Schwiker, Cannison, Krazak, Rundio Bradley sponsors for Friday Night Drive. I'm
Mike Krizak. If you've been injured, we are ready to take on the
insurance company and get you to the end zone. We've recovered hundreds of millions
of dollars for our clients. Visit the g A n A SSI M dot
com looks up everyone. Welcome back and welcome into the Friday Night Drive Podcast.
I am Kyle Neighbors along with my co host Steve Stuci. It is
Thursday, November ninth. We are here to break down the corner final matchups.
Here. We got thirty two games this week and sus are you excited?
Man? Yeah? I mean I was kind of looking at the brackets
the other day and going through it, and I like, everybody like a
Cinderella story as much as anybody, but it kind of seems like, more
so this year than any other year that we've had recently, we don't have
a lot of them. I mean, this quarter final weekend is setting up
as a lot of games where you're like powerhouse versus powerhouse. I mean there
are a few teams sprinkled in there that are kind of new to the party.
But for the most part, there are a lot of games this week
where you're like, these are two Titans running into one another. Yeah.
I mean we've talked a bit about like seven A North or the top part
of that bracket being some team were not used to. But you're right,
overall, a lot of usual faces here doesn't mean that there's not a lot
of good matchups because I you know, honestly, the first two rounds,
there weren't a ton of games that I was excited to see, sus I
just kind of felt like I knew where these were going. That's not the
case this weekend. We're gonna get into this one A through eight A.
We got Michael will Jack and Joe Stevenson going to join us here just a
little bit. But this is a really really good slated game this weekend in
the quarterfinals. Yeah, you can. You can pick almost any class,
and if you don't find two or three games that are intriguing to you,
I don't think you're paying attention. You know, there are a couple that
I, you know, I look at on paper and I think they have
the potential to be maybe lopsided or whatever. But not very many. And
like I said, in each class, it seems like we've got two or
three games that I could feel comfortable talking about in five or ten minutes.
And then you ask me what I think Who's gonna win the game at the
end, and I'm gonna run back to my old staple. You know it
looks like a coin flip on paper, because it genuinely does. I mean,
that's what We have a lot of those games this week. All right,
We've got to get a few propers out of the way first. Make
sure you follow SEUs on x or Twitter at the Suits. You can find
myself on Twitter at Kyle Nighbors. You can find Friday Night Drive on Twitter
at fn drive. Also find Friday Night Drive on Facebook, Instagram, and
tiktoko to Shelllocal dot com or Friday Nightdrive dot com for all of our content.
We started posting sus his analysis for class by class breakdowns for the quarterfinal
round, but have a ton of preview content going up over the next one
four hours to get you set for Friday and Saturday. Really, Saturday is
the bulk of it, with only one game on Friday, Suits, I
know that that's still upset a little bit, but at least you got one,
buddy. Yeah, I got one. As soon as I saw it.
I did the triumph pump because I was skeptical we were even gonna get
that. But one Friday Night game is I guess the one that I'm going
to get. So I will be attending Sandwich and Wheaton Academy on Friday Night
because it's the only choice that I have. Absolutely make sure if you are
watching this live, we really appreciate that. If you're watching live on YouTube
or the Friday Night Drive Facebook page, do us a favor. Leave us
the thumbs up. You can jump into the chat and leave us a question
or comment. We love to know what you guys are want to want to
know what. We want to know what you guys want to talk about,
So please do jump in. Like I said, leave the thumbs up.
Subscribe to shaw Locals YouTube channel helped other people find the show. We really
appreciate it. Let your friends know as well before we bring Michael, and
Michael's going to join us all for the entire show and we go one ay
through eight day, but so we don't have to make jokes to kind of
just stick around. It's weird, mckenry County. We're not used to having
only one team in the postseason at this point, Joe, But here we
are. Kerry Grove the final team left for McHenry County. They get a
match up this week in in Class six A against Geneva. I'm looking forward
to this. This is a one o'clock game on Saturday. I'll be over
there with you on the sidelines. Yeah, I'm looking forward to it as
well. Yeah, it does. It feels weird because usually you also have
Prairie Ridge hanging around, Richmond Burton hanging around, you know, maybe Jacobs
or someone else. We've had seasons where we've had three or four teams make
at this far, and it does feel odd to just have the one.
But you know, we're happy for that to have somebody to watch here on
Saturday. I think that's going to be a good game. I like the
way Carry Grove's looking right now. Yeah. Carry Grove is playing very well
in that two seed here hosting number seven seeded Geneva. Tell us a little
bit more about Kerry Grove, the way they're playing well the last two actually
was it from like the week six on? I think Terry Grove scored forty
forty one or more points in every game except the loss. The loss in
a really good game twenty nine to twenty eight to Hunt. The offense has
really been hitting lately. The big fullback Logan Abrams, the sixty three to
twenty five pounds sophomore, he has twelve hundred and fifty one yards. He's
he's really really tough to stop. And then but you know with that,
with that triple option, of course, that's what teams are looking to stop
first, and then that opens up. Andrew Prio is just ridiculous. Numbers
one thousand and forty four yards on sixty seven carries. It's like fifteen and
a half yards to carry this guy, he's so fast. He had to
play last week against Tiland Park. He went seventy six yards and I looked,
you know, they blocked it. Well, there wasn't much of a
hole, and I'm watching it and he just you know, he just had
that sliver that he needed and just as soon as I kind of looked up,
I'm like, uh, oh, there he goes, because you know,
you could see he just did. He didn't have a lot, but
he didn't need a lot and he got through there, and once he gets
pasted, everybody forget it. Yeah, he's he's pretty crazy. Eight carries
for one hundred and ninety nine last week. You've seen obviously, you've seen
a lot of these carry group teams over the year. Prairie Dage two.
These are we talk about a lot, right with one of these teams carry
grope pr they both run the triple option in either one of these teams that's
been a representative in the Class sixt title games since twenty sixteen. I believe
it was sixteen. Ye, yeah, twenty sixteen. Can you offhand kind
of give a comparison like Andrew Prio like to some of those past teams,
Like who does he compare to in that role in that offense? Maybe you
know, well, who's a good name? I think you know one guy
that sticks out And I'm going to say this because Brad Seeberg mentioned him a
few games ago. Was Danny Daegel on the twenty eighteen team he made I
think he made the big did he make the big defensive play at Notre Dame
when they almost lost in the semi finals. I think he had a couple
He might have had the touchdown and and I know I'm pretty sure he had
because I was I saw Richmond Burton that day. I'm pretty sure that he
had a really key defensive play and then turned around and had a big offensive
play. I think you're right. That's also absolutely insane that you're able to
remember that for a game. I know, yeah, because I was on
the sideline at I see Richmond Burton in that game, and because I kind
of wanted to see that game. It was Richmond Burton coach Mike Knowles first
semi final game ever. You know that he had reached and that was a
good game for IC kind of took over the fourth quarter. But I remember
kept looking for your tweets. You're an Alex or whoever was at that game.
I think it was Sean Hammond and I yeah, maybe it was very
very cold that day. I remember that, and I kept looking like,
oh my gosh, they you know, and then they and then they pulled
it out. They had the big defensive play in a in a big offensive
play at the end. Yeah, So that kind of stuff, I don't
know, that's the way I'm built. That kind of stuff sticks in my
brain. But yeah, that would be a guy, you know, that
that kind of jumps out somebody, you know, really really fast like that
they seem to have. They seem to come up with those guys. They
they come up with the big full back, and then you know a couple
of guys on the outside that are just really fast. You know, watching
he might be he might be the he might be Carry's fastest guy. I
think I think Seaberg the way he talked about him in a story I did
last week, I think Brad might think that, you know, Andrew would
be as fast as anybody's had. And when you see these Carregrove and PR
teams become truly dangerous, it's when you also see the quarterbacks start to become
a dangerous weapon in that run game. And it sounds like Peyton Sieberg.
Uh, it's kind of starting round in the format. He's had more time
to mature and get experience at the at the varsity level. Yeah, he's
had a couple of big games. And then their other wing back, Holden
Boone, has had some big He had two touchdowns last week as well.
So yeah, that offense is looking really good. And you know the thing
of it is, this is my crazy stat of the year that I've referred
to several times in notebooks and stuff. They don't throw the ball often at
all. Peyton Seeberg has thirteen completions on the year, and nine of them
have been touchdowns. So they picked their spots and when they throw it,
they're going to hurt you. So yeah, it's it should be. It
should be fun. I know, you know, Geneva had a little bit
of a playoff drought in the the from twenty sixteen through nineteen, and now
the Vikings are back in for the third year in a row, and so
yeah, I'm really looking forward to that one. On Saturday, we got
a question here in the chap from Jerry Miller, and I don't have the
answer to it. I'll see if you guys do. If not, we'll
have to check in with Jake Barlson, who covers Kane County for us a
get an answer from him. Jerry says, Geneva top wide receiver back,
Yeard, I believe he's got to be referring over here to Taylor. Taylor,
right sus. Yeah, that would be why I believe he'd be referring
to Yeah, Jake, Jake and I combined on that preview capsule and it's
going in. It's going in tonight. I think Jake did not know.
He said status was still unknown regarding his injury. That was what what Jake
had as of yesterday. Okay, Yeah, Taylor Taylor obviously a very very
talented player out of the twenty twenty five class at wide receiver for Geneva a
big part of what they do, So it would be interesting to see if
he's able to play in this game or not. Joe, you got anything
else for us before we let you go? Is Taylor Taylor's mom, I
believe played for the you had putting a spot here right for the Chicago Bandits.
I think I haven't heard that that's but that doesn't mean it's not true.
I know there's a player on Geneva and his mom was played for the
UH, played for the Chicago Bandits, and then also coach softball at Judson
H Now, I sounds like we have a story idea. See there you
go. I think I think that I think he's I think he's the kid.
I'm not I'm not. I'm not completely sure, but I think that's
have to look that up. But all right, Joe, we'll let you
go for now. I'll see you over there on Saturday. Sound good,
very good, very good, guys. All right, talk to you later,
Joe. All right, Sue. So we're gonna go ahead, everyone
and start kind of jumping here, one A through a A. I'm gonna
bring Michael on quick though, Michael Drojak, who covers uh the Chicago Catholic
League for Friday Night Drive. How you doing? Man? Good? You
guys doing wonderful. I know you're a fellow Socks fan. So we're having
a great morning, are do we guys? A great? A great?
You know two years where we are right now. I may have swore a
couple of times this morning when I saw that news, I'm like, listen,
it bad enough to have to watch this White Sox team, at least
like Jason Bennetti and Steve Stone made it tolerable the last couple of years.
It's that was that was some bad news this morning. I saw that it
was I saw that was trending this morning, and my initial reaction was I
didn't want to open it up because I knew it wasn't gonna be good.
And my second quick my second quick thought was, well, he got a
national gig. And while I'm upset about it. He deserves it. Happy
for him. I'm happy for him. And then I opened it up and
saw that he was just leaving because he was tired of the White Sox and
going to a division rival for a similar setup to what he had with the
White Sox, obviously for more money. And I just I just shook my
head and maybe cursed a few times. But that's I At this point,
I don't even know where I go with this nonsense. Yeah, I mean
I tweeted this out, like, are the White Sox at the early two
thousands black Hawks level at this point just totally irrelevant? Like just for probably
one of the worst franchises in sports at this point, I think that's a
fair asposed to were so I mean, I don't know, but we're talking
three guys here who loves sports, and like, I have absolutely no desire
to watch the White Sox. I did it all year long, and I
just don't see like they're not gonna the way they're talking, they're not They're
not gonna do anything that's offseason that changes as that. Like I probably watched
at max ten White Sox games this past year, but it's just it's insane
to think about it. I'm a guy that I didn't miss whether I was
at home, or if I wasn't at home, I had it on the
radio, you know, finding a way to at least listen to the game.
They've completely alienated me though. Yeah, it's it's ridiculous. All right,
this is a good therapy Session'm glad we're here. Yeah, I've been
looking forward to it all morning. I've been like going through our editing process
and like I just focused, Kyle, like you're gonna talk to these guys.
You can, you can hash it out that but all right, I'm
gonna hear if I can present. I should have done this before we started
here. I want to pull up the brackets here, say white quarter final
matchups. There we go. We'll do that and see if I can get
that to pop up a little bit larger so everyone can read that. All
right, guys, we'll start one A through work our way up, uh,
one A through a A. Uh. Not a lot of Catholic League
teams down here in the one A bracket that you're familiar with, Michael,
but sus we had a question here from Zachary asking do you think Anamon Weatherfield
has a chance to give Lena a game. And how do you see Rovo
william Field stacking up against Chicago Hope. So let's start with that first one,
Anaalon Weatherfield against Lena. You know, I think it's a chance.
But the an one Weathersfield does have the one component that I think you really
need to have to have a shot, and that's they have a really good
defense. I mean, they've been rattling off really consistent performances even heading into
the playoffs, now four straight games where they've only allowed six points to the
opposition. So if you're gonna beat Lena, you have to get some defensive
stops. You have to limit their scoring opportunities and keep them away from these
long time consuming drives or those big hitters that they get when they've lulled you
to sleep on the other aspects of their offense. Maybe they can do this,
but you know it's gonna take I think, to knock Lena out.
You're gonna need to put together a darn near perfect effort. You know,
that really is what it comes down to. One a football right now.
The only way that I you know, I don't know if I'd ever consider
picking picking against Lena Winslow on the one, I feel until they prove that
someone someone had been I don't think I have ever had. Yeah, I
haven't in years, I'll say that much. Yeah, the last time I
probably did was probably like a Force in Lena Windlow matchup back when what that
like twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen on Force and was really really good. Yeah,
probably about the last time. Hope Academy versus Robot. What do you
think of that matchup? You know? I like Hope here. Ros had
a nice postseason run here kind of an unexpected one, Hope. You know,
getting past that hurdle of beating a Christian last week told me a lot
about where they're at right now, and for what Hope does. The forecast
looks favorable for them to be able to get out on the track and go,
and that's what that's what they need to do to kind of accentuate the
assets that they have. So I like Hope. I wouldn't say comfortably in
this game, but I think they're They're a substantial favorite. This is State
Representative Steve Reich, and I'm happy to sponsor this year's Friday Night Drive.
There'll be plenty of time for politics down the road, but for now,
let's enjoy some high school football. Whichever school you follow, give him your
support. All right, let's see, you know what, We're gonna help
Zach out here, I see, he says, headed back to work.
Just a few questions. Hopefully you guys can answer. Thanks, guys.
So he's got a question about three, so we'll come back here. I'm
gonna do this for his act since he's always on the show. Don't want
to discourage appreciate any of you guys who join us live regularly. So,
Zach, do you think Princeton, he asked, do you think Princeton could
beat Montini? And how let's start there? Uh, you know, let's
start with Michael, what do you think about Montini in this matchup against Princeton.
I mean, Sus has talked about this a lot. You know,
throughout the season. Montini has you know, played up the entire year.
They're playing in the cclis SEC. They've played against Brother Rice, They've played
against the pretty elite teams and know how to like win games against big teams.
So that obviously, I know Princeton has a lot of you know,
postseason success, and you know has really done, really well. I just
think that, you know, Montini has seen a lot of the best teams
in the state and has already learned a lot of lessons. They learned some
tough lessons against Brother Rice. Like I mentioned earlier, I just think that
Montini has the experience and has the talent, has playmakers like Alex Mara and
George Asay who can really take over games. And you kind of saw that
in their second round matchup as well, where Mari returned the opening kickoff for
a touchdown. You just have too many playmakers, You've got experience, and
I think that might be a little bit tough for Princeton to be able to
keep up with. You know, I've heard just talking to a couple of
people that you know, that know Princeton a bit the last couple of years,
you know, they've been really confident going into the postseason. You know,
when I asked him about this matchup, it was like maybe the last
you know, those last couple of years, teams they're a little more i
would say tempered on their expectations for this matchup. Sou So, I go
into this having heard that thinking Mantini's probably maybe substantial favorite is too strong of
a word, but you know, probably a decent sized favorite in this matchup
in Princeton. Well, you know, when you kind of look at some
of these some of these games, like on a granule level, I tend
to look at it like this. If I put Princeton down in Montini's schedule,
I don't know if Princeton would be able to duplicate the results of Montini.
I doubt that, to be honest with you. I mean, Martini
owns a win over Nazareth this year. You know, they their losses come
to you know, the list is brother Ice, Providence in Saint biat Or.
I don't mean to disparage Princeton's one loss to Morrison, but that's a
one a loss. I mean, it's just I mean, there's a huge
difference between playing regularly in the five A, six A ranks to playing at
the level that Princeton schedule plays. And I'm not, once again not trying
to despair the success that Princeton has had. It's just a pretty big chasm
that they have to clear here to bridge that gap, and it won't be
easy. I'm not saying it's impossible, it would not, it would not
floor me if Princeton were to win this game, but I see them as
the underdog here. Yeah. One O. The other question from Zach see
if we get this before he goes back to work, do you think Quincy
has a chance against Mount Carmel and seven A if they can get into a
shootout with them? Michael, I think the first problem there is well,
I you know, Zach, I do think it would have to be a
shootout. I just don't see this Mount Carmel defense getting into a shootout.
Michael. No. I mean I wrote about that in my That was the
lead of my notebook for this leak. This a lot of people have been
talking about the offense, and justifiably so, Jack Elliott Darian the pre lines
on Nighting all those guys are amazing. This defense has been pretty elite.
I mean they're only you know, two big scores was giving up twenty three
points to Loyola and giving up thirty three points East Saint Louis to start the
season. Other than that, this team has been, you know, elite.
And even in those games against Loyola and East Saint Louis, like you
saw that defense have big stops and create opportunities for Mount Carmel to either beat
you know, the Flyers or try to compete against the Ramblers on a failed
two point conversion. So I just don't, you know, I think Mount
Carlo's gonna put up points and I don't think that this Mount Carmel defense is
going to wet up many points. So you know, in a shootout,
I still see Mount Carmel wins, but I don't think it really gets to
a shootout because that defense is just going to be too strong I think for
Quincy, Yeah, I'm gonna be, you know, completely honest with you
act. The only way I think Quincy has a chance in this game,
and so it's correct me if I'm wrong, is like Mount Carmel has to
have multiple turnovers and Quincy capitalizes on shortfield or something like that. I mean,
Mount Carmel to me is a heavy heavy favorite here. Yeah, I
would kind of agree with that. It's like Michael was just saying about their
defense. I mean, I haven't seen them live since going all the way
back to week one, and granted they did give up some points to East
Saint Louis, but everybody gives up points to East Saint Louis when they play
them that happens, and I will. In the first half of that game
against East Saint Louis, that was one of the things that stood out to
me. They really frustrated the heck out of that Saint Louis offense. They
didn't really get their footing until I want to say, probably late third quarter.
They didn't really get anything going offensively, and no offense to Quincy.
I know they have some good offensive players at the skill positions, those players
don't match what East Saint Louis has. And if Mount Carmel was able to
frustrate East Saint Louis and the bashion that they did, I think they can
do the same with Quincy, and I think it. I think it.
I think it kind of goes back to the same conversation we had about Princeton
and Montini, where I don't think Quincy has played a physical defense like Mount
Carmel's defense. Like when you talk to Loyally, you talk to other teams,
they know when they're gonna play Mount Carmel, they're gonna swarm you,
They're going to be physical, they're not gonna let up on any play.
And I'm just not sure Quincy has played a defense like that is going to
hit as hard as Mount Carmel's is gonna hit. So when it's all fair,
bringing up East Saint Louis and Luther Burden made me think of something suits
and I wanted to ask you, and it's football related this time at least.
But I am derailing us here with the announcement yesterday that the NCAA is
changing it to where underclassman can now be in the showcase games. Yeah.
I know you're a draft beat, Nick and love seeing tracking these kids that
come out of local high schools and go there. Like, how excited were
you to see that news yesterday? Yeah, that's gonna be interesting. I,
like I said, I'll go anywhere. I programmed my DVR multiple times
this year to tape games that he's involved in, Always looking for those clips
on Saturday afternoon when I'm out at games to see what crazy nonsense that he
pulls off. You know, like I said, when he was a senior,
I was specifically assigning myself to games where I could see him as off
as unhumanly possible. I think I saw him six times that year, So
yeah, I'm a huge fan and having him having more opportunities to see him
do stuff. That's that's all good with me. You know, I think
I'm gonna scrap our plan to go one A through A to A because we're
getting some questions jumping around here. So we're just gonna kind of go with
the guy. We're already at twenty six minutes into this. Love that everyone
is in the chat again. If you're watching live on YouTube or Facebook,
you can throw a question or comment into the chat. We will get to
it here, Jerry says, a normal downers Grove North semi finals. So
let's let's break that down here. We got two matchups here Normal Community with
Glenbard East and downers Grove North at Lincoln Way West SOUS. Starting with that
first matchup, glen Bard East has been impressive coming from the Upstate eight through
the first two rounds of the playoffs. Normal Normal Community able to get by
Bradley Bourbon at last week and over. Was it overtime or into regulation?
It was overtime, that was over. It was overtime. Yeah, Okay,
making sure I'm not saying the wrong thing there. How do you think
these two teams match up? You know, it's this is a battle of
two teams right now that, to be honest with you, I still don't
know what's even though we're eleven games deep in the season. I'm not sure
what to make them either one of them. I feel like glen Bard East
has gotten a really favorable playoff draw to this point. You have to beat
who's in front of you. I understand that, but this was a Harlem
team in the first round that you know, frankly, is not as good
as they've been in the past. Addison Trail had one of the weaker schedules
in the state and got a public league team in the first round. In
the second round game, congratulations to them getting to this point. I mean,
like I said, you have to play who's in front of you.
You don't have any control over that. But it still has kind of given
me pause about how good they really are. And I think the same thing
can kind of be applied to normal community. I don't think the Big Twelve
was as strong as it has been in past seasons. The only team that
really put up points on them in the regular season was Peoria, who I
had the opportunity to see live in the first round of the playoffs. I
think granted the weather wasn't great, but I wasn't wowed by what I saw
from Peoria in that situation. So I don't know if Normal Community has really
seen that many upper echelon opponents either. So I'm really kind of mystified as
to what might happen in this game. I favor Normal Community, but it's
only by a slim margin. Then you have Downers Grove North getting Noah battle
back, playing much better as at thirteen seed. Tell us though about Lincoln
Way West a little bit more. You know, this is a team that
seemingly has really flipped a switch once we've gotten into the postseason. They'd had
some games in the second half of the season where they maybe weren't able to
get their offense going at the level that they wanted it to. But more
importantly, the defense has really really improved. I mean, shutting down Hoffman
Estates in the fashion that they did in the first round was really impressive.
And then taking that long road trip to Collinsville, a team that has shown
propensity to put up points, a good athletic team that can really fly up
and down the field, Lincoln Way West just kind of put the clamps on
that on the defensive side of the ball and then just turned the ball over
to Joey Campania and just let him go nuts. I mean he ran for
almost three hundred yards and five touchdowns in that game. You know, the
Friday Night Drive Team of the Week MVP deservedly so last week. This is
a team right now that is absolutely playing as good a football as they possibly
can at the right possible times. So, you know, and I think
that's kind of can be said about down as Grove North too, So in
that sense, I think you've got two teams at peak performance right before we
head back down to the smaller classes. I see a couple questions in here
about two A promise we'll get to those soon. I see a a down
here right below. So I'm gonna hit a Michael h You're gonna see on
Saturday at three pm. Loyola and Saint Ignacious. I don't think there's any
disputing that Loyola comes into this game as a considerable favorite. I really really
like saying ignacious. I like what we've seen them do this postseason. Obviously,
getting Justin Scott involved on offense has been fun for everyone to watch.
You know, this is a team that was in a semi final last year
in Class six A, and you know, if this if they were against
any other team here, I shouldn't say that this is tough and Ada with
Lincoln Way Easton there too, But I I really like this ignacious team.
I just find it to find a way for them to win this against Loyola.
I guess what I'm rambling about here. I'm in a really similar spot
with you there. I think that the Standing Nations team is really good,
has been fun all season. I think if you have them maybe going against
you know, I haven't seen Edwardsville, but maybe Edwardsville or York, even
even Maine South or Barrington, I think you have them potentially pulling off the
upset. And I'm not saying that they're not. They don't have the potential
to bring Loyola. I just think Loyola has everything to stop stayt ignacious.
I think they have the you know, whether Justin Scott is going to be
no pass rushing or he's going to be running as a rusher, Loyola has
the physicality and the size to stop it. You got their offensive line is
able to you know, double team, if not triple team. Justin Scott
and stop them on the defensive line, and you know they might have a
hard time stopping him for a one or two yard run for a touchdown,
but you know they can stop them, and you know, get three guys
on them, and you know he won't be able to run out for that
big twenty nine yard run. And you know that is what Loyola's defense does
once to stop your past, you know, your running attack, and I
know SAT Nations runs a triple option, so that might be a little bit
different. But once Loyola like gets a strangle on your running attack, they
destroy your passing attack and you pretty much don't have much to do offensively.
And Loyola's offense has shown that they can just put up points, and I
don't think they'll struggle against putting up points against the Satan Nation's defense, who
has done well. But I don't think Ignacious, you know, has seen
an offense like Loyo is this season. So like I said, if the
Wolfpack we're playing anyone else, I would give them a really strong chance to
win. But it's just a really tough straw to have to play Loyola basically
one of maybe a few teams they can you know, stop you physically and
stop you know a really big PCDA you have in Justin Scott and other guys
as well. Jerry. Jerry asked, does Mount Carmel move up to a
d A if they win it all? SEUs No. Basically, how the
success formula works is that you have to trophy in two consecutive years, but
it matters when the two consecutive years are. So the two year period restarted
this year, so they would have to win this year and finish first or
second next year before they are they would be subject to the success formula in
what would be twenty five and twenty six seasons, So that's how that works.
It's if they would have won the state championship in twenty one prior to
twenty two, then they would have been success formula. That's what happened to
Sacred Heart Griffin. It's why they are under the success formula. They finished
runner up in twenty one, which is a trophy, won the state championship
last year, so they were success formula in that two year window. We
now do enrollments in two year periods and we're in the first year of a
two year period now, so new success Formula team tams would not be cranked
out until twenty five to twenty six, and that would be based on the
results of this year's state tournament and next year's state tournament. Yes, that
was a very very convoluted answer, because that is a very convoluted system,
and that is why he is Steve Susie. That's why you go to him
for all your Illinois high school football needs because he understands that stuff. And
you can of course follow him on Twitter at this Make sure you follow Michael
on Twitter as well at m dwo Jack ninety four. You can also find
him on threads and Instagram. Let's go back down here to one a here
Jesse, we need a cook sess love. The screen name always says is
a Campoint Central All Top winner, the South representative. That game taking place
at two o'clock on Saturday. Seuss is in one game. I'm gonna be
over watching Carry Grove Geneva. But this is one of those games where I
hope to be able to find a feed later in the afternoon to go back
and watch this one. Yeah, I think that the question gets to the
point of the matter. I do. I agree. Whoever wins this game
is going to be the South representative. I don't mean to disparage those other
two teams on the bottom of the bracket, but I felt like, you
know, if you had to rank the teams in this classification, you're looking
at number two and number three in this game behind Lena Winslow. Lena Winslow
is on top of that mounta until they prove they're not. But these are
the two teams since the beginning of the season that I believed are the two
spots behind them. I believe whoever wins it will will go to We'll go
to normal. We're getting a track meet in this game, aren't we.
Absolutely. I saw a tweet last night from the Campoint Central coach that they
were doing some sprint work, and I believe he said they had eleven guys
that had reached up the top speed of twenty one miles an hour, which
they'd never had done before. But you know, I don't know exactly how
that translates to field speed, but I know it's real fast. So that's
and and then you know that's one of those things, uh that what it
really comes down to. And and all top as well, has has speed
all over the field, So it's gonna be a very impressive display of athleticism,
especially at the one A level where usually you aren't blessed with that many
players that have that kind of speed. Yeah. Absolutely, Adam Anderson checking
in says thoughts on two A South this weekend. Athan's favored in my opinion,
but hard to win in Nashville. Can't get a read on Shelbyville or
modern Day both beat teams they should have, but unsure of how good they
are. Sus, what do you think about two A South? You know,
it's it. I agree with pretty much everything Adam's saying there. You
know, I have a hard time picking against Nashville in a two A postseason.
They've time and time again they've they've beat teams that you know you weren't
expecting to beat. I was reminded two years ago when I was I believe
I was after seeing Luther Burden walking out to my car watching the end of
the Nashville Saint Teresa game, which was completely wild, but of course Nashville
pulled it out. So they can do all kinds of things, and they've
been an impressive program in the past, so hard to count them out in
the postseason. As far as that other game, I'm getting exactly the same
read that you are with Shelbyville and Modern Day. I was kind of on
board with Shelbyville and then they got absolutely trucked in the last week of the
regular season. I don't know. It was against Nashville, so it wasn't
necessarily a bad loss, but it was a game that I thought that,
you know, if they were a serious threat to do some damage into it,
at least they'd be able to keep that game in range. But they
got beat pretty badly. And Modern Day is always a tough read this time
of year. Played kind of an eclectic schedule as an Independence, so you
know, getting a feel for exactly how they fall into the two A bracket
is always tricky. Iilean modern Day, but wouldn't be surprised either way.
There. Let's see where are we going next? Adams says, if Sandwich
wins tomorrow night, are they the story of the year in Illinois? Sandwich
with a match up at number four weeding Academy suits? What do you think
about that question? You know, I can't. I was thinking about this
the other day. I mean, granted, there haven't been a lot of
situations like this where there's been an established program that has dropped varsity football only
to bring it back the following year. So we don't have a lot of
I guess documentation on how programs do in this situation. But I can't think
of anything like this. I mean, it would be incredible to go from
you know, not playing the year before to a semi final appearance. You
know that that seems like just I mean, I can't think of precedent for
it or anything that I would even compare to it. It is pretty incredible.
The only thing, the only thing that might surpass that is NAS starting
zero to four getting in as a four and five team. If they were
to then make the run and win a state championship, that the hell of
a story itself. Those are the two things that I could that are Those
are the two things that come to mind when are for contention for that question,
what do you guys think? Where should I go from here? How
about you know what, Jesse, We already talked about this a little bit,
but Byron at Montini potentially next week at the slob or knocker. Uh,
Yeah, that's a that's a that's a semi final matchup. I'd be
okay with Alex says thoughts on kank Key and East Saint Louis. K's have
to play a perfect game. Lorenz walchairs the quarterback minimum nas last week should
have more snaps this week, Souce, what do you think? You know?
I think this game is something that the Kanka Key in particular has been
looking forward to for a while, the opportunity to play East St. Louis.
They have them on their field. But like I mentioned on Monday,
the fact that they struggled in the fashion that they did last week in round
two, in comparison to what East Saint Louis did in round two gives me
a little pause for kanka Key's hopes in this game. I really think East
Saint Louis is just a pretty well oiled machine at this point in time of
the season. They're doing what they do in the in the you know,
and to come in here, Kanky's gonna have to play basically flawless football.
And for a while prior to last week, I thought maybe their defense might
be up to the task, but they must have had a lot of breakdowns
in that game. I mean, they gave up four touchdown receptions to the
same wide receiver in the first half of that game last week. So they
really have to get back to that level of defense that they were playing prior
to that Eisenhower game. And I don't want to put too much stock into
him. Maybe it was just one of those days, you know, where
your opponent just kind of caught lightning in a bottle. But it definitely gave
me a lot of about kanky Key's ability to slow down. I mean,
because that's what it's gonna be. You're not gonna stop the Saint Louis's offense.
You got to slow at down and try to make it manageable. Uh.
And you know, and there are, like like Alex mentioned, you
know, there are some injury issues on kanka Key's side of things. They
have to be healthy. They got a good a good number of snaps last
week from a from an underclassman, Cedric Terrell, the third who filled in
and did a really nice job for kanka Key. But you know, they
need to be at full strength and they need to have that defense playing at
the level that it's capable of. If if Kanka Key falls behind early in
this game, my don't punt. It's essentially, like if you're in situations
where you're near midfield and you're facing fourth and five, fourth and six,
just go for it. Like you're not gonna get enough stops a getting Saint
Louis too for that to be you know, a viable solution, and you're
probably gonna have to steal a possession at some point, whether that's getting a
big turnover and creating a short field for yourself or we saw Kerry Grove when
they upset the Saint Louis in the state title game. You know, go
with on side kicking that game. You know you're you're gonna need something.
You're gonna need something to go your way to be able to get a Saint
Louis on its heels. Yeah, you can't. And you can't have Hubris.
You can't go, oh, we were doing all this stuff during the
regular season. We're gonna we're gonna show these guys, We're gonna show we
can do it against them. Who cares how you get it done, do
it whatever way you have to. I mean, you know, if you
have something that's working, run it, run it till these Saint Louis Bruis
if they can't stop it. I mean, don't get don't get cute.
I mean, this is not the this is not the opportunity to show up
that show. You know how you're gonna outsmart E St. Louis. You've
got to do whatever you have to do in this situation. You get too
many teams that try to try to say we have to do what we what
we do? No, you you find whatever works. Who cares what it
looks like. John Maddox Junior says, mister Morris, JCA, talk what
are you thinking? You actually haven't missed it. We haven't talked about that
game yet, so appreciate the question there, John sus let's start with Morris.
Any updates on the injury side for Morris, I haven't heard anything in
regards to you know, their their status, you know, I think,
you know, this is just me speculating here. I think those two guys
are going to try to go regardless of what they're told. I think,
I mean, that's kind of the mentality that I think that they take there.
How effective they are, I don't know, And that's what it really
all comes down to. You. I don't think we're going to get any
real answers to these questions until we actually put the ball in play. Yeah,
John, we talked about this a little bit on the RecA app show
the other day. On paper, I actually think Morris is the better team
when that full strength here, but with the injury questions, it's hard to
tell. So let's see where to go from here. Guys, we got
Jacob says it says lincoln Way East Warren semi final, but that's actually a
quarterfinal. And that is these are two teams that are really familiar with each
other. Who's lincoln Way East and Warren. This is another matchup where between
them where I don't expect there to be a lot of points scored. Yeah,
I don't either, And I'm really interested to see what happens here because
when I have seen them, lincoln Way East, particularly in run defense,
is incredible. I mean they they they make all kinds of plays. I
mean, David Wesky, Kayden o'rour up front, you know, they they
kind of Connor Jerkins another player that just always seems to be in an opposing
teams backfield. I think I had eleven running plays for loss by Minooka last
weekend in the second round. Just could not get anything going. The longest
rushing game that they had against against Lincoln Way East was a fifteen yard scramble
by their quarterback, and other than that they were they were in very low
single digits the rest of the night. And then they they're playing an opponent
this week that has a pair of guys that have gone over a thousand yards
rushing and Warren pretty much does all their offensive damage, you know, running
the football. I believe they're completing an average of about three passes a game,
so they want to run the football. So it is definitely a rock
and a hard place type of situation, especially with Warren's offense against Lincoln Way
East defense. Warren's defense is very good as well, but lincoln Way East
I think has the about of the ability to balance their offense a little bit
better if they need to. They can't. They they've been running the ball
a lot, but they can also throw the ball successfully if they need to.
So that's where it really comes down to for me, I think will
Warren be able to run against lincoln Way East, because if they can't,
it's going to be a long evening for warm All right, guys, we're
all cut up in the questions here. We got to wrap up in a
couple of minutes. But since we've been jumping around, Michael Seuss, is
there any matchup we haven't hit on that you want to talk about quick?
I think we've we've bounced on just about everything. I'm really interested in this
Nazareth Carmele matchup. That's why that's one of the better matchups. And I
think you know, both at five A and the four A bracket as well
has some really good, you know, matchups there, but that Nazareth Carmel
game should be really fun just to see, you know. I feel like
we've been hyping up Carmel, you know, from the beginning of the season,
and we've been talking about the talent that they have. I'm really curious
to see how the talent that nas has compares to the talent that KRMEO has
because I feel like those are two deeply talented teams that you know, kind
of play styles. I don't know's it's exactly the same, but they kind
of have similar style of philosophies, which I'm kind of excited to see how
they compare against each other. I was scooping out a little bit on Carmel's
schedule this week, and I didn't realize until I really looked at it it
was it was definitely an uneven schedule for Carnmeal this year. I mean,
they played and lost them Mount Carmel. They were competitive with that, but
they played a lot of the teams that didn't actually make the playoffs or the
Catholic League. Right So there's still in my mind kind of a little bit
of a mystery. I mean, what they did to Antiochs last week surprised
me a little bit. I think Carnmeal's a very good team, but I
still think this is one of the few times that Carnmeal has matched up with
the actually a really strong football team this year, you know, so it'll
be interesting to see how they respond to that challenge. Yeah, I'm also
I'm also looking down in the questions right now. We didn't talk about Wilmington
Seneca either, which is another interesting game that I think we didn't really address.
I don't ask me to pick it. I still don't feel comfortable with
putting that out there, but goodness gracious, yeah, that's played during the
regular season Week one. Wilmington Seneca beat them in that game. Wilmington's been
out of tear ever since, so has Seneca. Just something that I felt
like was going to happen all along. If both teams ended up in Class
two A, they were going to run into each other again at some point.
Once again, this is another game that if you're if you're planning on
going to the game, make sure you get there early because if you don't
get there right when it starts, you might miss the entire first half.
This will be a very quickly played game. Paul says, what games are
Steve? What games of Steve going to this weekend? I think I'm Friday,
I'm going to go to the Sandwich game, and then Saturday. I
still have not mapped out my course yet. I'm going to try to get
to three or four different games. I've decided I figure that was coming.
Yeah, So I mean, I don't know how I'm gonna do this,
and I'm trying to figure out the best way to map it. But I'm
thinking about hanging around the Elmhurst area because there are a lot of games in
a very short distance. So and the first ones are the Elver Slash Wheaton
type of area in there, because the earliest game I can get to is
the wheat in Saint Francis Morgan Park game, which is a game that I'm
interested in. It starts at twelve thirty, so I think I'm gonna probably
just wander around in there and actively follow Twitter to see if there's a better
game that I need to be at. So it should be an adventure for
Mele Buzz says Carmel, Mount Carmel, Southern Illinois, and Mount Carmel Chicago
all up, how many survive the weekend? I think all three? Do?
I agree? Let's finish it up here, guys. I'll start with
you, Michael on this question best best game of the weekend? Best game
of the week up, best game of the weekend. Here we're looking at
in the CCL or overall? What's your overall? What game do you are
you both looking forward to this weekend? Carmel Nazareth is really interesting. I'm
just really curious to see, you know, how those two teams match up
against each other. I know Maine South Barrington is getting a lot of billings
just for how good that's supposed to be. But yeah, I mean,
you know, even the game I'm going to Ignacious Loyal, I don't know
if it will be particularly you know, I don't know if Ignacious can pull
off the upset, but listen, if you're seeing tweets from me, you
know, in the second or third quarter, and it's a fourteen to fourteen
gamer, it's a seventeen to fourteen game, don't be that surprised. I
just think that, you know, Loyola has the defense and the talent to
stop the triple option. It might take a little bit to stop it,
and then eventually the offense is going to get going. But you started the
podcast this way. There are so many good games this weekend, and obviously,
like you know, there are a lot of great stuff going on,
so should be a lot of fun matchups to look forward to. And if
you could do what SEUs does just jump around a little bit and deal with
some Chicago traffic, I'm definitely recommend it. Yeah, Sus, you were
talking about that that those games up in the elmen Hurst area. My personal
favorite game is actually that Edwardsville, York matchup. I'm really intrigued to see
how that game plays out in Class A. Outside of that, if if
I knew the kids and Morris were healthy, that was gonna be my my
pick this week and then you know that that Campoint Central all to off game
and one A is looking really good. But I'll let you finish up.
What is your favorite game this weekend? Well, there are several. I
don't know if I can pick one, but I'm going to answer this by
saying the game that I'm most confused by because I just don't really know what's
gonna happen. And I'm gonna go with Downer Scrove North in Lincoln Way West
because I think that's the one where when you look at it on paper,
they both have a lot of assets, they're both playing really good football right
now, and honestly, I just don't know who's going to win it.
So when I look at that question what's the best game, I tend to
answer it with what game do I potentially think we'll be most entertaining to watch?
And I think that's the one. All right, Well, thank you
everyone who joined us live this morning. We really appreciate it. Of course,
you can get this in podcast format if you ever miss this, go
to Friday Night Drive dot com. You'll find that up there. Of course,
on any platform you need podcast nowadays. We're gonna go ahead and sign
off make sure you stick to Friday Night Drive dot com all week, and
thank you to Joe Stevenson for joining us, Michael Rojack as well for Steve
Susie. I am Kyle Nabors. We'll talk to you guys later. Schwiker,
Ganison, Krizak, Rundio Proudley sponsors to Friday Night Drive. I'm Mike
Krizak. If you've been injured, we are ready to take on the insurance
company and get you to the end zone. We've recovered hundreds of millions of
dollars for our clients. Visit the g A N A S s I N dot com