Wow, a wild weekend in Church League and a complete shake up in the power rankings. The number one team fell to a team that isn’t even in the top 10 rankings and still won’t be despite the win. The second and third ranked teams flourished, while fourth ranked team just squeaked out an OT victory. Congo faltered again and First Presbyterian won in a convincing style. It was a phenomenal way to really kick off the season makes for very interesting power rankings this week.

(To clarify the above picture displays the key player of the top team, the team that rose the most in the rankings and the team that fell the most.)

#1 SFX Kuchler (1-0) (Last Week: 2)

A new week, a new number one. and this week, it’s none other than SFX Kuchler. Kuchler would have likely captured this top spot even if SFX Hickey had won. They had a convincing win over a talented team, and put up more points than any other team so far this season. SFX Kuchler is a scoring machine, with George Philippou ‘15 putting up a bunch of points on offense. However, it’s just not George. It’s outstanding how much talent this team has, from former LT Player Emmett Corrigan ‘15, to Catholic school players Matt Tully and Kevin Kuchler who are always a threat to get hot from three. There’s so much talent on this team I could probably fill up a page talking about all of the players, but we don’t have the time. They deserve the number one spot after this week’s performance. If they can keep up this pace against every opponent, this team is worthy of number one.

#2 SJC Light Blue (2-0) (Last Week: 3)

I’ve had my doubts about Light Blue and just how much of a contender this team is, but for the most part Light blue showed off this week with a 56-22 win over the once dominant St. Mary’s. It’s hard to gauge just how strong this team is as St. Mary’s is the mystery team around the league in their inaugural season. LT has very few and possibly no connections to the school and all the players are unknown factors in the grand equation that is Church League. It’s tough to determine just how much this win means right now. But for right now, SJC Light Blue looks like a championship caliber team with a convincing win.

#3 SFX Dillon (2-0) (Last Week: 4)

SFX Dillon didn’t have nearly as convincing of a win as the two teams above, and once you take into account that the team that Dillon beat 37-33 in OT was the same team SFX Hickey beat by 15 points it doesn’t look great for Dillon; however, SFX Dillon did just enough to not get jumped in the rankings. This was by no means the best we have seen SFX Dillon at this season, as Joseph Bruni ‘15 struggled to score, and bruiser Joe Dillon ‘15 provided little on the offensive side of the ball other than rebounds. The only person on the team who was shooting well was Dan Niedermeyer ‘15, who still only put up about six shots throughout the course of the game. SFX Dillon is a good team who just played a bad game. And they did just what a good team is supposed to do when they play poorly- win.

#4 First Presbyterian (2-0) (Last Week: 5)

First Presbyterian’s starting roster headlined by Mitch DeBoer ‘15 and Liam Purcell ‘15 might be one of the best in the league, and the only team that is competitive with them is SFX Kuchler. The starting roster put on a show of sorts on Saturday, scoring with ease, and shutting the SFX God Squad down on the opposing end. The second team however, is another story. While it has an intriguing athlete or two, it possesses no ball handler’s whatsoever, and not enough speed to guard talented wing players. If First Presbyterian has any hope of handling any of the big teams above, they have to diversify their line up and maybe switch one of their better players into the second unit.

#5 SFX Hickey (1-1) (Last Week: 1)

SFX Hickey has fallen far enough. This is a incredibly talented team, and one I wouldn’t sleep on for the rest of the season merely because of one loss. This fall in the rankings has an asterisk by it though, as Tom Hickey ‘15, in my mind the best, or at the very least most well rounded player in the league was not in attendance for the game. This loss came to a team with not to much outstanding talent (No offense to SFX Panosh, but its a known fact that junior teams aren’t as talented as Senior teams) and it’s hard to believe that SFX Panosh is better than SFX Hickey with Tom Hickey in the line up on even Panosh’s their best day. SFX Hickey in my mind is still one of the most dangerous teams in the league.

#6 SJC Maroon (1-0) (Last Week: 6)

After a nice jump in the rankings last week, SJC Maroon is going to stay at number six after a not too convincing performance against a beaten and bruised Congo team who didn’t even have their star player in the line up. SJC Maroon on the other hand did have their star player in the line up, and he put on a show. Charlie Harrigan ‘15 put up 25 points and nearly made a fast break dunk. Maroon should have tore this team apart, and despite the strong performance by their star player, if SJC Maroon is really a title contender they would have tore Congo apart.

#7 GLC (1-0) (Last Week: Unranked)

Grace Lutheran gets a solid win over SJC Dark Blue, the team that got a lot of recognition last week for beating Congo. In all honesty the win wasn’t so impressive that it would shoot them up in the rankings so quickly; their climb is justified in the sense that GLC deserved to be recognized sooner for their talented roster, and all other teams in this area have not succeeded.

#8 Saint Cletus Senior (1-0) (Last Week: Unranked)

What a wild ride for the Cletus seniors. First coming in the 10 spot in the print addition of the power rankings, then falling out of the rankings all together, and then launching up higher than before and grabbing the number eight spot. While St. Cletus’s prospects looked dim at the start of the year with star player Michael Grace ‘15 out of the line up, they have grown much better with the addition of Hayden Cramer ‘15 who put up 18 on the St. Cletus Junior team.

#9 Congo (0-2) (Last Week: 7)

One more loss for Congo, and I can promise they will fall out of the rankings. They’re past two performances have been weak, first a poor shooting night against SJC Dark Blue and then their star player being absent against SJC Maroon. However, with Pat Duncan ‘15 in full force and other players shooting better, they could have undoubtedly won these games as the point margin in both loses combined was only five points. This is a team that if things had gone only a little differently they could have come out with a win in both games.

#10 LCA Seniors (0-2) (Last Week: 9)

It’s hard to blame LCA for their early year struggles. They have played two of the stronger teams in the league, and gotten pummeled by great shooting in both cases. This team will bounce back against weaker opponents later in the season and show that they are a top ten team.