[02/06/01] Other than a loss to an opponent her team beat, St. Aloysius coach Shirley Agostinelli doesn’t know much about Tuesday night’s second-round playoff opponent, North Pike.

North Pike (13-4) lost to Cathedral 1-0 on a late goal late in the season. St. Al (13-1-1) beat Cathedral 8-0 on Nov. 28, but that doesn’t mean Agostinelli and the Flashes are taking North Pike lightly.

“Frankly, I know very little about them,” Agostinelli said. “All I told (St. Al players) was I don’t care if Cathedral did beat them twice, you still have to go down there and play hard.”

The Flashes’ task should be made easier as the team recovers from the flu. Five starters missed practice time last week, but Agostinelli said they are all better this week.

“They still have the stopped-up noses and stuff, but they’re OK,” she said. “Everybody is getting better.”

For North Pike, St. Al represents a roadblock of a different sort.

The Jaguars, who are 9-1 in 2001, made the playoffs for the fourth straight season, but were knocked out in the first round the previous three seasons by schools with the word “Saint” in their names St. John’s, Madison-St. Joe and St. Andrew’s.

“That’s what the kids picked up,” North Pike coach Dwight Stockton said. “Can’t we play anybody but those Saints?”