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Three people were hurt in a shooting Nov. 20, 2021, in Chatham.

Someone fired shots into the gas station in the 8600 block of South State State striking the three males,

Three people were hurt in a shooting Saturday afternoon inside a Chatham gas station.

About 3:45 p.m., someone fired shots into the gas station in the 8600 block of South State Street striking the three males, Chicago police said.

A 20-year-old man was struck in the thigh and a 26-year-old man suffered gunshot wounds to the thigh and buttocks, police said. A third male, whose age was unknown, also suffered a gunshot wound.

All three victims were taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center in good condition, police said.

The 20-year-old man was not the intended target of the shooting, according to police.

There was no one in custody.

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Fenwick’s Denium Juette(4) and Eian Pugh (7) celebrate after winning the game against Sycamore. | Kirsten Stickney/For the Sun-Times

Several generations of Fenwick football lined the field at Triton College on Saturday afternoon.

Several generations of Fenwick football lined the field at Triton College on Saturday afternoon. Recent graduates Jacob Keller and Mike O’Laughlin were there in person. Johnny Lattner was present in spirit. His Heisman Trophy proudly sat on a table near one end zone.

Those Friars, and many more, were not disappointed. Fenwick beat Sycamore 17-6 to advance to the Class 5A state title game. It’s the first state championship game appearance for the Friars.

“It’s so surreal that it hasn’t really hit me yet,” senior lineman Jimmy Liston said. “We’ve still got one more but it’s a very cool accomplishment to be the first in Fenwick history to do. We aren’t done yet.”

Liston has started 36 games for the Friars. This season he’s been blocking for one of the area’s most dynamic talents, quarterback Kaden Cobb.

“It’s exhilarating to be out there with him,” Liston. “I catch myself watching him as I’m playing. You never know what he’s going to do. He might take it off or fire it downfield. And he’s an even better guy than a football player, so that’s great.”

Cobb completed his first ten passes and finished 18 of 23 for 259 yards. The Ball State recruit connected with Bryan Hunt on a 38-yard touchdown in the second quarter and didn’t throw an interception.

Hunt had six catches for 85 yards. Eastern Michigan recruit Max Reese had five receptions for 74 yards and Illinois recruit Eian Pugh added five catches for 74.

Cobb’s physical talents and intelligence would be difficult to stop even without such an impressive group of receivers.

“Any of the guys can step up and make a big play,” Cobb said. “Sycamore started backing up a bit because they didn’t want to get beat. They are a good defense so we took what we could but we hit them on some deep balls and they couldn’t catch up.”

Fenwick (11-2) led 14-0 at halftime after a one-yard touchdown run by Danny Kent (23 carries, 71 yards) and Hunt’s TD catch.

Sycamore (9-4) scored on a three-yard run by Sam Carlson midway through the third quarter but never managed to significantly challenge the Fenwick defense after that. Defensive linemen Suleiman Abuaqel and Quin Wieties both had key sacks for the Friars.

“[Cobb] is a field general,” Fenwick coach Matt Battaglia said. “He understands football and it makes my job so much easier. Obviously we would have liked to put up more points today but both sides of the ball did their job.”

Carlson had 53 yards on nine carries for the Spartans and quarterback Eli Meier, a junior, was 6-for-13 passing for 111 yards.

“We got about everything out of our kids that we could have,” Sycamore coach Joe Ryan said. “They gave us everything that they could. There’s nobody walking off this field wishing they could have played a little bit better or given a better effort. Our kids kept battling. Probably a little out-manned with their receivers. They just made a few more plays and that’s what it comes down to in a semifinal game.”

Fenwick will face Kankakee, a 41-14 winner against Morton, IL, in the Class 5A title game at 10 a.m. on Saturday at Huskie Stadium in DeKalb.

“The biggest thing is we didn’t want to let all those fans down and all those former players who fought so hard to get here as well,” Battaglia said.

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Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images

Aidan O’Connell threw three touchdown passes to Milton Wright to lead the Boilermakers to a 32-14 victory over the Wildcats.

Aidan O’Connell threw three touchdown passes to Milton Wright on Saturday to lead Purdue to a 32-14 victory over Northwestern at Wrigley Field.

O’Connell was 29 for 39 for 423 yards and Wright had 213 yards on eight catches — both career highs — to help the Boilermakers (7-4, 5-3 Big Ten) erase memories of last weekend’s 59-31 drubbing at Ohio State.

“Today was my day and I had to execute,” Wright said. “(O’Connell) is a great quarterback and I’m happy I could make the plays.”

Evan Hull had 96 yards and a touchdown on 25 carries as the Wildcats (3-8, 1-7) dropped their fifth straight.

The Boilermakers never trailed and scored touchdowns on their first two possessions of the second half to give themselves some breathing room. Wright, who’d never caught more than one touchdown before Saturday, had scoring catches of 17 and 45 yards in the third quarter to cap his best game.

David Bell had 12 receptions for 101 yards and seemed to draw more attention from the Wildcats. It left Wright in frequent mismatches on the left side of the field.

“They were covering David and it left a lot of one-on-one opportunities on that side of the field,” O’Connell said. “We had to take advantage of those.”

Up 6-0 midway through the second quarter, O’Connell found Wright streaking down the sideline for a 53-yard touchdown pass. Northwestern answered with a long touchdown drive in the final 1:45 to go to intermission down 13-7.

“We lost the one-on-one matchups,” Wildcats coach Pat Fitzgerald said. “When we tackled them, we held them to field goals.”

Mitchell Fineran kicked four field goals for the Boilermakers, who ended their road season 4-2. The two losses were at Notre Dame and Ohio State.

Andrew Marty was 10 for 14 for 93 yards and a touchdown for Northwestern, which played its home finale at the famed home of the Chicago Cubs.

JUST LIKE THEY DREW IT UP

Purdue’s Chris Van Eekeren lost his footing as he made contact with the second-half kickoff and sent the ball dribbling into the middle of the field. Things still went the Boilermakers’ way: Purdue recovered the unintentional onside kick and turned the possession into its second touchdown of the day.

“It wasn’t by design,” coach Jeff Brohm said. “We had some luck on our side and we took advantage of it.

“It was huge. They had some momentum after scoring at the end of the first half and they were going to get the ball back.”

STEALING SIGNS?

The south end of the field ran along the right-field line of the ballpark but a few stretches of the warning track were the only patches of dirt. Both the mound and base paths were covered with sod for the game and the teams shared the north sideline due to a lack of space on the south end.

Each team had a couple of people holding up banners at either 45-yard line throughout the game to keep the opposition from getting nosy.

WRIGLEY RETURN

Saturday’s game was the second football game at the historic ballpark since the NFL’s Bears moved to Soldier Field after the 1970 season. The Wildcats, who lost to Illinois here in 2010, will play three future games at the park under an agreement with baseball’s Chicago Cubs.

Saturday’s game wasn’t a sellout — 31,500 tickets were sold — but O’Connell, who prepped in Chicago’s northern suburbs, still won’t forget it.

“It was an amazing atmosphere,” he said. “I’m so lucky to get a chance to play here and have a good performance here.”

THE TAKEAWAY

Purdue: A long opening drive ended with a missed field goal try and the second went three and out, but the offense was fine after that. The Boilermakers scored on their next seven possessions and Northwestern rarely had an answer when O’Connell targeted Wright. The aerial attack should continue next weekend against an Indiana defense that started Saturday 74th in passing yards allowed.

Northwestern: Marty was briefly replaced by Ryan Hilinski in the second quarter and seemed to respond positively, but the Wildcats’ inability to sustain most of their first-half drives — one ended with a blocked field goal try — left them playing catch-up the rest of the day. Northwestern hasn’t scored more than 14 points during the five-game skid.

UP NEXT

Purdue: Hosts Indiana on Nov. 27.

Northwestern: Visits Illinois the same day.

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Kirby Dach, who grew up just outside Edmonton, has often played well in the city. | Jeff Vinnick/Getty Images

Visiting Edmonton is a homecoming for Brandon Hagel and Kirby Dach, a revenge opportunity for Caleb Jones and Jujhar Khaira and a strange intersection of Keith’s career.

EDMONTON, Alberta — Brandon Hagel entered Saturday ready for a normal game with his family in attendance.

The first game his parents attended, his NHL debut in Chicago in March 2020, was the night the COVID-19 pandemic began shutting down the league. The second game his mom — along with his brother, sister and nephew — attended was two weeks ago in Chicago against the Predators, when Hagel scored but then left with a shoulder injury.

The injury healed quickly, though, allowing Hagel to be in the lineup for the Blackhawks’ game Saturday against the Oilers.

The timing worked out well, considering “quite a few family” members made the 40-minute drive down to Rogers Place from his exurban hometown of Morinville.

“When [the injury] first happened, I wanted to go back out there,” Hagel said pregame. “But I couldn’t put my shirt on, so they wouldn’t let me. It’s one of those things where it was a relief just hearing how [short] it was going to be. I was really worried. I’ve never been injured before.”

The trip to Edmonton carried special meaning for a number of Hawks players.

Kirby Dach, who grew up in the suburb of Fort Saskatchewan, also had a number of friends and family in the arena Saturday — although he joked he let them “dig into their own pockets” to afford all the tickets.

“I like coming out west,” he said. “I kind of miss the snow.”

Dach’s track record in his hometown is solid: He recorded four points in the four-game 2020 playoff series against the Oilers here, a plus-two rating in the Hawks’ February 2020 regular-season visit and three points in his second-to-last junior hockey game against the Edmonton Oil Kings in 2018-19.

But it was also in Edmonton where Dach broke his wrist — or, as he recounted Saturday, “realized my wrist wasn’t really there anymore” — during the 2020 world junior championships.

At least the city welcomed him back with the weather he wanted: A puck-drop temperature of 11 degrees outside, with snow falling on top of more snow leftover from a few days prior.

For ex-Oilers players Caleb Jones and Jujhar Khaira, meanwhile, the trip marked their first game against their former team.

Jones, like Hagel, recovered from his injury just in time for it, easing back into the lineup with 9:53 of ice time Wednesday against the Kraken before handling a full role versus the Oilers.

“I wouldn’t say it’s much warm and fuzzy,” he said. “[I have] some friendships, but when you get on the ice, you definitely have that competitive edge. You want to show them that they traded me and they shouldn’t have done that.”

And for one man on the Oilers whom the Hawks know very well — a defenseman by the name of Duncan Keith — Saturday’s matchup was particularly strange.

“I put that jersey on for a long time and I have a lot of friends on that team,” Keith told Oilers reporters Friday. “It’s going to be a fun game. I’m excited. It will be a new experience for me playing an old team.”

Keith said his now-8-year-old son Colton, whom he requested a trade to Western Canada to be able to see more often, has fully converted from a Hawks fan to Oilers fan — something Chicagoans will hate to hear.

“I’m sure he misses [Patrick] Kane and [Jonathan] Toews, but he’s taken a liking to the guys here,” he said. “He wears his [Leon] Draisaitl jersey and [Connor] McDavid jersey around quite a bit. I don’t think he’s taken off his Oilers hoodie…since he left a couple weeks ago.”

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A man was fatally shot Nov. 20, in a drive-by in Pilsen. | Sun-Times file photo

About 2 p.m., he was standing outside in the 900 block of West 19th Street, when a vehicle drove by, and someone inside opened fire.

A man was fatally shot Saturday in a drive-by in Pilsen on the Near West Side.

About 2 p.m., he was standing outside in the 900 block of West 19th Street, when a vehicle drove by, and someone inside opened fire, Chicago police said.

He was struck in the abdomen, and taken to Stroger Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said. His name has not yet been released.

Area Three detectives are investigating.

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A 22-year-old man was fatally shot Nov. 20, 2021, in Homan Square. | Sun-Times file photo

About 1:40 p.m., he was standing on the corner in the 3800 block of West Roosevelt Road, when someone approached him on foot and fired shots.

A 22-year-old man was fatally shot Saturday in Homan Square on the Northwest Side.

About 1:40 p.m., he was standing on the corner in the 3800 block of West Roosevelt Road, when someone approached him on foot and fired shots, Chicago police said.

The man was struck in the head and rushed to Mt. Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said. His name has not yet been released.

Area Four detectives are investigating.

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Chicago Red Stars forward Mallory Pugh (9) dribbles the ball during the first half of the NWSL Championship soccer match against the Washington Spirit, Saturday, Nov. 20, 2021, in Louisville, Ky. | Jeff Dean/AP

Kelley O’Hara scored in the 97th minute and the Washington Spirit won the National Women’s Soccer League championship with a 2-1 extra time victory over the Chicago Red Stars.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Kelley O’Hara scored in the 97th minute and the Washington Spirit won the National Women’s Soccer League championship with a 2-1 extra time victory over the Chicago Red Stars on Saturday.

The championship game closes a tumultuous ninth season for the league. The Spirit had to forfeit a pair of games this season because of coronavirus issues. The team played under interim coach Kris Ward after Richie Burke was fired in September for violating the league’s anti-harassment policy.

It was the first league championship for the Spirit, who advanced to the semifinals with a 2-1 victory over second-seeded OL Reign.

O’Hara, a defender who was on the U.S. national team that won the World Cup in 2015 and 2019, scored her first goal of the season. Her game-winning back-post header came off a pass from Trinity Rodman, the NWSL Rookie of the Year.

Mallory Pugh, who didn’t play in the semifinals because of COVID-19 protocol, started for the Red Stars but left the game in first-half stoppage time with an apparent injury. Shortly after her departure, Rachel Hill scored off a cross from Arin Wright to give the Red Stars a 1-0 lead. Chicago downed the top-seeded Portland Thorns 2-0 in the semifinal.

Photo by Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images
Mallory Pugh of the Chicago Red Stars and teammates wait for medical attention for Pugh during the first half against Washington Spirit during the NWSL Championship on Saturday, Nov. 20, 2021 in Louisville, Kentucky.

Earlier in the game, Chicago’s Vanessa DiBernardo was subbed off with an injury.

Despite their struggles, the Spirit’s roster included Golden Boot winner Ashley Hatch and Goalkeeper of the Year Aubrey Bledsoe, as well as Rodman, who is former NBA player Dennis Rodman’s daughter.

Rodman nearly tied the game in the 61st minute with a blast from distance that hit the post. But the Spirit pulled even a short time later when captain Andi Sullivan made a penalty kick that beat Chicago goalkeeper Cassie Miller.

Chicago had a chance in the second extra time period on Makenzy Doniak’s shot, but it was deftly stopped by Bledsoe.

Games were canceled and players protested during the season after North Carolina coach Paul Riley was accused by two former players of sexual harassment and coercion, allegations he denied.

Burke’s dismissal game shortly before Riley was fired in the wake of the serious allegations leveled against him by former players Sinead Farrelly and Mana Shim. After those reports, NWSL Commissioner Lisa Baird resigned and the NWSL and U.S. Soccer commissioned independent outside investigations.

The league canceled a weekend of games, and when play resumed players stopped matches momentarily to gather in a circle at midfield, in a quiet show of unity.

Fans at Saturday’s championship match had signs reading “Sell the team, Steve” in reference to Spirit owner Steve Baldwin.

OL Reign coach Farid Benstiti was also dismissed over the summer following an incident in practice where he was accused of behaving inappropriately.

Next season, the 10-team league will expand to 12 teams with the addition of Angel City FC in Los Angeles and the San Diego Wave.

The announced attendance for the championship game at Lynn Family Stadium was 10,360. It was the second time the title game had gone to extra time.

Broadcast on CBS, the game came a day after Nike announced it had extended its sponsorship deal with the league.

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A hunter with his green tag on his orange vest, and others, awaits the opening speech by site super Jeff Wepprecht at Des Plaines State Fish and Wildlife Area Friday on opening day of Illinois’ first firearm season. | Dale Bowman

A take on opening day for Illinois’ firearm deer season, made extra special by the partial lunar eclipse in the hours before, with a new hunter at Des Plaines State Fish and Wildlife Area.

From Edwards County, Gary Bloom messaged Thursday, “Hope you’re going deer hunting. I’m there now, scouted last night, some today. Rut is on. Saw four bucks chasing one doe; then one with three does. Buck ratio is higher then doe. [Friday] will tell. Gonna be a cold morning 24 down here. Full moon may make it tough, deer may feed all night.”

Of course, I went deer hunting.

But, it was the strangest opening day of deer hunting I remember in 50-plus years. Friday was opening day for Illinois’ first firearm deer season, which ends Sunday. Second season is Dec. 2-5.

What made Friday unique was packing, then driving, in a partial lunar eclipse. It added an other-worldly feel.

Dale Bowman
The partial lunar eclipse just passed as hunters ventured into the field at Des Plaines State Fish and Wildlife Area Friday on opening day of Illinois’ first firearm season.

But then first day of deer season is when I trip out of life.

This year was different, too, because I took John Vukmirovich deer hunting for his first time. Vukmirovich and I regularly roam the outdoors together: Jackson Park to Eggers Grove to Jasper-Pulaski Fish and Wildlife Area.

We drew permits for Des Plaines State Fish and Wildlife Area near Wilmington. That was a first for me. I’ve dove and pheasant hunted there, but never deer.

There were 35 permits allotted. On Friday, 26 permit-holders showed up, so all seven stand-by hunters paid $5 to hunt for the day. Hunters selected an open parking area, placed a parking card inside their windshield, and pinned green numbered patches on the back of their florescent orange outer garment.

Site superintendent Jeff Wepprecht kept things moving. By 5:08 a.m., he gave the opening speech of dos and don’ts. Then, he sent us off, “Beautiful day to hunt. There’s lots of deer out here. Go and hunt.”

My favorite hour of the year is before shooting time (half an hour before sunrise), when the deer season feels like an eternal possibility.

In the woods while still dark, I heard Canada geese honking incessantly. Wood ducks buzzed past just before dawn. At least once, I heard a deer rustle past, out of sight.

As light swelled, crows cawed en masse, gray squirrels scurried in the leaves, making my nerves jump thinking a deer was coming. I sat so still that a gray squirrel came within grabbing range. Trying to curb my enthusiasm, I twitched and scared the bejesus out of it.

Then those late-risers, fox squirrels, began their own running around and tree climbing. I heard a pileated woodpecker, but didn’t see it.

After the winds of Thursday, it was remarkably calm Friday morning, so calm falling mulberry leaves landed loudly in the forest litter.

“People are coming in steadily, that is the general consensus,” Dan Skinner said at noon. “Everybody’s in a pretty good mood. It was a crisp morning. There’s light winds. Bucks are chasing does and [hunters] are seeing deer.”

Skinner, forest wildlife program manager for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, was working the Ogle County check station.

“So much of the firearm season, with only seven days, is weather dependent,” Skinner said.

Other than some weekend rain in spots, first season looks like reasonable fall weather.

On my way back to meet Vukmirovich at lunch, I flushed a pheasant.

It was time.

He needed to be home early and I wanted to hunt to the end.

In counties with chronic wasting disease–there are 20 with 14 check stations–hunters must check in harvested deer at a check station between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. during the both firearm deer seasons. Skinner reminded that Carroll County is a new check station this year.

Dale Bowman
Sunrise at Des Plaines State Fish and Wildlife Area Friday slowly revealed the cover on opening day of Illinois’ first firearm season.

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