S. Air Force from 1967-70 in Albuquerque, N.M. After playing one year (1971) for Franke Brake, he joined the Fairview Heights Merchants, a team that he led to a fourth-place finish in the ASA National Class A tourney in 1980. En route to the Nationals, right hander Phillips pitched in eight games in three days to win the Illinois State crown.
"He was durable and had no fear of an opponent," said Mike Hopkins, who played for Fairview and also had a 10-year pro career with Decatur.
"He could throw strikes in the dark," said Noel Schott, manager of the Belleville Eager Beavers, who recalled Phillips averaging just one base on balls for every 27 innings in 1999 when the Beavers reached the Class B National tourney.
