The Big Ones

At long last, it's here; HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL SEASON!

Hope you all enjoyed your summer break, but it's time to put the beach blankets and sun screen away and buckle the helmets to knock some heads. Week 1 has some exciting match-ups that will change up the rankings for teams in the Top 10. Away we go.

Tomorrow afternoon, (4)Mount Carmel will try to stop (6)Simeon in the Bears Den, er, Soldiers Field at 2:30. Last season both of these teams made valiant runs for state titles. This year, they both look to do it again. Will Caravan QB Robert Gregory out toss the Simeon D led by two-way star Brandon Greer or will Mount Carmel lose the opener like they did last year against the same team?

Tomorrow night, 7:30, Memorial Stadium, Joliet, Illinois, (12)Joliet Catholic plays host to (7)Carmel and the top seeding for the East Suburban Catholic. Both teams have explosive, 3-man back fields who promise heavy ground attacks from both squads. But will it be Andy Bitto's Corsair's or Dan Sharp's Hilltopper's who come away with the win?

And of course, (16)Minooka travels West down Old Route 6 Friday night to battle long time nemesis Morris. Do Bert Kooi;s Indians have it in them for the upcoming battle with Alan Thorson's Redskins? These two programs, when put on a football field against each other, no matter either skill level, turn this game into a blood fight, er, a death match. Games between the Bears and the Packers for the NFC Championship are like kittens playing with puppies compared to these games. Will this game hold the hatred for ones opponent the games between these squads over the last 40 years has held? Will these two teams come to battle with the "Kill or be Killed" attitude all of Grundy County is hoping they bring? We can only hope so. 

Round 2 Big Ones

Round 2 started for most teams in the state last Friday or Saturday after winning their Round 1 games. There were some expected losses, a few surprises and even a court order to allow one team to play the game. Oh what a week. In just about 24-hours, Dunbar and Harper will kick-off this weekends games and I have a few I'd love to see.

First off, the battle in Wheaton.

(4)Wheaton North pays a visit to (1)WW South at 7 p.m. Saturday. The second meeting of the two squads, beside bragging rights, means more to all then the first time around. WW South beat North 42-12 earlier this season, thanks in part to the 4 turnovers committed by North QB Reece Butler. Butler, however, likes the pressure placed on him by himself to rectify the situation. Will Butler's numbers (1,847 yards, 17 tds) stand fast against the Tiger defense anchored by 6'3 lineman Will Davis and his 7.5 sacks? Only time will tell.

The Encore Performance of The Battle of Ridge Road.

(3)Minooka travels to (2)Plainfield South Saturday night at 6 to try to bring home the road sign they lost earlier this season. With a defense reminding me of a certain team that will go unnamed as of late, I see Minooka bringing the glory back home where it belongs. If Max Brozovich, Jake Residori and Alex Hamilton play as whole hearted as they did last week against Quincy (all three had blocked punts) I don't see a problem. Has Coach Kooi given his Indians what they need to know about Coach Briscoe's spread offense to stop their blatantly quick game? We'll find out Saturday.

Game of Week 7

Week 7 starts with the same assumed teams claiming their 1st Round spots in the twenty-ten post season, and a few teams who never seen what was coming.

The usual suspects in this years playoffs? WW South, St. Rita, Crystal Lake South, Wilmington and Joliet Catholic, to name a few.

The unusual suspects hanging up their pads before November? The Providence Celtics.

A big fan of The Three "S's": Senn, Simeon and Stevenson.

Minooka goes to Plainfield North at 7 p.m. Friday. This will be a test for the Indian 'D' and at the same time, a test for new state record holder Kapri Bibbs. The Tigers have scored 212 points this season, 206 with Bibbs on the field, an average of 35.3 points a game. Minooka has held their opponents to 112 points going into Week 7, that's just 16 points per game. The Indians have scored 226 points, 37.6 per game, while Plainfield North has allowed just 94, 15.6 a game. This one, boys and girls, is gonna be a barn burner.

What's Going Down in Week 5

After having a look around, and noticing all the good, the bad and the ugly (I'll be nice and name no teams...of course, you all know who you are), I am reminded what this week really is. Beside Week 5 of the Twenty-Ten Football Season, it is the week in which a team is going to the playoffs or not starts to be noticed. For example:

Checking out? If Providence loses this week, they're done for the year. Without a victory yet this season, and in one of, if not THE toughest conference in the state, with Rita and Mount Carmel still on their schedule, if the Celtics lose this week, like I've already said, their season is over. Will their streak of 20 straight seasons in the playoffs come to an end this weekend?

My opinion? The Celtics are done.

Who's the bigger boy? Naperville North's Matt LaCosse or WW South's Reilly O'Toole? We'll find out Friday night when the two funky QB's match up. Will it be the sly running ability of LaCosse or the air assault of O'Toole that leads a team to victory Friday night?

NN or WW? I'm a bit hesitant, but I'm pulling for LaCosse to trump O'Toole and notch WW South from the Top Spot of the polls.

Who's gonna stay at the top? Minooka travels to knock heads with Plainfield South Friday night. Both are 4-0 and resting atop the Southwest Prairie leader board. Can Bert Kooi's Indians stay perfect while facing ex-Minooka head coach Mike Briscoe's Cougars?

Well? It's like running into an ex-girlfriend at the movie shop. She looks good, is doing damn well and you're forced to remember you left her behind for a more attractive model. Minooka by 21.

Can they keep up the Monsters of the Midway like persona they've had all season? Antioch (4-0) visits Vernon Hills (4-0) at 7:30 Friday night. Antioch is averaging 42 points a contest. Vernon Hills has yet to allow a single point in four games. What's gonna go down?

Vernon Hills finally allows points, but still come out with the W by 21.

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

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.

Game of the Week

So, it's Week 8 and it's pretty much determined who it is that will be playing in the playoffs at the end of the month. What class these teams will actually land is yet to be determined, but, that never really has mattered to me. If a team is good enough to get to the dance, it doesn't matter who they're dancing with, all they need to do is dance. If you didn't pick up on it, the dance is the playoffs.

This coming weekend will be big, with explosive game after explosive game.

Somebody's door to a beautiful, undefeated season will be closed this weekend when
(22)Crystal Lake South goes to (19)Cary-Grove Friday night to battle at 7:15.

(9)Glenbard North plays host and hopes to derail (3)WW South Friday night at 7:30.

Two of the L-W schools will do the dance Friday as well as (25)L-W Central hosts (10)L-W East at 7 o'clock.

Dan Sharp's boys at (13)Joliet Catholic go to (21)Marian Catholic to try and better their playoff spot.

And a newby to Steve Tucker's Top 25, (20)Glenbrook South will try to upset (1)Maine South Saturday at 1:30 in the afternoon.

But then there is the game that matters most to me, and since this is my blog, I can admit this game to the list; Minooka at Oswego, 7 p.m. Friday.

With a win, 5-2 Minooka will lock up a spot in the dance. With a loss, they'll have to really step it up for their season ender. Oswego, also 5-2, is sitting in the same boat as the Indians. If the Panthers win, they're in, with a loss, they've got to step it up as well.

Predictions:

Cary-Grove 28, Crystal Lake South 26
Glenbard North 37, WW South 21
L-W East 39, L-W Central 12
Joliet Catholic 56, Marian Catholic 38
Maine South 35, Glenbrook South 32
Minooka 49, Oswego 37

Game of the Week

The 2009 high school football season is well under way and after a few setbacks--the sideline death of Curie's Quaashi Chandler and the game ending brawl between North Chicago and Simeon--things are as normal as one could hope for.

A big congrats to head coach Bert Kooi and his boys in Minooka for their 21-14 victory over one time Minooka head coach Mike Briscoe and his team at Plainfield South.

With that big win, maybe the attention of some has been caught and the Indians might sneak into a Top 25 sometime soon. But they'll have to keep at it. Friday night will determine if they can stay at it when they go to Oswego East, even though East hasn't won a game yet this season and has only scored twenty points this year, while allowing 32+ in each of its games.

Prediction:

Minooka 42, Oswego East 7--Minooka QB Mitch Brozovich runs for 117 yds and 2 scores while collecting 247 yards and a touchdown through the air.