Schwiker, Gannison, Krizak Rundio proudly sponsors to Friday Night Drive. I'm Mike
Krazak. 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 GA nassi n dot com. What's up everyone,
and welcome back to the Friday Night Drive Podcast. I am Kyle Neighbors
along with Steve Susy here to get you caught up on everything that happened over
the weekend. In the state quarterfinals were down to thirty two teams left in
the state after a fun week in a football across the state and in some
places a very snowy Saturday of quarterfinal football which didn't really expect to see that
one come in sus But overall a good week into football. Man. Yeah,
it seemed like there were a lot of games, like we were talking
about last week, that that we're coming down to the wire close to it
before they were cemented in the book. There were a lot of games that
just became complete runaways from the get go, and the few that were a
couple of them were pretty surprising to me that they were maybe not in the
outcome, but the fact that they did turn into runaways. So overall,
like you said, pretty good week of pretty good week of quarterfinal football.
Yeah, I mean, you know, you look across the board, a
game from top to bottom, had different games across different classes that had a
lot of fun. I mean, you look at and we'll get into this
stuff, but like Tyler Vacy up at Prairie Ridge said, in these states
all time scoring record I'm sorry, rushing record for a single season and a
win for pr You look at Icy Catholic beating Princeton in overtime and Byron and
Recuster playing yet another terrific quarterfinal game, another postseason game, just a fun
week into football. So we're gonna go ahead and stick to the usual format
here. We'll work our way up from one, A, two eight,
a kind of look through the results top what we found interested this week.
But before we do, of course, want to go ahead and get the
introduction out of the way. You can follow all of our content or you
can find all of our content at Friday Night Drive dot com. Make sure
you follow us on Twitter at f and Drive. You can follow US as
well on Facebook and Instagram by searching for Friday Night Drive. You can follow
myself on Twitter at Kyle Neighbors, and you can follow SEUs on Twitter at
the SEUs and SEUs. You know, starting in Class one A here you
look at these games. I don't know this, starting at the top in
the North bracket, Lena Winslow a fifty two fourteen winner over Fulton and then
forced in a twenty to eight winner over Dakota. I was looking at the
game story for Lena Winslow, like I said, fifty two fourteen over Fulton,
and the thing that stuck out to me reading that was that the Panthers
had six plays go for more than forty yards in the game. You know,
when you're already when you're Fulton and you're already facing a top uphill battle
against Leonel Winslow, you can't have those big chunk plays. But that's kind
of what the Pathers do, sir. Yeah. I was having a really
frustrating afternoon on Saturday with Twitter. It was not working very well for me.
So I was getting maybe a half an hour breaks between when when my
Twitter feed would update, and I went from basically kickoff time until maybe a
half an hour into the games, where I didn't have any updates, which
was driving me a little nuts. But once I did finally get through,
one of the first things I noticed was it didn't take long for Fulton to
get to the point where they were. They were there as well. They
already seemed to have that in hand by the first update when I had caught
up to scores, so granted that had been about a half an hour,
but they were just explosive out of the gates. They have been the entire
playoffs, you know, I just I don't know if anybody can play in
one an can compete with them. I mean, just being completely honesty,
they seem to be, especially since the playoffs on a whole other level than
everyone else. Yeah, Lena playing really strong football right now. They're going
to get a matchup, a semifinal matchup with a very familiar foe Forrest,
and obviously a conference made but all four of those teams in the North bracket
were from the NUIC to begin with, But this is the third time they've
met in the semifinals since or since two thy seventeen. I believe we will
preview that game later in the week when we record our semifinal preview podcasts.
But on the South bracket you had Ridgeview when forty one to six over Tescola,
and Camp Point Central a twenty four to twelve winner over Greenfield. Both
games went the way we went. I guess I was a bit surprised with
the margin in which Ridgeview dispatched Tescola. You know, I I'm not sure
I was. I mean, when you look at what Tescola had done in
the previous two rounds, they'd kind of eked out a couple of wins over
you know, teams that I thought they would handle a little bit better than
that. And while Ridgeview has just been laying points on people, I don't
know if I would have expected, maybe saying closing it on a running clock.
But the fact that the gap was pretty wide didn't really surprise me all
that much. Okay, uh yeah, I mean overall, one about is
as close to as what we projected as as possible. Like I said,
I did think post goal it would be a little closer, or I should
say a little. I thought that game would be more competitive. But let's
go ahead and go to Class two A. Here where on the top the
north side of the bracket, you had morea of foresight. The top seed
a twenty one seven winner over rock Ridge and Tri Valley a forty six twenty
two winner over Knockville Suits. What stood out in those games, well,
I think for me it was that that try Valley was able to handle that
game as comfortably as they did. I mean, I think the gap was
even wider earlier in the game and got a little bit closer near the end.
Try Valley just came out and really, you know, the wood there.
I when I had seen them, you know, beat Wilmington in the
previous week, I know, Wilmington had taken some things away from them.
It looked like Knoxville was unable to do anything like that against them. They
had all components of their offense doing a really nice job. So I think
that bodes well for them heading into this week, the fact that they were
able to kind of get everything clicking again. You know, I know when
we did our preview, our post seeds in preview episode, I'm probably going
all the way back to the beginning of the season. You know, you
and I both felt moreau foresight than Saint Teresa. Very strong teams uh,
you know, didn't expect them to end up on the opposite side of the
bracket here. But Saint Teresa a thirty seven twelve winner in the South bracket
over Panna in the quarterfinal round in Johnson City, the number two seed of
forty two thirty two winner over Belleville alt off. And I don't want to
get ahead of myself. I do want to discuss as Belleville Johnson City game
a little bit, but it just feels like, sus we really are on
that collision course for a morole of force I Saint Teresa championship game, it
really does look like that way. I mean, I think in the Saint
Teresa game specifically, you know, I expected Saint Teresa to maybe win by
that margin. I expected the score to be a little bit higher. To
be completely honest with you, I thought Paina would put up a few more
points in the game against them, because Saint Teresa's had a propensity to get
into some of those games where maybe they drop sixty but they allow twenty eight
thirty something like that. So I thought it would be a little bit more
high scoring than it was. But the margin was about where I thought it
would be. At the end of the game. Now, as I said,
I wanted to talk about you and I both thought ALTOF would win the
game against Johnson City. If you know what, if you had told me
Build the ALTOF was going to score thirty two points in this game against Johnson
City, I actually would have guessed that they won the game. Yeah,
I think so too. I think what this really came down to for me
was I did a little facting on Saturday night after I saw the final score
of this game because I think I was really steeped in one of my own
personal biases that is kind of based on history, and I wanted to confirm
that history, which is as much as I think the Black Diamond Conference typically
has pretty good football teams, as far as really deep postseason advancement, it
doesn't happen very often for the members of that league. So I went and
looked it up. And now Johnston City in the semifinals with another win,
would be the first team that is that is in the Black Diamond to make
the championship game since nineteen eighty two. And that's I mean, that's that
was a school that technically not even not even at a free standing football school
anymore. That's Ziegler Royalton, who is now in a cooperative even with Christopher.
So that's that's how far you have to go back, and even then
you can't get a resource for that. So I think that was kind of
based in what I was thinking there was Johnston City isn't rarefied air right now,
and they're now moving into extremely rarefied air for teams of that conference.
So yeah, it's kind of where I was sitting with why I felt like
Belvio altof was was the favorite in that game, and I was a little
surprised that they lost. Yeah, I mean we talked about it when we
were previewing it. Just the fact that Johnson City was going to be seen,
you know, a type of two a team that they're not used to
seeing, both in the trenches and outlied. So, you know, a
hell of a win for Johnson City. I did not see that coming.
So a tough match up here against Saint Theresa this week, but a quality
win for that program. But okay, let's let's go ahead and move on
to Class three A. Here, SU's where in the north bracket. You
had two of the best game we've seen all postseason, you have icy Ca
like a twenty seven twenty winner over Princeton and overtime, and then Byron for
the second year in a row, scoring in the closing moments to beat Red
Custer thirty two to twenty seven. Sus. Yeah, that was one of
those situations where all those games were kind of converging at the same time when
they were getting done and right around the time but the game that I was
covering was finishing up. These two games were kind of reaching their apex,
so I kind of had the split vision going on. I was doing some
talking to some people after the game and kind of keeping my left eye a
little bit on my Twitter scital. They're trying to figure out what would happen
because once again, I mean a really heartbreaking loss for Red Custer to Byron.
I mean they got they got the go ahead score with a little over
a minute left. Byron didn't have any time outs left. It was almost
the same situation that happened to them the previous year. I think they I
think there might have been like less than ten seconds difference to what had happened
to them the previous time. So just you know, a really, really
disappointing way for read customer season to end in that situation. But I have
to admit when I saw that tweet come out that said that they had no
timeouts left in a minute left, my first thought in the back of my
head was they gave them too much time that It's like, that sounds ridiculous.
I mean, I didn't know where the ball was on the field,
but even then, I was like, that's too much time. I mean,
they do what they do, and they do it so well, and
it's just I mean, I feel like I'm tipping my cap to that program
often because they just they know how to get it done this time of year.
So that was really something else. Now, as for the other game
in that semi final pot, I'll be honest, I did not expect it
to be as close as it was, And I was almost floored because Princeton
had a two touchdown lead into the second half in this game, and I
see Catholic had to pull back a thunderous rally to get it into overtime and
then once they did to capture the win. There, so a little bit
of a surprising outcome there for me. I was of the opinion that that
Icy Catholic was was a little a little bit better. Uh, you know,
the gap was wider between those two teams than it turned out to be.
Yeah, I mean I I was right there with you. I see
Catholic was down twenty to seven at the half. As you said, I
was able to come back and win that game. I'll tell you what,
though, I thought it was less you know, I was looking through stuff
after the game, and uh, Kevin Haronmus covered that game for us over
at Friday Night Drive, and you know, you look at it, and
I think it was less about Ice Catholic. Honestly, the way that game
was played, I think Princeton just played a hell of a game, man
Like, I think they just they had a game plan in place. The
problem is when you're trying to stop a team like Ice Catholic, it just
it just grinds you down throughout that game. And Ice Catholic just kept coming
at him, kept coming at him, and eventually was able to stick a
couple in the end zone there to pull it out. But hell of an
I effort from Princeton. Yeah, I mean, definitely, I don't dispute
that at all. I mean it's one of those situations when you look at
it and you see what's going on and maybe you're a little bit surprised by
it, but sometimes you just have to tip your cap through a team in
that situation when it when I think everybody, everybody who has been watching this
for a while probably considered Princeton to be a pretty significant underdog in this game.
So for them to come out with the confidence that they did execute the
way that they did, you know, an Unford another ununfortunate end for you
know, it's one of these situations. I think this was something we kind
of predicted we were going to get to this stage of the playoffs and there
were going to be two teams that didn't feel like deserve to go home prior
to the semifinals that we're going to leave at this stage because and that's the
way I feel now. I feel like both of those two teams are definitely
semifinal worthy, if not more so. So. That's you know, it's
just kind of the way that the bracket broke. And I'm not meaning to
decry the teams in the Southern bracket, but boy, I would have loved
to have seen this bracket in one to thirty two I mean, that's just
really what it comes down to right now, because I'm looking at it now
and I feel like that those two teams that were eliminated this week would have
a very good chance if they were placed in the Southern bracket of not only
still being alive, but maybe being the qualifier round of that side. Yeah,
I absolutely agree. I mean, you look at the Southern bracket here,
you had tolon A Unity the four seed takedown Perie Central the top seed
fourteen zero, and then Williamsville no issues of the william Fille the three seed
taking down Olympia forty one twenty one in that game. Listen, and these
are two programs seeing to Lona Unity in Williamsville playing in a state semifinal is
not exactly uncharted territory for us here sives not a big stretch now. I
mean, if you if you looked at this for as long as I've looked
at this, I probably should have known better than picking against Tolona Unity last
week. Yeah. It's just it's one of those things, and these are
games that they just don't lose. I mean, now, I'm not going
to get into what tends to happen to them when they get farther down the
line. I'm sure they don't want to hear about that right now. But
in terms of these games, these are games that I just they so infrequently
lose. I mean, that's that. I mean I probably should have sniffed
that one out. I really didn't, But that's I really liked where Pray
Central was at. But they obviously didn't have their best game, and Tolono
just kind of took the knowledge of the first meeting and and and planted a
planet to seed and let that tree grow because they really took care of it.
Um. That was a that's a that's a quality win for them that
there's no doubt about that. UM. As far as the other one,
the Williams Viille Olympia game had prayed out pretty much exactly how I thought it
would. Yeah, another rematch meeting where it just, let I mean being
frank, they were the gap is pretty wide, talent wide between those two
teams. Yeah, I agree, all right. In Class four A here
you had oh well, I don't want to say one of the more surprising
results, but maybe the fashion in which it played all was surprising to me.
So you had providence a thirteen seed taking down number one Richmond Burden thirty
one to fourteen in that game. And as I said, I wouldn't have
been completely shocked or floored with Providence winning this game, but it was the
fact that throughout it it really felt like the Celtics were in control. Joe
Stevenson was covering that game down for us in New Lennox, and you know,
he was messaging and saying the same thing. It's it's been very rare
during the Michineal era at Richmond Burden to see the Rockets behind in the game
and really having to play catch up. Well, the whole thing was just
kind of bizarre to me because I was covering a game at Lincoln Way East
at one pm on Saturday afternoon. For those that don't know, you can
get from link and Way East to Providence in about fifteen minutes just by bouncing
across on thirty and the link Away East game started an hour before the Providence
game, And I'm thinking the entire time in the back of my mind,
if my game gets done fairly quickly, I'm going to go catch the second
half of the Providence Richmond Burton game because I want to see that, so
my game went at a relatively decent pace, nothing crazy fast or crazy slow.
I did my postgame interviews, got out of there pretty quickly, turned
down the radio and tuned in the game, and discovered that my plan was
not going to work because that game was pacing along at a very fast clip.
But I did it anyway. I drove over there and pulled it into
the parking lot right as the game ended. So a brisk game where like
it felt like just from what I was able to follow on that is,
you know, Providence just keeps doing this to people. They just they go
in, they make absolutely no mistakes. They take care of all the little
any small edge that they can gain, They're gonna take it. They're gonna
even if it doesn't seem like it matters all that much at the time,
They're gonna use that small edge later in the game. And it's just it's
been impressive to watch because, like you keep everybody at this point gets to
where they talk about like individual players, who's the guy that's gonna like that's
gonna break this game open for you. I mean, we're now we'reth the
semi final round. And when I talk about Providence I need a dartboard because
I can't have one guy. It's I know that the potential of who it
could be is I'm not joking. It literally a list of twenty names of
kids that might be able to be that guy. And I think that's by
design. I don't think they're trying to cultivate a situation where they have the
dude. I think they're saying, hey, you can all be dudes.
Let's go do this. I mean, it's it's really it's really been something
that's been fascinating to watch. Yeah, it's been a great effort by the
Celtics this year. Just Yeah, Tyler Plants taking over that program in his
first season just has everything working really well over there, just well oiled machine.
And they're gonna get a semifinal matchup with Saint Francis, the number three
seed, a thirty five sixteen winner over Richelle, no issues for the Spartan
in the quarterfinal round. And then on the south side of the bracket,
the matchup that we've all anticipated, we've all been looking forward to. If
it came to fruition, we did get it. Rochester a forty one twenty
eight twenty eight winner over Carterville and Sacred Heart Griffin a fifty one thirteen winner
over Murphy's Borough, which means we get a Friday night, a rare Friday
nights state semifinal game. We get the Leonard Bowl one final time with Rochester
and Sacred Heart Griffin matching up suits. There's really funny to watch that kind
of develop on Saturday afternoon, I was hearing that this game was going to
be Friday at seven o'clock before either one of those two games were concluded.
You think they had talked a little bit about it. Yeah, obviously there
had been some inter family conversations had prior to this game about the scenario that
may play out. Not actually surprised to see this happen. This was the
same situation that we went through last year when we were in the semifinals once
again and they elected to play on Friday night again, so kind of breaking
the traditional mold of once you get to Saturday, you don't go back to
Friday. I love it and I'm hoping to I'm hoping to make the trip
down there for the last Leonard Bawl on Friday night. And makes all the
sense in the world too. When you're talking about two teams that you know,
or whoever wins that game is going to be playing on Friday night at
seven pm and Champagne anyway, So it makes all the sense in the world.
Yeah, it does. And it's just one of those things when you
look at it. Um, I don't know why, especially in the smaller
classifications, schools move off of it so quickly, because if you do advance
deep into the playoffs, the most important week of the season, you're going
to be playing on a short week. Like so I'm I'm always like until
you have to stay on Friday. I mean, it's just it makes more
sense from especially if you have state championship aspirations and you're in one to four
A, because you know, the it's a it's already a short week because
of Thanksgiving, and then you're shortening yourself down even farther by, you know,
by not having the knowledge of whether or not you're going to state taken
care of until Saturday night. I mean, that's I've never understood that logic.
Yeah, it's just kind of always been that way. Um. I
get it for travel purposes and for trying to get the biggest crowd out Saturday
afternoon makes more sense. But um, I'm sure, um, I'm sure
there are some coaches out there that would prefer to have that game still on
Friday night. But all right, we're gonna take a quick commercial break and
then come back and look at Class five A through A A Schweiker Gannison Krizak
Rundio proudly sponsors to Friday Night Drive. I'm Mike Krazak. If you've been
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sponsoring Friday Night Drive. Now we're gonna go ahead and jump into Class five
A. Where in the north brackets, who's you had two games up?
Honestly, we're really one sided. I mean you had Sycamore a twenty eight
to zero winner over Sterling. Really dominated that game throughout the spartans our Sycamore.
It's just playing really well on defense right now and then on the other
side or I'm sorry, in the other game in the North bracket yet number
eleven now a twenty nine zero over Morgan Park Suits just two games that really
from start to finish, were dominated by one side. Yeah, I made
the mistake of believing that I thought both of these games would be a little
bit more competitive than they were. You know, both these teams defenses obviously
doing a really nice job. Sycamore, like I've already admitted several times,
continues to exceed the expectation that I had for them, and now going on
back to back shutouts as they had into the semi finals, it's obviously a
football team that's playing really, really well. And you know, Nazareth,
you know, I think they've had a fairly fortunate bracket right now for an
eleven seed, but you can only beat who they put in front of you,
and that's what you know, Nazareth continues to do. And now,
you know, as positioned themselves as you know, one of two teams that
had four regular season losses that are actually three teams that are still alive at
this stage. So credit to them for you know, really putting the pedal
to the metal when their backs were against the wall. On the south side
of the bracket. Morris was a thirty five fourteen winner. Morris number four
the four seed in the South bracket taking down the number one seed. And
to me, this was one of the more impressive wins of the quarterfinal round
sues because Morris really I like this Muhammad Sea More team. I like the
way it was playing, and Morris really really dismantled it. It just felt
like they were in control throughout. Yeah, a couple of things here.
I mean, when when anyone has had success against Morris, they've been able
to either limit or counter an early punch from Morris, because they liked to
put the pedal down right away, get a couple of scores on the board,
and make you put you in a catch up mode. And that's what
Morris was able to do here. And then when you compound that with the
fact that they've been without their leading rusher for the entire postseason, they were
without him again in this loss to Morris. I mean, yeah, you
can't put it all on one player, but certainly his presence would have contributed
to Muhammad Seymour being able to be a little bit more balanced on offense and
not quite so reliant on going to the air. So it would have been
interesting to see how, maybe how his presence would have changed this outcome,
but he wasn't there, so Morris Morris was able to take advantage of that
fact execute and get themselves into the semifinals. And the other game in the
South bracket you had Peoria a thirty six twenty one winner over Mascuda Suits.
I don't know if you saw this on Twitter, like, so there was
anyone who was out at a game on Saturday, you know, like there
was snow showers around and stuff. But I would have expected, you know,
if you had shown me, like a county or an area up near
the Wisconsin border to have several inches of snow on the ground. I was
a bit surprised though, when I looked at masscutas a Twitter account on Saturday
morning and saw them put it out a call to come clear off the field.
And it wasn't like an enter too of snow on there like they It
looked like they had like four or five six inches of snow out of nowhere
they were trying to get to get pushed off. Did you see that?
Yeah? I saw it. A friend of mine down there actually sent me
a short video clip via text, and it was someone pushing a snow shovel
down the goal line. Yeah, So I was like, what is going
on? Where are you? Yeah, I'm like, what are you doing?
I'm like, I don't understand. So I was like I was all
confused because, like, like I it was fairly early in the morning and
I was just getting functional for the day. I'm like, I don't understand
what is happening here. So it got explained to me later on. But
as far as that football game went, it looked like Mascott did a nice
job staying in early, but Peoria eventually tries to wear you down by just
being relentless on you, and they really kind of got at him in the
second half. So that's going to be an interesting matchup between two teams that
don't have any problems pushing the tempo this week. Yeah, Peoria pulled away
in that game in the second half, and it's that that was a good
reminder. Sometimes I think it's easy to forget how big of a state we
live in, particularly like I'm all the way up here in mckenry County is
a very northern part of the state, and I mean Mascot does five hours
away from me, if not more, And I like, I'll pe you
looking out my window, Like, where the hell did all this snow come
from down there? So yeah, always fun when you get postseason games in
the snow. I enjoy that. Don't get enough of that in high school
football. I'd much rather have snow like that than like a cold rain at
thirty eight degrees SEUs. Yeah, all right, let's go ahead and get
over to Class six, say, and starting in the matchup between number four
Saint Ignatius a winner thirty one to six over Niles Notre Dame. Again,
this is a matchup here. Um, I expected the wolf Pack to win
this thing get to their first U State semi final appearance. They did a
really good job taking care of Niles Notre Dame, though, Yeah, I
mean it was one of those things where like I didn't see what was going
on in that game in stream, all I saw was a final and it
was basically the reaction of wow, that's that's something else. And my dogs
apparently have an opinion about this as well. So, uh, you know,
this is basically one of those situations when you looked at the finals,
saw the score, didn't really know the context of it was. I was
surprised at the relative ease that they put they put on Nile's notre game in
a winning that game, and they set up a really interesting semifinal matchup with
Prairie Rich because we're used to PRU getting into a matchup. And we'll hit
on this more later in the week, but quickly, I just want to
say that, like PR runs a triple option offense, We're used to seeing
teams in the semifinals that don't have a lot of experience. I get that,
but say Ignatius runs the triple option itself, so, um, it
sets up to be an interesting an interesting matchup here. Yeah, it does,
and it should be a fun situation for those two teams to kind of
look at mirror images of themselves and you know, obviously slight variances between what
the two programs do, but uh yeah, definitely definitely kind of a neat
way that this is played out in six A. So they, like I
said, they get a match up with Prairie Ridge, which was a sixty
nine twenty eight winner over Harlem on Saturday. I think pretty much anyone that
follows high school football had heard of Tyler vacpr's quarterback at this point, had
was closing in on the state record and it becomes so ridiculous. The statue
was putting up coming to this game, and just to give you a little
he had more than fourteen hundred rushing yards and just his last four games coming
into Saturday's game against Harlem Prairie, Tyler Vacy goes out and puts up four
hundred and eighty one yards and eight more touchdowns up against Harlem last week,
goes flying past I'm blas from Lexington. What's his name, TJ Stint,
Yeah, goes blowing path TJ Ston's state record set back in two thousand and
nine. And I had said about the potential of Tyler Basy potentially moving towards
four thousand rushing yards and he's certainly hump paced for that, sus. Yeah.
I mean it was funny because after my game was over, I had
met up with Joe Stevenson and we were sitting at a Panera Bread in Lockport
as we wrote our stories, and both of us are continually expressing phrases of
geez, oh, my gosh, and we weren't talking with one another,
we were just refreshing our Twitter feeds and just it seemed like every other minute
either one of us was seeing something for the first time, or we both
saw it at the same time, and it was all about what he was
doing in that game. Props to him, but I mean it was at
one point I was like, oh my gosh, when we when is enough
enough? Guys? Come on, let's let's stop this nonsense. I mean,
we're we're going to the semifinals. I mean, I know where,
I know we're we're looking at the stats here, but at some point enough
is enough? Uh yeah, So he enters. Tyler Vasi enters the semifinals
with three thousand, six hundred and nine rushing yard. Alex Kentucky covered that
game for US and uh, harlem coach Bob, I apologize Monahan, is
how I believe you say, Mighty Moynihan. I apologize Bob if I butchered
that. Um. But he had a simple quote really in Alex's story,
but it just kind of summed up and it was just I've never seen a
kid like that, and really, what else can you say, Like when
when he's just stepping out of tackles, he's so strong where if you don't
wrap him up, get multiple helmets to him, he's gonna step out of
a tackle and just keep going right, Yeah, And it was like for
me, I've only you know, I've seen so few games of that magnitude
rushing the football. Um. The only other one that even comes in that
neighborhood is is Taie Isaac's performance for Jolia Catholic in the state final game against
Montini in the way Back Machine. But but yeah, he's one of those
He's one of those special athletes that obviously knows how to maximize what he has
ability wise, and then has that extra gear and that competitiveness that keeps him
going for some of these ridiculous numbers that he's been posting on the south side
of the bracket. In six, say you had a Lamount with a workman
like effort taking down and shutting out Kenwood fourteen to zero, and then East
Saint Louis a forty five zero winner over Creepmoni And frankly, there I got
that one not wrong, because I expected He's Saint Louis to win the game
and win it, you know, fairly easily. But given Creepmone's pedigree as
a program, what they had done in the first round of the postseason,
I thought they might be able to at least keep that game like where you'd
go into the second half like, well, he's Saint Louis. Can't take
their foot off the gas otherwise, Creepmonie is gonna stick in this game.
But really, from the start finished the Flyers, it was all all e
Saint Louis in that one. Yeah, I mean, I did not expect
it to be this wide of an outcome either, but I mean they did
it so quickly too. It was it was more of a we're gonna get
to halftime, We're gonna be up comfortably, We're going to coast home.
I mean, and that's obviously what they've done to everybody in the playoffs.
But I thought Crete would at least at least throw a few punches in this
game, and it doesn't look like they were able to do that. I'm
not I've been talking myself out of this after the first two losses of the
season. I started the season with them at number one, and I think
that that maybe they should still be there. I think they might be the
best team in the state right now. You're saying for the power rankings,
Yes, yeah, and I mean that's that's I completely understand where you're coming
from with that. And that's pretty incredible to think about considering everything Mount Carmel
has done this season. Yeah, it is, but I just I I
know that, like when I look at a Creetmoney team, I know they're
a good football team. And the way that East Saint Louis just completely took
them apart and did it in such a fast and quick fashion, it is.
It's something to behold. And speaking of Mount Carmel in the Class seven
eight field um really a statement win against brother Ry forty eight to twelve.
They dominated that game throughout the caravan, playing extremely good football right now,
just really humming along. They're gonna get a semi final matchup like it's a
familiar foe in Saint Rita. Saint Rita a twenties eight to seven winner over
Saint Charles North Um. This kind of ties into the Providence to the same
thing as Providence earlier, where Saint Rita there's not a lot of of like
standouts like there's and I don't mean that like there's obviously it's it's a historic
Catholic league program. There there are standout kids, but like there's not that
kid that makes you think they're going to take over the game. But Saint
Rita is just another example of a very very well rounded team. Yeah,
and I mean that's that's really what it comes down to. I think at
this point. Sometimes that can get you a really really long way in the
playoff situation, and sometimes it can be a real advantage. Uh. You
know, if you don't have that that one stand out that that opponents can
scheme for, it just makes the concept of, you know, how you're
going to defend somebody that much more difficult to I mean, yeah, does
anybody want to play an elite player? Probably not, But sometimes it can
be it can be an advantage for the team that doesn't have one. If
if you have a variant of weapons that you can use at any time,
well, they're just they're just so solid all the way across the board.
I mean, like even you talk about special teams. You know, Michael
grojac covered that game for US against St'm sorry, Jake Barleston covered that game
for US against Saint Charles North and UM. Saint Rita block two punts and
they were both returned for a touchdown. UM, they blocked a field goal
attempt, they forced three turnovers. They just do everything. They just do
enough in all phases of the game that it just makes it really difficult.
You have to be really on your game to compete. Yeah, I mean,
and that's that's that's what it really comes down to. And I mean,
when you look at what they've the Saint Reads just quietly put together a
really really nice resume for themselves. The two losses or two you know,
arguably two of the top three teams in the state. Um, they did
those early in the year, and ever since they've just kind of been a
very low key wrecking ball, if that makes any sense, where they just
kind of just steamroll their way through you. And that's just been a really
really a credit to their organization and how they do things in that program.
Batavia was a seventeen to six winner over Yorkville. That was a game where
it really played out almost exactly like I expected. Like this Yorkville team all
season, I really like where they were defensively. I always worried that eventually
they were going to run into a team like Batavia that was just as strong
defensively. I just didn't know if the Foxes weren't going to be able to
put enough points on the board, and that kind of I shouldn't say kind
of that that that is how this game played out. Yeah, And I
mean it's funny to look at this now, and I mean, obviously this
is an hindsight, but I even remember back when the pairings came out,
you know, and Batavia is up on the board as an eighteen seed.
I'm like, I just got this funny feeling we're gonna see Batavia really really
deep in this bracket, and now we're one step away from them being in
Champagne. And I'm not the least bit surprised. I mean, just that's
where I was at with it. I mean, i mean, they've they've
been the lower seed now in all three of their playoff games. I've picked
them to win all three of those games. It's it's just that's just where
we're at right now, what this program is. And I just have this
overwhelming sense it's a playoff game. Batavia is going to figure it out,
and they're gonna get a match up against number eleven lake Zurich, which was
a twenty nine twenty seven winner over Peak. And lake Zurich is a team
that kind of been under the under the radar, is kind of floating on
the periphery, I guess because like they had a win against Warren that turned
your attention to them, But like there just hasn't been anything really um that
stood out about the Bears, to be completely honest with you, and my
biggest concerned with Lake Zurich was kind of the same thing with Yorkville, where
it was I was concerned that if they got into a matchup where they had
to score, I wasn't sure Elz was going to be able to do it.
But really twenty nine twenty seven win over Peakin a really quality win for
lake Zurich. Yeah, I mean that's a team that Pegan's just kind of
been, you know, the energizer Bunny over the last couple of weeks.
Just keep going and going and going and hope that whatever they're doing is going
to be just enough to get them into next round. A great team,
a great effort from them this season, especially with this Lake zero team.
But lake Zerius done a really nice job of kind of like morphing to the
situation this year. If it has to be a defensive struggle, they can
make it a defensive struggle. If it has to be a situation where maybe
they got to put up twenty eight they figure out a way to do that.
It's there. They're a really good team in that sense, which makes
Batavia a really interesting challenge in the semifinals, and we'll get to that later
this week. But not all that surprised to see them here either. I
mean, you know, that's I kind of felt like the second round win
over Wheaton North was kind of a real nice signature win for them and definitely
proved that they could capable, they could get to the stage. Yeah,
I completely agree with you there. That was the win that really kind of
put them back on the radar and solidified them as a contender in seven A.
But all right, let's go over to Class eight A and finish this
up. Suits. You got to see lincoln Way Yet win thirty five to
fourteen over Warren. What do you think of that one? You know,
I think I'm just used to it at this point, so I think that
causes me to undersell what lincoln Way East is because I see them do this,
and I see them do this so often. It just feels like,
you know, whenever you look around the field at them, they don't have
this year. They don't have anyone that is going to make you go,
you know that guy, that guy's a dominant force. But they don't have
They also don't have anyone in the field that makes you go that might be
a problem for them. They're just so solid and fundamental in everything that they
do. You know, you look at the fact that I mean, this
game ended up thirty five to fourteen. The only reason that Warren got fourteen
points in the game was because Lincolnway East had two punts blocked at the end
of the game. Without their first string special teams units on the field.
Other than that, Warren could do anything. I mean that they were.
They were stymied at every turn. They they barely I think they may have
had three plays all game long they went for longer than six yards um.
It just they're just so technically sound. They do exactly what they intend to
do when they get there, and they just don't make a lot of mistakes.
And and even if they do make mistakes, you're usually so frazzled by
something else they're doing that you can't take advantage of it. So, I
mean, it's it's just a really really sound of football team. And I
don't think I give them enough credit for that. Yeah, they just they
just keep doing it, and you are right, like, it's it's to
the point now where it's almost overlooked because it's it's just so consistent. Um,
But the Griffins just keep getting it done. But they're gonna get a
matchup this week against Glenbard West. Glenbard West and Main South played maybe,
I mean they're they're several contenders, but they are in the on the short
list of best game in the quarterfinal A thirty seven thirty four win for Glenn
Bar was in this game. They had the Hilltoppers. They successfully executed two
on side kicks in the second quarter, were able to build a ten point
lead at twenty four to fourteen, and then took that lead into the half
at thirty one twenty one. Didn't have a lot of scoring in the second
half there, but we're able to hold out for a three point when a
really really solid high school football game. Sus Yeah, I was torn.
I was actually considering hopping in my car and going up and seeing this one
on Saturday night, but I ended up not doing it, you know,
because I actually you might even hear it in my voice today, I kind
of feel a cold coming on. So I thought it might not be in
my best interest to go stand around in you know, thirty degree temperature for
several more hours, so I didn't go, but I wish I had.
It definitely looked like it was a kind of a chess match there at the
end of the game, and I really, I really enjoy those kinds of
mastinations at the end of the game. So, uh, you know,
Main South had some opportunities Glenbard West, you know, pulling out a couple
of on side kicks because they they actually feared giving Main South more cracks at
uh at offense in the game, which is something I'm just not accustomed to
seeing from Glenbard West, who usually hangs its head on a hat on being
an extraordinary defensive team. And I was looking at that game story after the
fact, and I wonder how many other times as Glenbard West has given up
over four hundred yards through the air, because I bet you that list is
really really short, so um, you know, to to uh you know,
to take that a new account, and that they still managed to come
out of there with a victory says a lot about what they're what they're capable
of. Yeah, four hundred and twenty six yards through the air from Maine
South. We're able to get that within a touchdown or I'm sorry, within
three points with a minute left there. Um, and uh, you know
it's a really good high school football game. But all right, got two
games left here. You had York a twenty four ten win over Palatine and
Loyola a thirty to seventeen win over Lions Township, two games that went pretty
much to script sus. Maybe Lions kept that game against Loyola closer than I
anticipated, but overall kind of what I expected. Yeah, I think so
too. You know, it took York a little while while to get away
from Palatine in that game. I thought that Palatine team, though I thought
both teams maybe would score a little bit more. That would be really the
only thing that really surprised me about that. But yeah, kind of what
you're saying there, I think that both of them, you know, obviously
the results were kind of what I expected, you know, the margins,
especially in the Lions Loyola game. I thought Loyola might have a little bit
easier at a time in that game. But I think once you get to
this stage, especially in something like like eight A. You don't get worried
about the margins too much. Am playing next week? That's the primary questions.
So you know, survive in advance kind of becomes a really really prominent
factor here in the eight eight A at this stage of the tournament. Yeah,
it's a very fair point, all right. See, So you got
any final word before we wrap this up. You know, pretty good quarterfinal
week overall. I mean, it was a lot of it played out pretty
much the way that I expected. I was surprised to learn when I looked
at looked at it after the fact, to I went twenty nine and three
and picking games last week and and looking at the three that I lost,
I kind of understand why I lost them. So I kind of went to
the way that I expected it to go. So that that can be a
good thing, that can be a bad thing at times, hopefully, you
know, I always hope for a little bit more chaos, but there were
still some very good games this week. Yeah, not a lot of chaos
at all this season. I mean we've talked about that going way back into
the regular season, about things playing out really across the board most of the
time. How we expected this year to play out doesn't happen all the time.
We're certainly certainly not the smartest guys in the room most in most cases
here, we just got lucky this year. SEUs. Yep, that's what
it appears. Definitely definitely agreeing with you. Not the smartest guys point.
All right, well let's get out of here. For everyone who listened,
oh we appreciate it. Make sure you do follow us on Twitter at f
and Drive. You can follow me on Twitter at kil Neighbors, follow SEUs
on Twitter at the SEUs. Find all of our work at Friday Night Drive
dot com, and make sure to stick around. Josh Wellgee and Jake Barlson
will be along later this week to recap everything in the Western Suburbs and talk
about the matchups in the Western suburb for the semifinal round. Then sus and
I will be back to preview everything for the state semifinal weekend. For now,
though, we're gonna go ahead and sign off for Steve Susy, I
am Kyle Neighbors. Everyone enjoyed the weekend. We will talk to you later.
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