Schweiker, Gannison, Krazak, Rundio Fridley sponsors to Friday Night Drive. I'm
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of dollars for our clients. Visit ga Nassim dot com. What's up everyone,
and welcome back to the Friday Night Drive Podcast. I am Kyle Neighbors
along here with my co host Steve Susie here to recap week five for you.
And what a week it was. Just went completely off the rails on
Friday Night. We had wild finishes all over the board and we were broadcasting
live with Friday Night Drive Jimmy Mugel and Steve Susi. We're hosting there for
you and Suz As I said, just crazy stuff all over the board last
week. Yeah, And to be honest with you, looking into the week,
I really kind of didn't expect that. I didn't think there'd be quite
as many games that came down to the wire in the fashion that they did.
It just seemed like every game in the last I don't know, ten
minutes of their game time just went. You know, it was like all
right, I think I know how that's going. I think I know how
that's going. Like, for instance, we'll get into it a little more,
but like Warren down seventeen to seven at a half, and like we're
like, all right, Lake Zurich won the Northern Suburban last year, maybe
they've really kind of taken control of this conference. And then Warren just comes
charging back in the second half there late in that game. It was just
one example of a lot of games that ended up coming down to the wire.
Yeah, it was one of those games. I was kind of watching
out of the corner of my eye as it developed, and it felt like
you had a good handle on it, like you said, And then I
looked up and then all of a sudden, Warren was within a field goal
and they were marching again to go score. And it felt like that happened
in a blink of an eye, almost a very quick kind of rally,
and all of a sudden, complete control of that game had switched hands.
It was. It was, it was, and it was the way that
a lot of games ended up going in the in the final, you know,
the final quarter of a lot under control and then they just kind of
rested it away and it made for a very interesting conclusion to you know,
fifteen or twenty games coming down to the wire on Friday Night, And like
I said before, I thought this was going to be one of those calmbing
weeks where we had a lot of teams winning, you know, winning as
they expected to win. But I guess I ought to know better by now.
Yeah, Sus already sent me a message and to let me know how
in saying the week's six schedule. Look, we'll be back with you later
this week to preview weeks Week six. You can find all of our content
at Friday Night Drive dot com. You can follow us on Twitter myself at
Kyle Neighbors, Sus at the Sus. You can follow Friday Night Drive at
fn drive. You can find us on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok by
searching for Friday Night Drive, and of course you can also find us on
YouTube, which on Friday night from eight to eleven PM you can join sus.
He is part of Live with Friday Night Drive while breaking down games from
like I said, eight to eleven pm with our team of report, we
got coaches and players checking in after suit. We're now starting to get into
that time of year where it's you know, talking week playoffs after Week one
always feels a little foolish. But now we're here, we're week six,
man, It's it's time to really start cranking it up, because we got
teams that are playoff eligible already. Yeah, I mean there's sixty five of
them that are sitting there already with five wins in the bank. You know,
technically the IHSA calls that playoff eligible anymore. I pretty much consider that
that's good enough. I mean, like I said, last year, we
had one four win at large team. But I definitely think we're in a
situation now where you get to that five wins, it's going to take something
pretty extreme to keep you out. And to have five wins already, obviously
we've got a ton of breathing room. I think you're Liger's trying to eat
the microphone over there, SEUs people, everyone, what was that? He
just ran behind the behind me there. But and that's unlike him, because
he's a lazy hobo. He's like fourteen years old. I'd say, yeah,
everyone who's listening, like, what the hell are you talking about?
A Liger SEUs has a giant cat that I it's what We've known each other
for over a decade now, and that thing has been a giant menace for
as long as I've known you. Just so what it? Papa? Hide
you on screen there the kind of and then it came over right behind your
mind and I was like, oh, it's about to eat it. Yeah,
he's just he's really just kind of a fat, lazy guy at this
point. But so that's definitely out of character for him. It's usually the
Golden Retrievers that joined us on the broadcast, but we got a we got
an appearance from the Lager today, which, by the way, we are
recording this on Monday afternoon. Sus has a couple of people over doing a
little work on the house. If we get an interrupted, you hear someone
in the background, don't worry about it too much, Sus. Here's a
fun story for you. I actually had a new dishwasher coming this morning and
then you know, paid for professional installation. Everything. Guys get in the
house today look at the pipe and go, oh, that's five eight.
It has to be three eight. You had to pay us cash or check
for one hundred and twenty five dollars for us to put a new pipe in
first. How would you react in that situation, buddy. Oh, it
wouldn't be pleased, that's for sure, and no doubt about that. I
had a similar type of situation where the washer dryer set a while back that
did not please. That did not go over very well with anyone in this
house. So I sympathize. I sent them packing. I was like,
listen you this They may very well be something that needs to be done,
but I'm not a big fan of handing cash to people in my house that
I just met. So we're going to reschedule this one, guys. Yeah,
so I at least don't. I don't have anyone banging around in the
background yet. But I got some headaches to look forward to after we're done,
including I gotta edit the Bears podcast where Sean and I were just on
that and it sounded like we were taping it from the Morgue because it's just
oh in three and absolutely awful football suites. Yeah, like I was.
I think you saw yesterday that I went to one of my favorite Simpsons gifts
to describe the Bear as Bears Outing yesterday, which was a young child proclaiming
stop, stop, he's already dead. I think that pretty much sums it
up. Yeah. Absolutely, it was after a fun Friday night, good
college football on Saturday. That was kind of a punch to the face there
to finish my week with watching the Bears get rolled up by the Chief.
But that's let's talk some high school football. That makes me feel a lot
better after talking about the Bear for nearly an hour before this, Sus,
we got a lot of good games. I want to start with up in
my neck of the woods, Prayer Ridge and Carry Grove. We knew these
two team Fox Valley rivals. We expected it to be a good one.
Came right down to the final minute twenty one twenty Carry Grove goes down the
field and scorched with fifty five seconds left, thinking we're going to overtime.
Joe Stevenson's over at that game and the extra point goes wide left. Prairie
Ridge hangs on and absolutely classic. Another classic between these two, between these
two rivals on Friday night, SEUs. Yeah, like I said, I
was trying to kind of keep my eye on all of these different games,
and we were able to catch the kind of while it was happening last two
minutes of that game, kind of following along on video. And and like
I said, I couldn't in real time, I couldn't tell that the extra
point had been pulled and missed. That would have correct that he had missed
the extra point. So unfortunately, it's kind of unfortunate because I would have
really been interested to see how those two teams would have chose to, uh,
you know, pull the maschinations that I always enjoyed during overtime, especially
knowing each other so well and what they're capable of, you know, offenses,
yeah, anyone, I'm sorry, see I don't mean, but yeah,
offenses where they could be passing, you know't say like no one,
no one in the offenses throwing the ball very often. But that is the
perfect example where they just start getting a little bit weird because if you try
and just run it up the middle, I can't imagine in short start yard
situations it would go very well. Yeah, And I mean it's just like
I said, all the layers of overtime are just especially fun when you have
two teams that are doing the same things, have pretty good knowledge of what
the other one's gonna do. It almost almost forces your hand into doing something
out of the unorthodox and hoping that you can pull it off because, uh,
you know, going by the book in that situation, uh probably won't
work as well because the other team has your book. So so I mean
that that's what makes it kind of interesting there. I say, they would
probably have to go to the air, but you know, both of those
coaches know each other well enough to know to watch out for that little play
action pass, right, Yeah. So I mean, like I said,
it's you know, when when the other team, like you know, has
something that very much resembles the script of what you're doing, they also know
probably a lot of the keys in regards to, uh, you know,
what you're probably going to do in that situation. So, like I said,
great game the way it was, but it would have been even in
my mind, it would have been even more interesting if they would have went
into overtime. Joe Stevenson asked me after the game, you know how sure
I was that I thought Prairie Ridge was going to be a five A playoff
team this year, and I remained really confident of that. But apparently coach
Trmp said that Cold told coach Sieberg that after the game, he told him
that he really really hoped that they ended up in five A because he didn't
know if they could survive another game against Carry Grove if they hadn't to play
in the six A playoffs. So that's I found that kind of funny.
So uh, so far, I think Coach Trump will get his wish.
I believe they will be a five A playoff team. So and now they're
guaranteed to be in the playoffs because that was their fifth win. Yes,
absolutely, all right. We got a game that did make it into overtime
on Friday night, that was Saint Charles North and Weed and Warrenville South.
Saint Charles North wins that one forty two thirty five. Jake Fertney caught a
career high four touchdowns, including the game winning twelve yard or from junior quarterback
Ethan Plum and overtime. Another classic Duquene match. Matchups twos, you know,
and that was one of them. I guess you could say that was
kind of down card on the on the Duquene schedule this this week because I
still wasn't quite sure what you know, and I'm and I'm still not one
hundred percent positive what we're gonna get from Wheaton Warrenville South on a week to
week basis. Are they in that upper echelons? Are they close to it?
But they gave Saint George Charles North a really good fight, And Saint
Charles North was trying to avoid, you know, some potential real problems there
because a loss there would have dropped them the three losses on the year.
So I wouldn't have really thought that that was something that was in the cards
for them. But they, you know, they fended them off and kept
themselves above the five hundred mark, which I'm sure we'll get into a little
bit later, but you know, that was a that's a pretty pivotal win
for both of those both of those two teams in that situation, just based
on the fact that the conference you know right now above them is Batavia,
Geneva, Wheat North. So if you didn't get through that non conference schedule
with a two and oh record, there's three teams right now that you know
you're going to be an underdog against. When you when you line up against
them and you start to do the count, I mean, you're running out
of options here. So a pivotal game for both of those two teams,
Saint Charles Marth being able to pull it out of the fire. All right,
we got a lot of games where teams were trailing in the second half
that came back to win, and want to hit on those. But before
we do, we're gonna take a quick commercial break. We'll be right back
to finish up precapping Week five. 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. Welcome back now
to the Friday Night Drive podcast. And as I was mentioning SEUs before the
break, we had a lot of games where teams came back in the second
half. We got I think I had five in my notes. I want
to make sure we hit on here, starting with Icy Catholic and gets merits
and one of the more interesting matchups in the week in terms of just maris
very very much the larger school here. You know, you get Icy Catholic
quarterback Dennis Mandela really helped engineer that quarterback or that that ending. Joey Gleiota
scored two touchdowns in a four minute span as Icy Catholic came back to win
that game. SEUs, I don't want to call it surprising as much as
I yes, bow down to the program I see Catholic has built at this
point, like you just kind of it. Just give him a clap and
be like you just keep doing you guys. You know when you when you
take away the you know, all the multipliers and all the other factors that
come into play. I see Catholic has a little over three hundred students in
their school, and I'm just like, I don't know how they're going to
be able to compete against superpowers in the Catholic League that have five times the
enrollment roster sizes that are sometimes two or three times as large as I see
Catholic with upper classmen. If you look at I see Catholic over the over
the term, they have South Moors that contribute on a regular basis that roster
because they have to have that happen. I mean, it's to me,
I'm pretty sure Dennis Mandala played as a freshman right then he started Yeah,
yeah, yeah he did. And it's just like, so you know,
that was like, you know, I was looking Joey Gliott I had a
big role in Friday Night's victory. I remember when he came up and was
contributing as a freshman. I mean, he's now a senior. But that
just shows the kind of you know, contributions they get from underclassmen there,
and it's a must. I mean. And then you look at a team
like Merits that they beat. That's an eight A program that they knocked off
and a good one. We're not talking about just an eight A program here.
I mean, it's a very successful ADA program. And granted Marist does
now one in four, it's not your ordinary one and four. Let's look
at their schedule. I mean, that's that's that's the reality of the situation.
But that in the grand landscape of things, was something that I thought
at the beginning of the year. I see Catholic would not be able to
bridge that gap. As good as they are, I just didn't think.
I thought this was something that they wouldn't be able to do. And they've
already proven on multiple occasions they're capable of doing that. And right now we
still have four regular season games to go. I have to give them.
This has been a banner success for that program, no matter what happens the
rest of the way. I mean, he went from you went from what
you already played off eligible, Yeah, you went from wondering could they find
their way to five wins? Two? Are they going to get to seven
or eight somehow? You know? Yeah? Yeah, I mean you know
this, The thought is starting to creep into my head can they run the
table? And I'm like, before the season, I would know they can't
run the table, and then it's in that schedule that's that's not even comprehensible.
And now it looks like, now that thought's creeping in my mind,
can they do that? Maybe they can. Another team that joined I see
Catholic in the Catholic League this year for the first time. Saint Francis also
with a big win on Friday, SUIS against Juliet Catholic thirty three twenty eight.
Taivon Ransom scored on a two yard touchdown run with a minute fifteen leap.
Saint Francis was down two scores in this game. Another example of a
team coming from outside the Catholic League joining at this year. SU's where we
didn't know exactly how they would be able to compete. Now, this isn't
Icy Catholic against a much larger merit, but this is Saint Francis against one
of the most story programs in the state and Joliet Catholic. You know,
and you look at that game the way it was developing. Joliett Catholic had
their running game going and their defense, especially their front seven good luck.
That's the best way that I can describe it. So when Joliet Katholic has
those two components going, running game, you know, vaunted defense, I
don't like a lot of teams odds and it looked like Saint Francis was going
to get overwhelmed in that game. But they came out in the second half
fixed some things and could you could tell just by watching it on camera,
overcame a significant size difference in the game too. They just kept finding ways
to move the ball, running the ball, throwing the ball. They did
what they had to against a defense that I've seen shut people down. And
you know, you don't usually don't have a lot of success running the ball
against the Jet Catholic defensive line that has the component like Dylan John the Wisconsin
bound Dylan Johnson, Mitchell Ragusa is a good player. These are guys that
really bottle up the inside and force you to do things you don't want to
do offensively. But St. Francis crack the code somehow, especially in the
second half, and a really really strong performance from that offensive unit. It's,
like you said, not on the level of the win over Marist Joett.
Catholic still is a smaller school than a lot of people realize, but
it's it's still a very very impressive win, and it was the kind of
win that if you look at what Wheat and Saint Francis has left on their
schedule, might turn out to be the most pivotal game for them all season.
Because they're three and two right now. There are two or three hurdle
games left on their schedule that I think I think they will they'll probably enter
either at best to toss up to win the game. So getting that win
extremely crucial for their quest to get to five wins based on what they have
left on their schedule. All right, let's head out of the Catholic League
now and head over to your neck of the woods. Suits Bradley bourbon A
thirty eight thirty two win over Lockport. Lockport led the game by twelve points
at halftime. Bradley bourbon A scores twenty eight points in the second half to
win thirty eight to thirty two. I gotta say, sus, this was
not a result that I expected. Yeah, I mean, I'll be honest,
I didn't see it either Lockport. And I've looked at this time and
time again this season because I think it's very interesting. I think there's actually
a possibility that every one of the teams on Lockport's schedule this year might be
going to the playoffs. And that's incredible. I mean, I'm sure that's
probably before. But week after week after week, they're running into good football
teams and right now they're having a little problem. They're Achilles heels. They're
giving up big plays through the air, and they gave up a couple more
of them against Bradley. Bradley has a very talented quarterback and Ethan Cole,
the coach's son, who knows how to get the ball down the field and
make place, and Lockport had that happened to him again. A couple of
big plays in the second half. Quick big plays too, like quick drives
that like lock Court would do something positive, Bradley would answer it immediately.
It was just that was what happened there, you know, And it's it's
just kind of crazy times in the in the Southwest Suburban Conference this year,
all ten teams are about five hundred after five games. That doesn't happen.
That's that is a mathematical situation. That is, even if you're play non
conference games, it just does not happen. I mean, everyone is at
least three and two in the league. That's the that's the worst record in
the league right now. So you know that every week that you're going into
that game, you're gonna have a good football team on the other side.
So I think we're gonna have games like that all along in the Southwest Suburban
where you're just gonna have two really good teams running into each other and there's
gonna be one or two key plays that flips the tide in the second half,
and the momentum was going Bradley's way and they carried it through. This
is a series that over the last three or four years has garnered extremely close
games. Lockport won last year's matchup at Bradley in the final minute. It's
just two evenly match programs that this time Bradley was able to get the key
plays when they needed them. Moving on down the road. Not too far
down the road, though, to the Southwest Prairie Conference playing Field North.
With a ten seven win over Oswego Ease, the North defense held outswe Go
to just thirty seven yards in the second half series. Omark Coleman hit a
seventeen yard field goal with a minute forty seven left to give North that lead.
They hang on their goodwin for the Tigers in the SPC. Yeah,
Plainfield North coach Anthony Mbordino is not shy about telling you when he's building his
team, he starts with the defense and tends to put his best athletes,
the best players that he's trying to figure out where they go on the football
field for him, he puts them on defense. If he can use those
guys a little bit on offense too, he will. But you know,
so far this season that shown Plainfield's offense has really struggled. That they've they
don't have a lot of guys that I would classify as you know, breakaway
players, but they you know, usually they'll just put on their hard hats
and try to grind out wins and keep the other team completely stifled, and
that plan has been a little spotty so far this year, but they certainly
executed that game plan to perfection against an Oswego team that came in there as
an undefeated team and they just really shut them off, gave them very few
options, and Plainfield North, fortunately for them, only needed to have about
two effective offensive drives, one that led to an early touchdown in the first
quarter, the last one in the final minutes setting up an Omark Coleman game
winning field goal. You know, they didn't need a lot of offense in
this one to win, and that's kind of the way I guess Plainfield North
prefers to play. They expect to hold people in check and hopefully squeeze out
enough offense to get by. But in the long run, this is another
game that if Plainfield North had fallen and lost this game and dropped to one
and four on the season, it did not look real good for them the
rest of the way. They still got several games down the line with good
teams in their conference. They're still kind of walking that tight wire at two
and three, but at least now there's a little bit of a breath that
they can take, you know, oswego. You hate to say that they
could afford the loss, but at four and one, they were much better
equipped to take this loss in this game than Playfield North would have been going
over to a couple more teams that do not like to give up points.
Warren and lake Zurich SEUs. This was the game where Warren trailed seventeen to
seven at a half. I think you and I commented even before we went
on air for Live with Friday Night Drive that we kind of felt like,
maybe, hey, lake Zurich really started to take control of the North Suburban
Conference. Not so fast, my friend, though, Warren comes back wins
that game twenty one seventeen with a couple of second half touchdowns the Blue Devils
showing that they shouldn't be counted out. SEUs. Yeah, I mean,
it was a really impressive effort for them. I mean, it looked early
in the game like lake Zurich was doing what they've done in recent matchups.
They looked like they had kind of taken control of the game and built a
pretty decent lead for two teams that pride themselves on playing good defense. And
you thought, hey, that's probably gonna be enough. But it was almost
like a bang bang type of situation in the second half with Warren. It
was like, Okay, now we're gonna step on the accelerator. Let's go,
And before you knew it, they had scored a pair of touchdowns,
taking control of the game, and you know, then then switched it back
and said, okay, defense, you got to hold them and check the
rest of the way, and they did their jobs. So we're not quite
ready relinquished control of the North Suburban Conference just yet. It looks all right,
two final games before we get out of here, and these weren't comeback
games, but just a couple of notable things that I want to hit on.
Palotine had a forty nine to thirty four win over halfmant State running back
Dominic Ball, Tulane commit, had a huge first half of that one,
and he left. He missed the entire second half, and I was kind
of concerned with what happened. Found an update though from that and that was
just a cramp. So we found that out after the game, So excuse
me there, good news for Dominic Balls. Who's Palotine starting to come on?
Come on nicely? After a slow start. You know, it's gonna
be interesting to see how they bounce back and carry through. You know,
They've still got a couple of hurdles on their schedule. They got a game
coming up with Barrington as well that should be another flag planting type of situation
for them. But you know, I saw them live last year and it
was very impressive what they were able to do, not only using dominant ball,
but they used a lot of other things on their offense effectively and kind
of manhandle the Minook in a playoff game that I saw, So I you
know, if they don't have ball, I think they have options that they
were able to use them. And then one final game, Princeton with a
twenty eight to six win over Sterling Sues, which was a game I like
this little note from Kevin harronymus here and this is what you get from a
terrific veteran writer like Kevin. It was an opportunity, as he said,
it was an opportunity for Princeton to play it's old North Central Illinois Conference rival
for the first time in seventy four years. Yeah, So I mean this
was a game that you know was created out of a couple of different scenarios.
You don't usually see teams like this playing one another during the regular season.
You know, Uh, Sterling had a vacancy on their schedule because of
Rock Island Isleman's decision to not play varsity football this year. Peru Saint Bede
swapping out of the Three Rivers Conference to go to the Chicago Land Prairie left
Princeton with an opening on their schedule that they had to fill, and filling
scheduled dates in the middle of the year like that are often very, very
difficult. So you know, these two schools aren't too far apart, and
they had a let's say, not ancient history, but it's been a while
since they played on a regular basis, so it's, uh, it's definitely
you know, it was definitely an intriguing matchup to see kind of you know,
almost almost what I like to call a football class warfare. I mean,
Sterling, you know, a class or two above where Princeton is.
Both have had pretty good programs over the last couple of years. And on
paper, when you look at those types of things, typically the bigger school
ends up dominating, but Princeton, you know, really put it together a
nice especially in the path, a nice effort and kind of ran away from
Sterling. You know what this means for Sterling moving forward? They've still got
some challenging games left on their schedule. I don't know if the playoffs are
in the cards for them this year. I mean, this is this is
a costly loss, and this is the program that's been to Is it the
quarterfinals for what at two three? I'm not I don't have it right in
front of me, but this is the team where you used the scene playing
a couple of weeks into the playoffs at the very least. Yeah, I
mean, but now they're sitting at two and three, and the next the
next two weeks they play, they go to Genoeseo and then they host Quincy.
Those two teams are both five on the year. Yeah, you know
when they finish, and they finish in week nine with Moleen in a long
time rival that you know, I think, at least on paper, is
playing better than Sterling right now. So you know, they've got to win
two of you know, two or three of those games to keep them you
know, in the in that situation where they're alive if they lose two of
those games, and they've still got Rock Island a week eight two. But
you know, they gotta go. They gotta go three and one the rest
of the way, and I mean, honestly, looking at that, I
don't think they can. So I mean they're gonna have to pull a major
rabbit out of their hat. It's either this coming week or the following week.
So all right, suth, Well, we gotta get out of here.
But you got any final thought for us before we get out? All
right, get out of here. Yeah, surprisingly fun week. You know,
in Week five looked like it was gonna be kind of you know,
chalky all over the place, but we had a whole bunch of interesting outcomes,
and uh, I guess I just have to take into account that this
is the kind of season that we're going to have a lot of fun games,
a lot of games between two evenly matched teams. And we'll get to
it later this week, but it looks like we've got a real real barnburger
coming up in a week six as well. Yeah, thank you everyone for
listening to the Friday Night Drive podcast. Stick with us all week long.
We'll have our week six playoff projection. We'll have our playoff. I'm sorry,
we'll have our weeks or Week six previews. Everything coming on your way
this week. Thank you for listening. For Steve Susy, I am Kyle
Neighbors. We'll talk to you later this week. Schweiker, Ganison, Krazak
Rundio proudly sponsors to Friday Night Drive. I'm Mike Krazak. If you've been
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