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com Friday Night Drive Pill Valley edition of the podcast. I am the Calviali
of the Chronicle Sports editor, Eddie Carriffio. I am alongside JT. Penalty,
the shaw Shaw Media regional sports editor. I'll get it one of these
days, is we have like one of these, Max left. I don't
know what I'm dude. I don't know what I do here either. I
Oh, I know what you do. It's invaluable. I just don't know
how to say the words in the right order. So that's that we all
know what you do here. JT. And it is like a rose by
any other name would smell as sweet. Eddie, how's it going, man,
it's going great. I want to start with a little story. I
usually don't talk about NIU that that's not what this podcast is about. But
I want to tell a story from the NIU from the NU game on Saturday,
and you'll see the relevance of this immediately, and it's gonna lead us
into something we definitely want to talk about here on the much more high school
local scale. So after an IU one, they beat Ohio OHIOO the fifth
ranked defense in the country coming into the game, and IU wins by a
couple of scores. After the game, coach Hamnet comes in. Now Ship
pointed out that at the end of all my previews, I predict the score
of the game. I have gotten every NAU game except one wrong this year.
If I say they win, they're gonna lose. I say they lose,
They're gonna win. Hammock comes in, walks past me to get to
the podium, points right at me and said, who'd you pick this week?
Like I went with Ohio. Yeah, that's two weeks in a row,
isn't it. So now I bring this up because during the press conference
he talked about how they block out the outside noise too, that that's something
they try to they block it. They don't care about what's being said outside.
Now, if I'm not the noisiest noise that ever noised. I don't
know what noise it is they're blocking out. But why I bring this up
is it seems I think the Patriots they didn't invent it, the New England
Patriots, but they perfected it. Then nobody believes in US, even when
you've won eighty three Super Bowls in a row. Exactly. It looks like
JTU pointed this out in our notes, it looks like Byron was playing that
card this week after they did what they did all year against Dixon. Yeah,
we talked last week and kind of previewed that game pretty pretty heavily because
you know, I was showdown to undefeated teams in the big Northern kind of
a big matchup, and you know, Byron did what they've done all season.
You know, they beat Dixon forty nine to six. And you know,
running back Cayden Considine ran for two hundred and fifteen yards and four touchdowns.
I think he had one hundred and ninety some yards in the first half.
So that gives you sometimes that gives you an even better picture than the
final stats. You know, if one kid has one hundred and ninety some
yards in the first half, but afterwards he said, which you know,
ties beautifully with a bow with what Eddie was saying, which, by the
way, obviously noise is filtering in if the first thing he does is press
conference, point at you and talk about who you're picking. Wasn't even sitting
down, walked in saying it trying, which is fine if you want to
do it, do it. It's mean I messed up. I've been horrible
picking your team's games. We don't say you're blocking out the noise because again,
hello noise. Well don't point at the noise and say, hey,
noise, I can't hear you noise. What did you say? Noise?
But no it really struck me. Cayden Constantine in the story of Byron beating
Dixon. In Dan Lusso's story for our Sister Paper up in Soccer Our,
I guess Sister Paper is the wrong way to look at one of our great
Friday night drive local markets. But you know, Consantine said afterwards, he
said some people might have thought were overrated. We shouldn't be number one in
the state. I think tonight we prove we're the best in the state.
I don't think anyone thought Byron is overrated, and I don't think anyone thinks
that Byron isn't probably the best team in Class three A. But what stuck
out to me and the reason ninecluse to my notes is you know, holy
crap, man, if if you can outstore outscore your opponents, excuse me,
if you can outscore your opponents by an average score is sixty two to
five and still have that kind of chip on your shoulder, you know,
good luck Class three. I have fun with Byron because if this is how
if this is the mindset they really have at going into these games no matter
how much they're up, you know, good luck. It's it works.
I mean, like like I said, the paint, it's I don't think
the Patriots invented that, but man did they perfect it. You know in
the in the aughts, and the teams with that no one believes in us.
It's something a lot of teams copy here all the time. Now.
I mean that's just especially at the college level, definitely in the NFL.
It's you occasionally hear it high school wise that there is a lot less noise
just in general. That's well, that's why I would love to know who
who exactly is he referring to? Like did the coach just say this to
fire them up. Was there someone saying, oh, they should have been
like on some like random Twitter guy they found, or like I would love
to know the context of that, like where obviously they Yeah, obviously they
weren't listening to us, because pretty much every week we've been like, wow,
Byron. So I'll say Byron is overrated. They don't look like a
team that's outscoring opponents sixty two to five. They look like a team that's
outscoring opponents like sixty one to five at best. I said it exactly,
and you know what I was going, And I'll just say on the flip
side of that, you know, Dixon, you know you lose that game,
and I'm sure you know your crestfalling. You know, weird word to
use on a Tuesday morning, but I'm sure that you're you know, you're
coming in undefeated. You're like, man, this is for the championship,
and you know you kind of get railroaded a little bit. But you know,
if you're Dixon, you're still seven to one. You've made the playoffs
for the ninth straight year, which is still weird for me to think of
from back in the old n se IC NYM twelve days. Let's just say
that move away from the Morrises and Sycamores and Ottawa's of the world has done
Dixon a world are good. You know, you're in the playoffs nine straight
years and you know you got six and two North Boon team that's going to
be a nice playoff prep for you coming up this week. So I really
hope Dixon can you know, kind of bounce back and get some of that
momentum back going into playoffs, because losing forty nine to six to Byron's nothing
to hang your head about. And you know, Dixon's obviously a very good
team, so hopefully they can bounce back. Yeah, obviously it's the closest
game, right that. Yeah, they replace k They're the only team that's
played Dixon that close to this year less than fifty I believe, right,
so in the forties. So I mean there's that. Obviously, that's not
something that hang you know whatever, It's still a forty six point loss.
Whatever it is. Math isn't a strong suit, but it's I think you
said it. This game against North Boon is is just huge for them.
I mean, I mean they have and this is anecdotal, but just going
for me, looking at things. I think if you go back and look
at it, like every year there's a b NC loss that Dixon has that
maybe they shouldn't of and you know, this is like, right for one
of those, you know, not the North Woon's bad. Obviously there's six
and two coming in. It's but this is one of those that Dixon should
win, that should be motivated to win. A big difference playoff wise between
eight and one and seven and two. That's a it's a really nice seed
if you're going in eight and one. So there's a lot of them to
play for and I think it's gonna be very telling. And I think it's
also important to kind of see where North Boon is at. You know,
we we've talked about that, uh that those five teams in the b NC,
and we'll get into more here in a second, but you know,
North Moon's kind of at the top end of those five. They've still been
been on the butt a couple I think once, but you know, by
one of those seeds back there. But for their sake going in, I
mean, if they want to prove they're closer to Dixon than they are to
that that middle is a big one for them. There's a lot going on
in that game, and it's not one to sleep on this week and four
and four matchups or eight and no versus eight and no spoiler alert. Well,
and you know what else is, and this is you know, we
talk about morale and bouncing back and blah blah blah. You know, very
realistic thing here is, you know, playoff seeds matter, and and you
know in other sports maybe you know, sometimes not as much. You know,
Okay, well you're going to have to beat the top seed in order
to win the region. You know, in football it means are you home
for the first week of the playoffs. A lot of times that means you're
also home for the second weeks of the playoffs and also means you're home for
the four round of the playoffs. So winning getting a higher seed matters.
And for Dixon, you know, every year we see seven and two teams
go on the road that first year of the playoffs. So you you know,
it depends on playoff points, depends on geographical breaks. So you know,
if you're Dixon, you want to fin it ain't just about morale and
raw rod and we can prove we're still good, and you want to be
eight and one, so that you can be home in week one, probably
home in week two barring a I'd call it an upset. But these seeds
aren't really seeded by people with point spreads. They're just kind of based on
how you did and who you played and Whatnotill, yeah, I suppose so
been there for years. But yeah, I mean this game, this game
has, this game has actual meaning beyond the you know, raw rod bouncing
back. They you know, you want to win this game. You want
to be at home, you know, next Friday night, next Saturday night,
and you want to you know, a chance to start the playoffs a
week or two. Two of the first three games are almost guaranteed to be
on the road if you can, you know, get to eight and one,
if you're seven and two, who knows. Yeah no, And obviously
North Boon's in a similar vote, they go in at seven to two.
That that's getting them a home game, and that's you know, not putting
them probbably on the road. And round one so that that that's a good
one that I think is gonna fly under a lot of Radaris this week.
Also, you know, sticking in the BNC, I want to go through
this middle here for a second. We've talked about it all year. Obviously
Byron's up at the time. Okay, Byron no one. I don't think
no actual person other than you know, football Monster for twenty on Twitter is
putting Byron down. So I don't know. Yeah, so their top I
think Dixon your second. But then you've got North Boone, Stillman, Valley,
GK, Rockford Lutheran, Oregon, North Boone. They might finish the
Europe six and three. You know, you're gonna have five teams between four
and six wins in that conference. Chances you are going to have a four
wing team. One of the group's definitely gonna have four wins, either Genoa
Kingston or Rockford Lutheran. They're playing both four and four. Someone's going to
the playoffs, someone's going home. It's like a playing game, you know,
like those all those soccer games that have happened late last week. It's
a it's a player. Do you know what else I love to see,
Eddie And I just I pulled up on on the ihs's website the big Northern
Conference standings. I'm just you did that, and I always you know,
over the years, you know, conference has changed so much. You have
closed conferences, and when you have a closed conference like this where basically,
for those of you who don't know, it's there's ten teams, you play
nine games, so everyone plays each other once and that's your football season.
Have fun. And uh, when you when you have those and you look
at these standings, uh, it's it's like if you look at the records
and then the playoff points, it's simply math. There's no non conference things
where Okay, we've scheduled a tough opponent week one and now maybe made a
loss to them, but they're gonna go eight and one and we're gonna get
eight plays. So just going right down Byron has thirty two play playoff points,
Dixon thirty three, North Mooon thirty four, Stillman Valley thirty five,
Genoah Oregon, and Rock even by the end of the year, right,
because that'll all be right. That's how playoffs was basically. I mean,
the only way you can cost yourself playoff points in a close conference is by
winning, and wins are more important than playoff points. So the only reason
I bring that up, and I wanted to look that up is number one.
And it always strikes me, is it? It soothes my mathematical ordered
soul to when it just plays out like that. But beyond that, you
know, also all of these four and four teams that you're talking about,
that half of them are going to be five four. None of them are
gonna have any problem getting in the playoffs because their playoff points were pretty much
predetermined. If you're gonna have this record, you're gonna have this many playoff
points, and in a close conference, everyone's gonna end up. Everyone who
wins right around five six four games is gonna end up right around forty playoff
points. It's just math. So you know, in the big Northern if
you can get that fifth win, you're pretty much in. And like I
said, you know, Kingston, Rockford, Luther and are playing each other
for that fifth win coming up on Friday, Oregon there four and four they
need to win being at Rockford Christian who is and eight, And I think
you would say decidedly Oen eight. So barring something massive happening there, it
looks like Oregon we'll get to five and four, And like you said,
that's pretty much your birth Stillman Valley also probably going in five and four because
they're five and three at the moment. They get themselves Byron in the week
nine. So yeah, but I mean yeah, when you're in a close
conference like this pretty much every week, if you win, you get what
is it, four playoff points and if you lose, you get five playoff
points. And that's just that's all there is to it. I love,
I love close conferences. I think they should if we don't go to districts.
Not to bring that up, but if we don't, I think everything
should be a close conference. And that way just you know, it saves
you. You mentioned this morning you were writing for the Daily Chronicle area all
of your kind of playoff scenarios of story, and I did one yesterday for
the Illinois Valley area and I'm going to dive into one for the Joliette Harold
News Morris Harold News area today. And boy, close conference sure makes writing
stories like that easy. When you're in lose, you're out. No,
Absolutely, the ten team conference is the way to go. The problem is
is the practicality of it just doesn't work, especially when you have the biggest
thing is like rivalries between teams that aren't the same size. You know,
if you were to go to like a ten team district, or if you
were to keep the conference model, but somehow mandate they're all tended. They're
gonna do that. You might as well make it a freaking district. It
doesn't matter at that point. But you know, because like the Calm Sycamore,
you know, that's the one that jumps up in my head, you
know, with the cal being a class or two ahead of Sycamore, or
at least two classes ahead of Sycamore. Yeah, Streeter, Yeah, and
I have that with Streeter Ottawall where Ottawa was U a class big, a
lot class larger than Streeter, and they're not no longer after you know,
decades in the same conference, they no longer are and you know, something
like that might make them lose that but but you know, lose that game,
which would be a shame. But that's the biggest issue. Yeah,
that's the biggest issue with the close conferences. So which the BNC is and
then you're gonna end up with you know, usually it's close you chalk or
close to chalk. You know, we are the nine win team, they
win team. Maybe the team that should have won six only wins five because
one of the fives beat them and some of both or whatever. But you
know, basically it's usually chalking. The BTC. This year is just like
I said, you're gonna have three five win teams and another four win team
by the time it's all set and done. Yeah, look at at it
with whichever one doesn't make the playoffs g K or Rockford Lutheran. I mean,
boy, you know you'll get your schedule and you're just like man.
And I think for them it comes down to that North Boon North Boon,
for both of the North Boon just put the hammer down on both of them,
and I think that was unexpected going into the year. I mean,
obviously North Boone. I think most people probably thought they were more middle of
the pack, you know, in that pack, and not on the top
of the middle of the pack, or perhaps separated. We'll see how it
all is a planer, but anyway, just a fascinating conference this year,
I thought, anyway, with a clear cut team that deserves to be number
one in the States. Yes, and no matter what Caden Constantine's neighbor is
yelling at him from the backyard to get in his head before the game,
to get a motivated know I think you know, you know, they're they're
they're probably you know, I guess you can't say that they're gonna win a
win a state championship, but boy, they're sure high up on the list
of favorites. Yeah. Well, I never know what private school they're running
to. That should probably be two classes higher. Same thing, so many
public schools running to every year. Yeah, so I think we can call
this a break. We're gonna pay some bills and then we're gonna hop back
in a little bit more to talk about before we get to the biggie,
the big one, Sycamore Morris eight and oh eight and oh, we'll hit
that all when we when we get back. This is State Representative Steve Reich,
and I'm happy to sponsor this year's Friday Night Drive. There will 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.
Welcome back to the Friday Night Drive podcast, Illinois Valley Edition. And you
know, Eddie kind of we were talking a little bit during the break that
you know, most weeks we spend probably two thirds of the show talking about
what happened the week before and about a third preview in the week to come,
and then we get sidetracked on districts or lake kickoffs or what brought it
up. You said the D word white, I know, to get me
rolling. But uh, you know, this week obviously be in week nine
season ending, it's much more important to look ahead, not just to week
nine, but to the playoffs and the ramifications of these games. These are
always kind of back in our days when we still did agate, you know,
and designed it ourselves and our scoreboards in the paper. Yeah, I
know, Eddie did a shiver, and that's exactly how I feel about it.
You didn't like being in the office at two am waiting for West Coast
Baseball and the least favorite job, and I'm glad it barely exists anymore,
although it's also sad it doesn't exist because it shows you how much papers are
shrunk. But Agate monkey was the least favorite physician I think I've ever held,
amen and one of my favorite things that I did like running in the
agate, but I did not like coding it, putting in all the spaces
and the bolts and everything. So we should point out that that's when when
you look at the sta scoreboard, box scores, that's that's that is a
yeah. And at the end of every professional sports season, they would,
uh the Associated Press would release a here's all the playoff scenarios for a week
sixteen, back before there were bys and whatnot, and here's you know,
if this team beats this team, then this I love those things. I
would like reserve an extra page in the paper just to run all those scenarios
if this team loses. But if they tie, then there's a coin flip
on Thursday. And so I always enjoyed. I think this is the funnest
part of a sports league with the postseason that you have to win to get
into. Is you know this talk about what has to happen this last week
and who can get in and who might they play and Friday Night Drive Steve
Susie is like your ultimate source for that for high school football. But we're
gonna try and do a four man's version here just around kind of our neck
of the Neck of the Woods. And I was gonna start kind of maybe
with the Illinois Central Eight, the Ice Conference, no real thrilling Week nine
matchups kind of going around. I'll be at Street or Wilmington I'm not expecting
a thrilling game, but hoping it's a good one. Get to see Streeters
Christian Benning slinging around one last time. The kid's really really good. But
you know, no, nothing fantastic. The one that kind of sticks out
of me is Mantino's four and four. They have to play Cole City,
who's six and two. They need to upset them to get in. That's
gonna be a tough one. Uh, patone already has five wins, but
they only have thirty playoff points. They're not in a closed conference, so
that thirty playoff points with five wins probably gets you in every year they kind
of it kind of feels like that goes down a little where the playoff point
cut off goes, but thirty now they'll probably end up with thirty five ish.
That probably gets them in. But you know, they could use it
really used to win at a two and six Herscher to kind of cement it,
you know, and then kind of sliding over to the Chicagoland prairie before
we run away. Yeah, yeah, what do you think Mantino's odds are?
We know Cole City and then we've talked high Cole City a lot this
year. We thought they might have had that upset bit against what was it
Willington might have had that upset, but obviously it didn't pan out for them.
But does Mantina what what? What's got a click for Mantina to get
that done? So I did get to see them cover them once this year
and they're they're they're a good football team, are they Cole City level?
I've also seen Cole City this year. I mean, I don't think so
proved me wrong, guys, just just it works for a Byron. But
yeah, I don't I don't see Mantino upsetting them. But you know,
that's why you play the games. I think Cole City is definitely probably the
more talented team, the more you know, solid team Mantino. What they
did was they took great advantage of a weaker stretch of schedule and they won
all those close games and they got got themselves in this position where now it's
Week nine and if you can pull off an upset, you can get in.
So that's uh, you know, that's sometimes that's all you can ask
for. Give yourself a chance that week nine and have something to play for.
Yeah, they did what they had to do earlier. See if they
get the upset as big as the road as it might be. Okay,
I'm sorry to interrupt. You're going on to uh the Chicago Land Prairie.
I was gonna ask you, Eddie. Has the Chicago Land Prairie won you
over these past few weeks? They've had good games, great matchups with playoff
ram if itations, you know the playoffs. Three weeks it's about all you
could ask. Definitely a step in the right direction. Give me districts.
We should have invited Suh. Sus volunteered to come on and and uh be
the devil and argue against districts since you're agnostic and obviously a devout believer,
a fanatical believer in the districts. But we shout him down. I guess
yeah. I think he's got to be stuff going on. He's got a
little bit going on here. Week nine of the season. I think that
could be a fun one, maybe to put a bowl on the season.
Maybe is just kind of sitting down with Sus and let him kind of vent
on it, because sometimes he's so busy with the details of things that he
doesn't get to to share his opinions on the bigger picture of things on his
podcast, which he does with Kyle Kyle Neighbors, which you should definitely be
checking out. If you're checking this one out, I can't imagine you're not
listening to that one. But he's got you know, we just let them
come on to this one and just rant. You know. It's it's like
when whenever you get a big celebrity to a guest star on a small show,
that would be uh, let them just ran against it. But now
I still think the Chicago Land Prairie is as good as the games have been
the last couple of weeks, and as good as the games are shaping up
to be. Uh. This week kind of proof with how spread out it
is forfeit issues that we're there's still kind of proof that the districts are a
good idea. But like I said, yeah, it looks like some good
ones coming up this week. Yeah. Yeah. For the first year of
the conference, I said, I imagine it had to be intentional where all
of the regional rivalries all took place over the last three weeks. I think
it's kind of surprising that, you know, the four top teams in the
conference happened to be the four from down around the Illinois Valley. I'm not
saying that they're not good programs. I was the Ottawa and Seneca and Saintete
have nothing to prove. Dwhites kind of popped its head up and looked around
and said, hey, we're not too bad and and you know, interesting
for them this week. You know they have five wins right now, but
you know their playoff points there are at thirty one, so they're kind of
one of those teams walking that line. So Dwight could really use a win
this week. Saint Bede probably has enough to get in even with their five
and three. They take on eight no Seneca, so that's a that's a
tough one to go. But I think I think we've seen what this conference
could be here these last few weeks. Some of these teams you know that
are having to forfeit. You hope they keep varsity football or keep playing eleven
man. But you know, what we're seeing here at the end maybe is
enough to draw the eyes of some other Class one A, Class two A,
maybe even Class three A schools from down around this area to get them
to start looking around and being like, well, you know, if if
someone does you know, if Walter Christian does go to eight man football and
you need a hole to fill, you know, maybe that is a good
fit for us, you know, whereas maybe a month ago it looked more
likely that the conference would just fall apart. So it's exciting. It's exciting
for the teams in the air and the communities down here all playing each other,
all having playoff ramifications the last third of the season, week after week
after week. So definitely definitely looking forward to a strong finish for that conference.
And really the only other thing that kind of stuck out in my mind
that I wanted to bring up was down in my neck of the woods,
we have LP, Bureau Valley, and Fieldcrest are all four and four,
And when I was writing those aforementioned playoff scenario stories for the Illinois Valley area,
that kind of I kept putting Sea above see above, as I said
for LP. Yeah, because what you got Field Cress is playing seven to
one, Leroy, Bureau Valley playing seven to one Morrison, and lasal Prue
playing Caitlin, which I believe spiritually is a seven to one team at least.
Yeah, I think I put in in that one. I think Caitlin,
and you would know this better than me, but I think Caitland is.
It's something like their three losses are the teams that have a combined one
loss, and those losses are by a combined seventeen points or something. It's
ridiculous how close they are to being a team. It's about to become two
combined losses at the very least, because either Sycamore or Morris is losing week
nine. So well, maybe Caitlin's not that good then bad. Yeah,
but yeah, all three of them are four and four. Uh, and
the four of them LP Bureau Valley and Field Crest, and all of them
really have to pull up an upset to get there. So I just I
find that interesting when you come down to those scenarios. We talked about the
same thing with Mantino having to beat Cole City. They're in that boat too,
you know, those four and four teams you know that are sitting there
with you know, it's fun to have something to play for in week nine,
but boy, you wish you were playing someone else. Yeah, that's
the way the cookie crumbles. I said, you take care of the games
you're supposed to win. Although, uh, the South correct me if I'm
wrong. If they had taken care of one of those games, because they
lost the Woodstock North a couple of weeks ago, right, correct, Correct,
they had taken that one, they'd be five and three and not in
the must win situation. I assume their playoff points would be fine to get
it just fine, Yeah, it would. It would be the exact same
thing LP's done the previous three years, which is getting it five and four.
Beat the teams you're supposed to play, a couple of tough non cons
have, you know, the monsters that are in the now Keshwaukee River,
Interstate eight White and next year maybe just the Interstate eight before that, NIB
twelve whatever West where they I think they were a West. But yeah,
just kind of You know, LP's played pretty much chalk and this year they
one of them got away from them, and that's probably gonna keep them out
of the playoffs. I mean, they do have a decent amount of playoff
points, but I don't think enough for consideration to get it at four and
five. So and and Cainland, you know, I mean you're sitting there
at five and three, Eddie. You know, this is a big game
for Caitlin. They're going to be in regardless. I would think, you
know, when you playoffs, conference or the playoff points, but but this
is kind of a big game for them. I would think to kind of
number one, you know, boost that possible momentum in the playoffs. But
secondly, six and three and five and four can be a big difference on
those seedings. It is, and they're also dealing with the injury to uh
A quarterback Troyer Carlson. It was hurt two weeks ago. They dom Deblasio
has taken over a quarterback at running almost exclusively. I don't know exactly how
much they're throwing the ball, it's not a lot, and they're still being
productive on offense. They've switched there Johnson, a lethal wide receiver into a
lethal running back now. So if they are without Carlson a little longer term,
Supposedly he was a game time decision last week, so you would think
that it's an even stronger chance he's back this week. But it could also
be one of those things it's just not healing the way they thought so well.
Obviously, I have an update on that on Friday Night Drive dot Com
later in the week. I will probably by the time you listen to this,
it'll be up there, to be honest. So it's also worth worth
pointing out in this LP Caitlin game, this is a reversal I believe of
last year when Caitlin was one and four coming in playing a five and three
Lecyle team needing a win to make the playoffs. Caitlin got that way.
Yeah, so yeah, maybe LP can return the favor of this week.
Kevin would know there's better than I would, But I think the Caitlin LP
history is very one sided. Yes, yeah, the Caitlan Sycamores, Morris's
they've they've done alright since since they've joined forces, you know, within the
mid twelve and then kind of latched onto those old nc IC teams and kind
of have traveled around with them. So yeah, they've that area has done
very you know, your area has done very well. Morris has done very
well. You know, LP Atawa they've had their moments, but not a
ton of success. And you know we're talking, we're talking, uh,
you know, Interstate eight. And I think that leads us right into we've
had our mazzarella sticks and our hold on. I still want to shove the
go ahead, give us some guacamole dip. Yeah, okay, no,
see I'm discrediting al Peru in the COVID year beat Camland. Oh there you
go. So yeah, that year had wins over both Morris and Camland.
That was a weird year. And I'm not saying just because the lpbat in
March. Yeah it was. It was spring. It was the sun was
in the wrong place when you were covering games, and and the stands are
half. It was a very lots of weird things happened that that shortened COVID
season. Yeah, little South, Yes, the salth Peru went five and
one that year, including a win against Caitland and the win against Morrise.
They didn't play Sycamore that year, apparently that their only loss was apparently a
forfeit loss the Sandwich. I don't. I didn't even know they were giving
awarding forfeits that season. Yeah, I thought I understood them out. So
they actually might have gone five and oh that year. Because I just say,
sits usually very iffy when it comes to, uh, the that spring
of twenty twenty year, because it's I guess just it's nature, you know.
So Okay, yes, I'm done. I'm wiping the thrums off my
face, cleaning the Marion Earra sauce up. Let's Gore Moors at Morris on
Friday. You know, I'm win the contest between oh yes, no,
I'm not. I'm not covering the game. Yes, I'm saying, uh
yeah, at the game's at Morris this Friday. And I think that's like
a big, a big thing. Sycamore took care of Morris at Sycamore last
year. You know, I think I'll take the home team. I've seen
Morris a couple of times, and uh boy, they're just they're just impressive.
I think uh. I actually pitched to Eddie about maybe doing like a
little point counterpoint if if he wanted to take the Sycamore side and just kind
of say what each of these teams has going for him going into this.
One of my first one is that, you know, Morris is home.
They've won nine straight regular season home games, and the last time they lost
on their home field in the regular season was that weird COVID twenty twenty one
spring season. We were just talking about that no one really knows what the
heck was going on, and whether you were playing or which kids were there
or if the IHSA site even has the results or so, so you know,
I mean, that's the last time they've lost a regular season game at
home, so I mean that obviously big home field advantage, big stadium,
awesome experience on game day, and I think that's definitely a plus for Morris.
I've covered one game there. It was way early on when I first
got here, but I didn't even minut as far back as fourteen and had
to be fourteen or fifteen because it was at the cow playing down there,
So I'm pretty sure it was the Coup. It might have been Sickmore.
I'm pretty sure it was the Barbs though, but yeah, you're right,
just the experience is ridiculous down there. I think, yeah, we could
do it point counterpoint definitely. I'm pretty sure the home team is won,
at least since the Interstate eight version of this rivalry. Since twenty nineteen,
I think the home teams won every time that they've played, definitely over the
last the two years when it's basically come down to the two of them last
week in the year for the conference title. So definitely, I think Moore's
gotten the games there. I think the most interesting matchup of this one,
and I guess you could call this a key for Sycamore is that defense.
Morris's offense obviously it scuare at least thirty five points every game. Sycamore's defense
has allowed less than six points or said seven points or less than every game
except one they gave up twenty one to game. So I think that that's
what this game comes down to, is which team is going to be able
to play their style, you know, if it's low scoring in defensive oriented.
Morris obviously great defense, but I think that that speaks better to Sycamore.
I mean, Sycamore loves these really long drives that love the ball control.
If they're able to do that and keep the Morris offense off the field
and keep Morris from doing what they do offensively, I think it's a And
I realized when you say that that's asking a lot, it is. It
is, And you know I wouldn't be that being said. I'm right there
with you on that. I think that you know Morris, they they put
up thirty five points in Week six win over Richmond Burton. That's the lowest
point totally been held to this year. They're averaging I think thirty or what
is it. I can't remember a lot. It's like forty five. Yeah,
a game. But I think I think it should be pointed out.
I I fully suspect Sycamore is going to hold Morris under thirty five points.
I'd be stunned if they didn't. Oh, I think they absolutely will.
I think they'll hold them. I'll put a number. I I think it'll
be in that twenty one. I don't know if they have a field goal
kicker, twenty four have a good kicker then and then that twenty one to
twenty four range. Yeah, but you know, I don't think they shut
them out like last year. You know, A Carter Button and a j
z Weiers, the quarterback and number one receiver for Morris, are just you
know, they've both been setting school records left and right here these past few
weeks. Running back Jacob Sports, I just saw him last week at Ottawa.
You know, he's really muddy, so they kind of kept it on
the ground a little bit more to establish things before they opened it up.
And boy, he's a great running back that you just don't hear anything about.
And and you know, I think Morris is gonna you know, put
some points on the board, and I think their defense is good enough to
limit Sycamore to where I think I'm I think I'm there with you. I
would not be a bit surprised if we saw something like a you know,
seventeen sixteen game or or something in the in the team's low twenties by the
time this one's all over. Yeah. No, I think that that's definitely
where it's ending up. I mean, Sycamore Simmers offense isn't bad, but
good defenses can present problems with them. I mean, I mean Michelle holding
the twenty one, Kaitlin holding the twenty two, that was in back to
back weeks, you know, and Kaitlyn's defense has been up and down this
year. That was definitely en up for them. Yeah. So I think
it's gonna be ball control, you know. I say that, But for
Sycamore is gonna be one of the big keys is ball control. But they're
they're gonna need a big play at some point. They're they're gonna need a
big play and that probably means Burke Goucher. He seems to be the one
who prides and by the way, uh Burke Coucher. Burke goucher at their
quarterback committed yesterday or Sunday to Iowa, So the junior juniors all taken care
of. He's got his plans figured out. So that's obviously continues that Sycamore
Iowa pipeline that Ben and Nick Neeman both started. I've been and Nick Neeman
are both I think they're both still in the NFL. Won won a Super
Bowl with the Chiefs, so at once with your boys on the charger,
so it was on your with your boys on the chargers. So the point
is that pipeline is alive, and well, the big play probably means gonna
come from him, either with his arms or with his legs. You know,
he finds Carter York on a deep route like he's done so many times
this year, or just turns a little run up the left side into you
know, fifty sixty seventy yards. They're going to need the big play at
some point because they're probably gonna need a quick score because it might be behind
at some point. You need to get back in a hurry before they can
roll off. You know, twenty a play eighty R drive. Yeah,
and you know you wonder how first up, I mean, how exciting,
you know for the teams, you know, the kids and these teams.
You know, we consider we know we've recorded this podcast since what week two,
week three, and every week this game has come up, even if
it was just a mention, oh yeah, but week nine, you know
that more is sick and it's come up every week in might be it just
a mention or a detail or you know, looming on the horizon is can't
look ahead past and now you know it's well, now certainly it's gonna be
such an exciting environment and and uh, you know, such a such a
such a big game feel two weeks in a row, and you know,
we talked about the Chicagoland Prairie. Good job scheduling. I don't know how
much of it's intentional, how much of it just kind of works out that
way, but uh, you know, credit to the k r I eight
pick your favorite color of the rainbow for for this one, because you know,
this is two years in a row where we've had just a fantastic Week
nine game that's gonna feel like playoff football between two of the top teams in
their classes. Yeah, I think I think some conferences try to do that
on purpose. They try then you know, I see does it? I
mean they got the big one coming up here with the win, and uh,
I think it's forresting playing the b n C. I mean, I
think theoretically they did it with Byron and Stillman Valley. I think they were
playing the odds on that one for what it's been the last couple of years,
and so I think conferences to try to get them the match up like
that. I think clearly that's what the I'm just gonna say the I eight
because this is the I eight portion with the woodstocks in there. It's the
I eight division based. So I think I did it as why My guess
is it would be on purpose and Sycamore or more closed the year against each
other and now and it is of interest, I believe unless something changes here
in the very new near future, be it the district proposal that you broke
last week getting on the ballot and passing, or some other teams jumping in
here. I believe when I spoke with Atoa's athletic director for the story about
kind of kind of the district breakdown and whatnot and the interstate signing off on
that, I believe Week nine is going to be an open week, is
the intention. It would be Week three and Week nine would be two weeks
that are non conference games that the Interstate would have to fill because of their
weird number of teams. So this will be the last time we get this
in Week nine for a little while unless something changes, and hopefully it does
so. But out of the I actually said, we'll see if it changes
by the time the capsules come out. But oh well, it's not technically
my pick of the caps anyway, it's the consensus, and I assume when
you see the capsule will probably say Morris. But that's what I'm thinking right
now too. I'm kind of leaning toward Morris. It's gonna be a great
game, and it's I think it's close to a coin flip. They could
play ten times. I think each team would win five. Love to actually
see them play ten times. Maybe instead of a playoff, they can work
something out and do that again, because it would be a tremendous series.
But well, I'll reach out to coach Hammock and see what he thinks about
your prognosticating skills, and yeah, there we go. Put a button on
that back. So oh, I got a press conference in like an hour
and a half, I get to go back there. I'm I'm really upset
and bring up about the noise. It's like killing you know when you come
up with the comeback after the fact that it just if you bring it up,
and if you bring it up now, it just looks pathetic, like
thought exactly George Costanza the Jerk Store called. Yeah, it's just it's exactly
when you realize you're being George the Stanza. It's definitely a time to reflect.
So anyway, we got some good games this week. We will be
back next week next We haven't talked about it, but I'm assuming next week's
are a season finale. I hope season and not serious finale, but it's
I think our season finale next week as the teams have been reduced. But
anyway, we'll be back finale or no finale to talk about week one of
the playoffs coming up. We'll talk about that Sycamore and Morris week nine game.
It's it's a great time. Yeah, it's this is you know,
the nights are chilly, the sun, it's pitch it's already dark out when
the when kickoff happens. And this you know, this is what feels like
high school football. I love I love wearing shorts on the sideline and being
warm and blah blah blah. But this is what feels like high school football.
You know, the pork chops, smoke hanging on the field because there's
no moisture in the actual air. And this feels like high school fo all
to me. And it's gonna it's gonna be a fun finish to the season.
Wow. Well, we'll have all your updates Friday Night Drive dot com.
Make sure you're on there Friday Night the Live show with Seuss and Jake
Bartleson. Your favorite correspondence calling in plus me So anyway, that was a
cheap That was a cheap self depreheating humor anyway for JG. Battlety, I
met a Carriffio. Thank you very much. Take care, Schwiker Gannison Krizak
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