Rockford athlete of the week poll: Boylan, Forreston, Dakota nominees

Well, that’s it for the 2021-22 high school sports year as all of the Rockford-area spring teams are done.

But there are still plenty of stars from the last week of the season for you to choose from for the Rockford Register Star high school athlete of the week.

Voting ends at noon Friday. You can vote at rrstar.com or on the poll below.

Last week’s winner was Boylan soccer player Maggie Schmidt, who earned 44% of the 4,495 votes, beating out Forreston softball player Rylee Broshous (21%) and the Winnebago sprint relay team (21%).

Rylee Broshous, Forreston softball

Broshous helped Forreston close out his softball season in style, with a two-run, eighth-inning rally to beat Newark 4-2 in the Class 1A third-place game Saturday. With one out in the eighth, Broshou smashed a double to centerfield to score Kara Erdmann for a 3-2 lead. Hailey Greenfield’s two-out single scored Broshous for a 4-2 lead, and Erdmann shut down Newark from the circle in the bottom of the eighth to finish Forreston’s run to a third-place finish.

Kara Erdman, Forreston softball

Erdmann, who will begin her college volleyball career at Wisconsin-Milwaukee next school year, finished strong as a star pitcher and hitter for Forreston’s third-place team at state. She allowed two earned runs on six hits, struck out five and walked none in six innings in the semifinal, and then went the full eight innings, allowing two runs on five hits, walking none and striking out 15 in her final high school appearance the third-place game. She also singled and scored the go-ahead run in the top of the eighth inning. Erdmann and Forreston (23-5) won four postseason games in a row in dramatic come-from-behind fashion, including three by walk-offs, two of those by walk-off home runs.

Camden Foesch, Dakota track and field

Foesch turned in the top performance for any Rockford-area runner in an individual event at the IHSA boys state track and field finals in Charleston on May 28. Foesch placed third at the Class 1A level in the 100-meter dash with a time of 11.06 . He ran a 10.91 in the prelims. Rockford Christian’s Bjorn Carlson passed three runners late and took third in the 400 run, equaling Foesch’s top local finish.

Izze Fritz, Boylan soccer

Fritz was a weapon for Boylan all season long, including down the stretch. After Kyra Cruikshank scored to kickstart the Titans, Boylan nabbed a 2-1 lead with 20 minutes left in the second half of last Tuesday’s Class 3A supersectional on a hard-kicked ball by Izze Fritz. But Deerfield scored on a penalty kick just over three minutes later, and eventually took control in the shootout. Fritz finished with 22 goals and 16 assists.

Bryce Goodwine, Hononegah baseball

Goodwine was the catalyst of the powerful run for Hononegah this season, and it even showed during a tough 8-5 loss to McHenry in the Class 4A sectional semifinals last Wednesday. A diving catch in center field ended McHenry’s two-run fifth inning and kept the score 8-0 instead of a 10-run rule defeat. That came after Goodwine pitched the first two-plus innings and gave up four runs on the mound to start the game. He also made a back-handed catch deep in the gap. Hononegah (22-4) lost but still tied last year’s fourth-place team in state (26-4) for fewest losses in school history. Goodwine walked just 17 batters all season.

Rylee Koeller, Belvidere North softball

Koeller, the junior shortstop for a team that ran all the way to the Class 3A sectional finals, was the team’s most dangerous hitter down the stretch. She was 2-for-3 and was the lone Blue Thunder player with multiple hits off of Kaneland’s powerful righty Grace Algrim in last Friday’s 5-0 loss. She was also 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored during North’s 5-4 eight-inning rally past Woodstock North in the sectional semifinals.

Becca Schwartz, Belvidere North softball

Schwartz pitched every inning of the postseason for Belvidere North, which bolted all the way to the sectional finals where the Blue Thunder’s season finally came to a close last Friday. Schwartz, who had thrown complete-game victories in each of the team’s first three postseason games, was going to toe to toe with Kaneland and its potent righty Grace Algrim during Friday’s Class 3A sectional-final showdown, exactly one year to the day that Algrim and Kaneland ousted Schwartz and North from the playoffs by a 5-0 score. But after Schwartz allowed just two hits and one walk through the first five innings, a three-run homer in the sixth inning changed it all, and the Blue Thunder’s season quickly came to a close with another 5-0 defeat.

Jay Taft is a Rockford Register Star sports reporter. Email him at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter at @JayTaft. Sign up for the Rockford High School newsletter at rrstar.com.