Games of the Week

Some may say that the Bears playing the Cowboys this weekend will be the Game of the Week. Seriously, both teams played like piles of manure which has been festering in Mid-West heat for months. The Bears lost, no matter what the league says. How does one 'go for extra yards' in the end zone? Amend the rule. The Cowboys, well, I really couldn't care less what that two-beer-drinkin-s.o.b-from-Eastern Illinois does either way. But this is about high school football. And these are my Games of the Week.

1. (4)Joliet Catholic pays a visit to (11)Carmel on Friday night at 7:30. Both teams are stacked with crushing backfields and, with no doubt in my mind, this one will come down to which defense turns in the toughest kid on the playground performance.

Catholic wins by 6.

2. (5)Wheaton North, at 7:30 on Friday, busts heads with (9)Glenbard North. Will Reece Butler add huge numbers to his three game total of 756 passing yards and 10 touchdowns? Or will that dominate Panther 'D' keep its 5.6 points a game average in tact?

Glen-North will keep inching up the Top 20 ladder with a 6 point win.

3. (10)Loyola plays host to Mount Carmel at 1:30 Saturday afternoon. Will Malcolm Weaver and E.J. Webb help Loyola to down the Caravan for the third time in two years?

The Caravan plays the role of up-setter in this match-up, downing Loyola by 10.

4. (14)Minooka heads north to battle Mike Romeli's Plainfield East Bengals Friday night. Can the cats scalp the Indians or will Bert Kooi's boys tame the cats like they've done to opponents the three previous games this season?

Minooka walks with the win by 30.

Game of the Week

Sure, there are 32 games this weekend. But only one can be named Game of the Week. Since my boys bowed out last week against East St. Louis, they obviously can no longer can be my choice. But there are plenty of other area teams that I can root for. But will I?

Let's start it off.

Can [3]Loyola stymie the always surprising [10]Mount Carmel?

Can high rolling [12]St. Charles North upset the unbeaten [1]Glenbard West?

Will [3]Crete-Monee keep the dream alive as they travel to [2]Providence?

Can [5]De La Salle keep the city alive by beating [1]Cary-Grove?

Will Dan Sharp's boys live up to the legacy that he has has built when
[2]Washington visits Memorial Stadium to battle [6]Joliet Catholic?

All great games to catch, but The Game of the Week will be between the two unbeatens down in 3A:

[2]Wilmington goes to pay a visit to [1]Illini West.

Game of the Week

The end of the regular season is this weekend. A wonderful year of great high school football is ending. Well, for some teams it is ending. The 2nd season starts this Saturday with the playoff pairings. And then it's all fair game, no holds barred, smash mouth football. Sorry, getting ahead of myself. We still need to finish Week 9.

Let's see, who do we have knocking heads this weekend that is worthy of the Game of the Week Title?

Well, (15)Mount Carmel is heading South to battle (5)Providence in New Lenox Friday night. If the games I've witnessed these two schools play against each other means anything to you, which it probably doesn't, this should shape up to be a great game.

But then there's (17)Glenbard North going to visit (10)Naperville Central to try and start their weekend off right.

And (6)St. Rita knocks heads with (7)Loyola that everybody and their mother is going to be claiming as their Game of the Week because they are both so highly ranked. Blah. Blah. And. Blah.

I'm going with (16)Stevenson stopping by the house of higher ranked (13)Warren for a visit and again moving up the list of ranked teams after their win.

My Picks:

Providence 37, Mount Carmel 35
Naperville Central 28, Glenbard North 14
Loyola 21, St. Rita 10
Stevenson 53, Warren 21

and of course...

Minooka 45, Plainfield Central 24

p.s.

Hey Indians, you remember that Plainfield Central knocked your heads around last year 53-15 to lock up the conference championship, right? Well, you win this one, the championship's yours. Well, at least a share of it depending on what Oswego does. Unless, of course, since you smoked them last week, the conference board memebers will just give it to you. Anyway, I'm pretty sure that Cookie's wants to serve Wildcat this weekend as a special, so bring 'em the meat.

p.s.s. Unless some unthinkalbe phenomenon goes down Friday afternoon, the Steelmen of Joliet or the Homewood-Flossmoor Vikings will pick up their first win of the season. Not too bad, I suppose. Practice all summer to get ready for the season, have your butt handed to you each of the eight times you took the field and then, finally, the last game of the season, you pull your first "W". Whoever wins, it'll be a low scorer: H-f is averaging 8.6 points a game, while Joliet, a lowly 6. Good luck fellas.