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dot com. What's up everyone, Welcome back, Welcome into the Friday Night
Drive Podcast. I am Kyle Nabors. Along with Steve Susie. We are
live with you here at eleven am on Monday, November sixth to break down
the second round of the high school football playoffs. All sixty four games obviously
now in the book for down to thirty two teams. Are thirty two games
left in the high school football season. It's starting to uh that realization is
starting to think it a little bit for me, sus Yeah, you know
when I was kind of doing what I do on Saturday nights after the playoffs
are over, you know, for that weekend, starting to sift through the
games and realize that there weren't quite as many games to sift through as I've
been going through for the last couple of weeks always an intriguing part of the
time of the year. But then I start to get a little, I
guess, a little tense because I realized that we're almost running out of time
here. I try not to look too far ahead, but you know,
we're down now to the last three weeks of the high school football season,
and that always makes me sad when I realize that that's around the corner.
I know that, like the bittersweet feeling starts to creep in about this time
of year as we really you know, you're so used to it to be
an insane for nine weeks of the regular season into the post and it kind
of quickly starts to tail off. Thank you everyone who is joining us live
this morning on the Friday Night Drive podcast. I see Alex Acevedo, a
big, big fan down in Kankakee County, already in the chat this morning.
Mister Shorty, a regular on the Bears podcast, checking in with ingreedients
here. Appreciate that as well. Through Shorty sus. We got a lot
to dive into from this second round. Before we do, make sure you
go to Friday Night Drive dot com. We'll have all your content up there
right now, including what we learned from the second round. Drop that from
the SEUs this weekend or this morning a lot to get ready through the quarterfinal
round of the playoffs. You can follow us on Twitter or at app and
drive. We're also on Facebook, Instagram, and we're TikTok. That's what
too many social media platforms to keep track of nowadays. You can find Seuss
on Twitter at the SUS. You can find myself on Twitter at Kyle Nabors
SEUs. As I was mentioning before we go game by game, let's hit
a couple of different things that you mentioned in your what we learn what you
learn in the second round of the playoffs. First off, let's go with
I know of at least three games that were decided on teams electing not to
go for the tie but going for the win. You had Rock Xanna go
for it, you had Bradley Bourbonet go for it. And who was a
third game I'm blanking off off hand here, there was another one. It
was Richards glen Wood. But let me correct you. It wasn't Rock Santa
that went for it. It was Saint Joe Ogden and they didn't get it,
and Rock Sanna won. So yeah, there were three games that came
down to two point conversion decisions in overtime, and strangely enough, it was
one of those situations where a couple of weeks ago we had a bunch of
these scenarios where they got the two point conversions. This time the team's trying
for the two point conversion were zero for three. In that situation, the
defense is held. So when you went back to that scenario of a couple
of weeks ago, you're thinking to yourself, well, why wouldn't you go
for it? Always seems to work out, but in this case did not
with much higher stakes. So gutsy calls in all situations, and I think
all of those teams would probably do it again if given the opportunity. But
yeah, definitely some wild finishes. And then on top of it, there
was another game that was decided by a touch down that was scored with less
than two seconds to play at the game. So you know, so a
lot of a lot of really intriguing finishes that came down to the wire.
Yeah. I can't hold it against any coach that Alexi go for two in
high school football. When you're talking, it's not like extra points are just
given at this level, so I don't really have any issue for any coach
that goes for two. It was I was talking to my nephew who played
for moments where I grew up right, and at that time they lost a
playoff game. This is we're going back like a decade now, agough Right.
They lost a a playoff game to Sterley Newman where they went for two
on the last play of the game to try and beat them. I think
it was a state quarterfinal and Matt Fox was the head coach at the time.
Interestingly enough, now the head coach or not the head coach, the
offensive coordinator over at Bradley, Burbane and another one of those teams involved.
As we were just mentioning going for it on the final play, I wash
my nephew was wondering if Matt was the guy that made that call for his
head coach, Michael, Yeah, it could be interesting to decide that I've
seen That's the only one of the three plays that I've seen on video.
I've seen it from two different angles, and to be honest with you,
I think if Bradley had to do it again, they might run the same
play. Again and nine times out of ten, I believe they probably converted
based on the scenario. The receiver was open. It was just one of
those situations where I think he slipped through. The timing was off just a
little bit, and the throw and the receiver was open. On the play,
it wasn't you know, and it wasn't a force throw. It just
it got away from him. Didn't happen. Sometimes that's the play that you
know that you know it happens. Sometimes it just doesn't click even though it's
there. But the play was there, the receiver was open, but you
know, there was something in the in the mixture that was it was a
little bit off and it didn't get completed. But I think if they did
that time and time again, I think, you know, they run the
same play, it might have came out with a better factor. So definitely
hard to you know, hard to you know, second guess the decision,
especially when the play was there and it looked like they had the opportunity to
potentially win the game on the road against the top seed in seven A.
You're only going to get so many chances in that type of situation. They
took their shot. It didn't work. For Yeah, Alex says, the
Bradley Urbudy bulletmakers were close watching the clip back receiver slipped at the top of
the route on that graft field messed up the timing. Yeah, that's the
other side. You know. I talked about extra point at the high school
level being far from a given. The other thing is you a'll it take
to the players slipping at the top of a route on a bit of a
wet field, and that's how a season ends. But that is football,
right and seeing down here Alex follow that up with Cole made that decision in
twenty fifteen in the playoff two points for the wins. That was their quarterfinal.
Then he called it up with a semi run. Yeah, that was
the game against Libertyville that was played in the snow. I'm pretty sure I'm
trying to think back to I don't to that game, Alex or soon as
maybe you remember. Did they go for two in that Libertyville game? Or
is he or Alex are you talking about maybe like a matchup before they got
to that game against Libertyville, the Liberty Bill game. To my understanding,
that was that was the Riley Lee's game where it was controversial whether or not
whether or not he actually got into the He did not get into the inzoning
on that play. That is the that is, But there there were people
that were getting the torches out on that one because it was it was close.
I mean, I've seen, I've seen. I saw at the time
multiple video angles from it. And this is once again why I stress over
and over again, it's not easy to be an official, guys. It's
just not. There are plays like that that happen in every single game where
everyone swears that they saw it better. But you know, put the shirts
on you if you really believe that you're capable of making those calls right one
percent of the time. I heard you go ahead. I will say that
I got the call right. They got it wrong that day. Riley Leeves
did not make the in zone. I was right there on the end zone
next to it. Was funny, I can now that you mentioned it.
I can think of it. The official on my sideline, and the play
was on the opposite hash. But the official on my sideline, if I
remember correctly, they were they were divided. One put up touchdown, the
other did not. I think the guy on my side signal that he was
short, which he was short. It doesn't really matter. It's been ten
years, but just it's just football. Game of inches. Man and Alex
said it was the first game in that playoff run where they went for two.
Let's see what else we got in here before we dive in game by
game. Appreciating the question in the comments. You can join us live if
you are are on YouTube or the Friday Night Drive Facebook page and leave us
a question or comment. If you're watching this, do us a favor,
maybase thumbs up, help us get twenty five likes on this chance or on
this video subscribed to the channel. It helped other people find the show.
Kevin Patterson asked, Who's how good is Lincoln Way West? This is a
team you're pretty familiar with. Yeah, it's been really interesting to see what
they've done in the postseason, you know, kind of coming into this into
the playoff bracketings, I didn't really know what to expect of them. Opened
up in the first round against the Hoffmann States team that everything that I had
picked up against was it's going to be a fast athletic team that would be
able to do some things, and Lincolnway West just rolled them. And then
this week it was kind of like a little bit apprehensive for Lincoln Way West
having they make that long road trip down to Collinsville. Collinsville's shown a propensity
to be a little bit tricky in the seven a draw in the past,
and Joey campaigna a monster game five rushing touchdowns more than this week. They
were never really tested. I mean it was early in the game, it
was somewhat close, and then Lincoln Way West rattled off four consecutive touchdowns,
just ran away and hid. So obviously this is a football team that is
playing its best football at the right time. It makes for a very interesting
quarterfinal matchup with with another team that I think is doing exactly the same thing
in downers Grove North. They're playing tremendous football at the right time. So
an intriguing matchup of about twelve and a thirteen seed in the next round.
But right now Lincoln Way West is uh, you know, at their apex.
I think, playing way better than they were four or five weeks ago.
I agree with you one hundred and Kevin Sue kind of alluded to there,
you got a match to get downers Grove downers Grove North here none of
the matchups at this point. When you get to the corner finals, they're
gonna be easy. But the way that Semny bracket has shaped up, Suson
and I have talked about it a lot through you know, once this practic
was revealed on that top side, you know there was there's opportunities for really
any of these teams to make it down to stay. I think Lincoln Way
Lincoln A West has as good as chance as glen Bard Ease, downers Grove
North or Normal Community to make it down to state suits. Yeah. I
think the top half of that bracket, if you go and you look through
it, you know, class by class. If I were to say which
four team pod is the most wide open, I would identify it as the
top half of seven eight. Let's see, mister shorty says Julia Kathock beat
my buddy's grandson's Peoria team. How is Juliet Juliet Catholic gun? Since sus
Well absolutely overwhelmed Triad in the second round, they came up to juliett Catholic
defensively stumulate, gathered, was all over everything, ran back two touchdowns on
returns and Jolianktholic's offense, which I was at the Pioria game, was running
the ball very effectively. Did so again with Tria, they were ahead of
that game. It felt like almost instantaneously they were head thirty five to nothing.
So that they've they've put out their playoff playoff gear and they're going,
I mean, that's the thing right now. So I mean they have now
offensively. I had some questions about them entering the playoffs. They seem to
have resolved those issues. Yeah, mister shorty, if you're looking for a
good football game to watch on Saturday this weekend, man, check out Joliet
Catholic against Morris in the five eight quarterfinals. That's going to be a duty
of a matchup. We'll be back later in the week to preview that game
since we got a couple more questions coming in here are questions and comment Whether
on the Go, a regular with the Friday Night Drive podcast says Dixon has
had a good chance to win that game against Saint Lawrence. They stalled inside
their twenty yard line three times. If they would have capitalized, Dixon would
have won thirty five thirty one. But that's football, right, Yeah,
Dixon in that game. You know, one thing I wanted to point out
Saint Lawrence was they win, as you mentioned in what we learned after the
second round, to seventeen percent of the remaining teams in the player, including
Saint Lawrence, coming from the Chicago Catholic League East Suburban Catholic Conference. Listen,
this is a we could go about this every single year and have this
conversation, right, but again, the this this conference is just a really
tough out. You got to play pretty much perfect football to knock these teams
out of the postseason. Yeah, you know, it's kind of funny.
We were looking at it, you know, as we headed into the weekend
and the first Catholic League team to play this weekend lost, so all of
a sudden we're like, well maybe a few of them will fall this week.
And then we got into Saturday and every single one of them won their
games. So you know, they are at the collective there. They've been
battle tested through their regular season. It's gonna take a very clean and uh,
you know, let's be honest, really really strong effort to get these
teams out of this playoff field, even at this level. When we get
to the quarterfinals. We're starting to see them pair off against one another.
So obviously there's gonna be less of them in the field next week. But
this week, I mean a lot of those teams took their shots. Not
a lot of them were actually in those games. So like weather mentions,
you know, if you're going to you're gonna take a shot at a team
like Saint Lawrence. In this situation, you've got to catch those opportunities in
when you have them. You maybe you don't have to play perfect football.
I mean they're not. You know, it's not like we're going against you
know, an NFL team going against a high school team here, but it's
but you do have to execute the opportunities that you're given and uh and not
capitalizing on three opportunities inside the twenty yard line are gonna get you against almost
any team, and especially the good Catholic League teams that are still remaining in
the field. I see W flag twenty sixteen in here with a question Jim
Sowers in here with the question Jesse, we need to cook with a comment
as well. Before we get to those. We're gonna go ahead because I
think those are usually are those are about the middle classes here, we're gonna
go ahead and dive in started with one A kind of work away up.
I'm gonna throw the result screen here, sues, and I go back up
here to one A. We'll quickly kind of work our way through each of
these classes here. We're trying to keep this to about forty minutes today,
guys, so about halfway through, you know, working our starting in one
A suit. What stood out to you in this bracket? You know,
this was a fairly I guess, consistent class at this point in time.
I felt like the teams that I expected were to win these games did win
them. And there were a lot of matchups here. I was looking at
the Hope Academy or a Christian game. I'm not stunned that that game flipped
for its regular season results, but that was the game that was most interested
to see the outcome, and as I kind of expected, it turned out
to be one of the closest games in the class, because obviously that Greenfield
Casey Westfield game came right down to final seconds, but a highly competitive game
between those two, and like I mentioned before, Hope Academy into the quarters
for the first time in school history. Did you did you pick Rovo to
be County. I did not. That was I guess that would be the
classified as the one game where the result was different than I thought. Stark
County beat them in the regular season when they played, but Stark County was
also kind of walking a tight wire during the regular season. They finished undefeated,
but they had a lot of close calls. I was a little surprised
by the margin, but not necessarily stunned that Rova won the game. Jesse
says Jesse. We need to cook, says one A and for a state
finals seemed like a lock already. Let's just hit on one A there quickly.
You know, I think going in this before the postseason, you and
I both felt we were looking at Alena Winslow Bellville All Top championship matchup as
the most likely scenario in one A, Has anything happened through the first two
rounds that has dissuaded you from from that feeling. Not really. If I
had to pick it, that would be the same way that I would pick
it today. I think. I think I'm very very intrigued. However,
with the quarterfinal game between cant Point Central and over All Top this week,
both of those teams are extremely fast and athletic for one A level programs,
I think you're going to be if you watch that game or go to that
game, I think you'll see a lot of blurs that will pass for football
players because team speed is what both of those organizations bank their bank, their
philosophies on. So really quick an athletic game there. So, but no,
those are the two teams that I think, yeah, and I completely
I completely agree with you looking at where we're at. If there's going to
be something that upsets the apple cart before we get to the Bloomington Normal to
State Championship, that I think it's gonna be Campoint Central being able to take
down Belleville all tough. But we'll see how that game plays out this week.
And let's go to Class two A, sous. You know, first
thing that stood out to me with my guys down there in the South bracket
Nashville taking down Quincy Notre Dame twenty seven to eighteen. You can't stop the
hornet. You don't. You can't even try to stop the hornet. This
is just what they do, sus Well, I mean they controlled this game.
I mean it was a relatively low scoring game, but right from the
get go they took the lead and just kind of kept Quincino Dam at arm's
length, you know, doing what they do in the playoffs. I was
looking at this the other day, and I guess this escaped me last year.
But they lost in the first round of the playoffs, which snapped the
string of two consecutive runs to the two A state championship game. So I
don't know what happened last year. They must have lost their mojo for a
little bit, but appeears like it's their playoff hats are back on again.
I'm not surprised to see Seneca a win over rock Ridge. I was a
bit surprised to see the margins forty seven to fourteen. There Seneca and Wilmington
bolth rolling to set up a rematch of those two teams that played back in
Week one. You think this game plays out in a similar fashion. How
many how how much of these teams learned about themselves and evolved from that first
matchup way back in late all Yes, well you know it went. The
first game was the battle of you know, exactly what you would expect it
to be. Hard running football teams on both sides, trying to keep the
ball in their possession if they can, you know, and looking to their
defense to kind of set the tone, and went back and forth, back
and forth, and then Seneca put together one of those monster drives that I
tend to associate with Wilmington, a fifteen play, seventy two yard drive I
think it was that chewed up like six or seven minutes of game clock and
provided a decisive touchdown in that game. So I would be surprised at either
one of them deviate at all from what they do in order to try to,
I guess, surprise the other one. And I will say this usually
when I'm going through, you know, the results on a Saturday night or
Sunday morning, after things are all over, I kind of sketch the picks
that I think for that I think are going to happen, and then next
round, just kind of a snap judgment type of thing. There were two
games out of the thirty two games that are left on the calendar for next
week where I did not fild in a pick because I cannot make up my
mind even in a snap judgment type of situation. That's one of the two
games I don't want you to tell me what the other game is yet,
I want to see if I can figure it out by the end of this
podcast, I'll ask, yeah, yeah, Okay, all right, 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. All right, let's move on to Class three A.
Here, sus, what's it out for you in this class? You
know three A? This this bracket was largely, I mean kind of went
exactly the way that I thought it would, you know, I picks.
I missed two games, but they were the two games that I was most
consternated about when making the picks. They were down in the South bracket with
Olympia's win and Roxanna's win. I got tripped up a little bit on something
in Olympia's track record there, which which is why I didn't see that game
coming. And Roxanna Saint Joe Agen I thought was a straight up point flip.
I don't really think I can take too much ribbing for losing that game,
considering the way that it finished. You know, it came down to
the two point conversion at the end of the game, so you know Roxanna
moving on. I wasn't totally convinced that Roxanna had played quality enough opponent to
kind of pencil them into the quarterfinals. This kind of convinced me now,
and it's very interesting moving on with them to see how long they can keep
this ride going on that top half of the bracket. Jesse says, I
think Princeton has a good chance at winning. Talking about a quarterfinal match up
against Montini, Montini pulled away, but didn't impress me against Prairie Central.
What do you think you they did that? Martini's right, Montini did have
a little bit of trouble against Prairie Central. Manti has been doing this a
lot this year. They've had a lot of closer games than you might expect,
but there has to be set said something for their ability to win close
games, especially against some of the opponents that they've played this season. I
think Princeton has a chance of winning this football game. I still lean towards
Mantini. I really like what Princeton does defensively, and I don't think Montini's
gonna be able to score a bunch of points against them, But I also
don't I'm not sure Princeton is gonna be able to score a bunch of points
against Martini either. So it's a very close game on paper. But I
see your I see the point that you're trying to make here. There's definitely
there's there's definitely a situation where I can see Princeton winning this game. I
think it's gonna be a low scoring game. So yeah, another game that
I think could end up being low scoring. I'm gonna move over for Here
is Sandwich against Weedon Academy coming into the class for a quarterfinals. Here wed
An Academy with a twelve three win, using its defense to shut down Saint
Fighter Sandwich. We've talked about it a lot, right, the team that
didn't even play varsity football last year now find itself in a state quarter final
against weeding Academy. Suits. Yeah, it's a game that if you would
have told me before the season started this will be a quarterfinal game in four
A, I would have laughed at you. I mean for various reasons,
because I mean, obviously what you said about Sandwich. We Academy had to
replace a lot of really key players in their program, most notably a quarterback
that started for four seasons, you know, and heading into the year,
coach Jim Johannick actually, you know, kind of admitted to me in a
preseason email, we're not sure what we're gonna do then, like and this
this was in the middle of the summer. They were still trying to sort
through several candidates because, I mean, it had been such a stable position
for them, So I would have thought that Wheaton Academy would have had to
work through some things early in the year, but they they gained momentum early,
only lost one regular season game, and now find themselves in the quarterfinals
for the first time in school history, which is a scenario that, like
I said, I would not have mapped out for this team. Got a
lot of respect for what these guys do and have done, but definitely definitely
a really, really nice job of putting the pieces together in that program this
year. Yeah, w Flag twenty sixteen asks any thoughts on Weedon Academy's path
in for a I'll start it off here at Susan give my thoughts. I
think Weedon Academy. Listen, I don't want to underestimate Sandwich. They I've
done that all season long and they continue to be very effective. But I
take weedon Academy as a favorite to win this game. After that, though,
I see Catholic remains, in my book, a pretty substantial favorite to
become out of the North bracket. Seis Yeah, I'm inclined to agree with
that analysis. It's I think the Icy Catholic Saint Lawrence game this week will
be interesting. I do favor Icy Catholic in that scenario. I also favorite
week in Academy on the top. I think that's probably what we're going to
get in the semifinal matchup. But in that scenario, I think Icy Catholic's
got too many horses in that. The bottom half of the bracket went kind
of what I expected. Sus Can you tell me a little bit about Harrisburg
though? As an eleven seed taking down pr and Notre Dame, this is
a team that I'll be honest, I don't know anything about Harrisburg. You
know, they're fast, they're athletic, They're capable of breaking a few big
plays. I never did see quite a breakdown on that game, but from
what I was told about them early in the year. They're the kind of
team that you feel like you have rained in and then all of a sudden
they've busted off of sixty five seven yard touchdown, run on you or passing
play. They can score quickly, have some some top match athletes at the
skill positions, but their their gameplay could sometimes be a rat. They could
look like a really really good team one moment and then how do they get
here the next? So inconsistency has kind of marked their season so far this
year. We are handing out the final Friday Night Drive Team of the Week
m VP belt this week and I'm seeing Steve Mallar. We're trying to behind
the scenes here, our staff is trying to track down We set out the
belt around our region to try and make sure we get them to the right
place at the right time. A little inside Baseball looks like that belt according
to our vote total, will probably go into the dully up market here.
So do you have any belt club? I don't. I personally haven't haven't
had a belt this year. I don't know where the last one is.
I have not possessed one. So in the years past I was driving around
and with one in the back of my car for several months, but I
do not currently have one, so I don't know where the I don't know
where the phantom belt is. To be honest, I have one, as
maybe you guys can see behind me here from our very first season of handing
out these belts. This was a promotional belt that we had that I put
in the background here. I'm gonna have to track that town this afternoon.
But let's go ahead, sus and get to five A here where we have
Let's see there are several interesting games here. I'll start with the top side
of the bracket. Morgan Park Sycamore. This was a game another game that
came down to the closing second. Sycamore looked like Eddie Crippio out there covering
that game for us on Saturday. Sycamore was about to go into the end
zone, fumbled at the goal line, and Morgan Park recovered that to end
up winning this game twenty seven to twenty one. Sus, Any thoughts on
that one? You know, a lot of the I guess the criticism of
a lot of Chicago Public League teams, especially in the playoffs when they get
years. They might be you know, very town talented, but they tend
to come apart when adversity hits. I do not think that that's a component
of this particular Morgan Park team, because it felt like Sycamore kind of had
control of this game all the way along, and then all of a sudden,
morgan Park kind of jumped back into the game in the second half,
took the lead, and then we're able to make a play when you know,
it looked like things were going south for them. So obviously a huge
win for Morgon Park, getting them into the next round once again, the
only Chicago Public League team remaining in the field, and beating a Sycamore team
that has shown time and time again that they know how to get it done
at this time of year. This is a very good win for Morgan Park.
Sets up a matchup against Saint Francis. We have a question in here
from Jim who says, who do you like as your final four? In
five A will of course be breaking down the quarterfinal match up player in the
week, but let's go ahead, sus Let's let's go into this five A
right now. You know, I think we already we talked about Jolia Catholic
Morris. We're looking at Providence Highland. On the bottom side. There you
got Naz, Carmel, and Saint Francis Morgan Park. You know, right
off hand, I'm gonna throw my four teams out there and sus I'll let
you tell me if you agree or disagree. I'm gonna go Saint Francis over
Morgan Park. I'm gonna take Naz over Carmel. I don't feel good about
that one off hand, I'm gonna do it, though. I'll take Morris
over at Joliat Catholic, and I'm going to take Providence over Highland. Any
of those you disagree with, I disagree with two of them, and I'm
gonna start by saying that my caveat here is that this is Monday, Yeah,
and that does my answer may change on specifically one of these differences.
Uh as the weak develops and I get more information. I agree with the
week in Saint Francis, and my gut is telling me to take Carnival right
now. That is, but that, like you, I don't feel comfortable
with that pick, even though I'm going the opposite way that you are.
I really feel like that that's no, it is not Actually I didn't pick
Carmel Lass when I went through it. And then on the bottom side,
I'm taking Joliet Catholic. And my reason for taking Jolie at Catholic is in
the Morris Sacred Heart Griffin game, two of the three components that I love
in the Morris offense sustained what I believe to be pretty serious injuries and I
don't know. I don't know their status right now, So if that changes
and those guys are both available and with a clean bill of health, or
at least a fairly clean bill of health, I might change my mind down
then, Like I said, that's a Monday pick for me. Right now,
I'm taking Joli Catholic on the information that I have, and that,
by the way, is the other game where I have not officially made a
pick. So and then I'm going to go Providence on the bottom they are
an inconsistent and inconsistent as inconsistent can be, but man, they seem to
know how to get it done to the playoffs. Yeah, they absolutely do.
All right, make sure you tune back in on Thursday, GYMC if
we can give you some different answers there. I completely you're right, sus
I should have thought about that before opening my mouth about the Morris injuries.
Definitely something to keep in mind this week as it develops. Let's go on
to Class six A though. Let's see there was a question about six at
w FLIGHT twenty sixteen. I'll use this kind of frame where we're at here,
he says, or w F twenty sixteen says Kerry Grove. East Saint
Louis State title game again in six A. Sus you see anything through the
second round that would dissuade you of that feeling. I don't know if dissuade
me. Obviously, I think East Saint Louis is more likely to be the
entrance of the two there. Yeah, I think Geneva presents an interesting obstacle
this week for carry Grow, not that I would. I still favor carry
Grow, and I still think Lake Zerich's gonna be hard to knock out of
this bracket. So you know, East Saint Louis is doing East Saint Louis
things. I had learned the other day that they were up fifty four to
nothing. Uh in a blink of an eye, Yeah, no, in
a blink of an eye, and took a knee on the one yard line,
just before halftime, so they could have they could have gone in,
but they didn't just because then just because they they they they kneedled it out
to end the first half and then played then played freshman and sophomores for the
entire second half. Man. So that's tough for normal Left. And it's
not exactly like Normal West is a bad football team, like that's the thing.
It's like they're they're pretty solid and and they and and East Louis just
took them apart. So yeah, that's and also nother thing about that South
bracket while we're here, I was really surprised with the difficulties that game he
had winning that game, Yeah, really surprised. Yeah, they they the
case pulled away there in the second half, but they were really struggling in
that matchup. And so W flag twenty sixteen. I you know, I
agree with Sue's I think it would be very surprising if it wasn't East Saint
Louis on the top side of that bracket there. You know, I still
lean Kerry Grove, but as Sue said, like I think nothing could felled
to there North, but I think it would either be Geneva or Lake zerf
that would have the best chance to knock off carry Grow from that bracket.
But I'll be honest with I'm hoping for Kerry Grove East Saint Louis State title
game partially just because I want to see what Kerry Grove tries to cook up
again. Obviously, Kerry Grove surprise THEE Saint Louis in that state title game.
One of the best high school football games I think any of us has
ever witnessed a couple of years ago. It would be a tall task to
do it again, but I didn't think they could do it a couple of
years ago, and Brad Sieberg and that staff figured it out. So that's
the matchup I'm looking forward to. I don't think it's thefore gone conclusion though.
All right, sus let's move on to seven A. I'll let you
lead us off here. What stood out to you in seven A? You
know, the one thing that really jumped off the page to me. And
we got word of this while we were doing Friday Night Drive Live on location
Downers Groves North to win over Hersey, especially considering how the game started,
where Herssey felt like they kind of had it in control. They had a
fourteen to three lead at halftime, unable to finish that off in downers Grove
North advancing on. I haven't seen downers Grove North live and I've been trying
to figure out a way to get that done. I'm hoping to get that
done this week because I'm very intrigued by this team now that they've got Noah
battle back from injury. They seem to me firing on all cylinders. They're
a very interesting team from that perspective. But you know, on the bottom
half of this bracket, like I really love the way Batavia is playing right
now, and obviously Mount Carnal is doing Mount Carnal things. The one outcome
that kind of surprised me down there, even though they were the higher seed
and still haven't lost on the year, Quincy's ability to just kind of pull
away from Wheaton North. They were losing that game early, down fourteen twelve
at halftime and kind of took it over in the second half. So a
really nice win for Quincy in this I thought it was I thought it was
a mistake when I read it because I saw that fourteen twelve score at halftime
and then I was like, wait, we didn't North still had fourteen points.
What happened? Yeah, So yeah, a nice win for them.
So this is an intriguing bracket because obviously you've got the behemoths with Mount Carmel
and Batavia on the top on the bottom there, but you've got a whole
bunch of teams that someone's gonna come out of that North bracket and be in
a state final in seven A. That to my knowledge, and I couldn't
be corrected on this, When Lincoln my West made a final, it was
it was in five A when we were in six classes. But I don't
know if any of them have ever been in a final before. So someone's
gonna make it from that group. So I mean that we're gonna have a
new finalist out of the top half of that bracket, and that makes for
very an interesting situation for me. I can say, at least, you
know, I've been doing this for a little more than a decade now I
can think back. I've never seen any of those teams in the state title
game. So I love seeing new programs with the champ to win state championship.
So looking forward to see how it's seven eight top half of that bracket
pays out plays out all right, aight, a sous, let's wrap it
up here. You know, you had New York with a close win over
Lions. The first thing that jumps out to me though, is Edwardsville forty
eight to fourteen over Glenbard West. This was a Glenbard West team that struggled
early in the season, seemed to be put in together later in the year.
Edwardsville first round. They ended up pulling away, but it took a
little bit. So I thought maybe Glenbard West would go down there and give
edwards Hill a game. Not the case, and Tiger really ran away with
this one too. You know. I'd like to say that I saw this
coming, but I didn't. I really kind of thought that Glenbard West was
playing good enough defense where they were going to make this a better game.
Then it turned out to be Edwardsville. Just I mean, I was kind
of following that on Twitter, and it felt like Edwardsville was scoring every thirty
seconds. I mean, it was they put together a really nice situation.
It should have set off alarm bells with me. With Edwardsville, I mean,
they only have one loss in the season. It came to East Saint
Louis. They somehow held Ea Saint Louis twenty seven points in that game,
and that probably should have set up the flag that hey, these guys are
legitimate, because very few teams if any can do that, I can keep
East St. Louis in check and make it a competitive game. I know
Mount carn will beat them early in the year, but I mean Edwardsville was
hanging around in that game. I mean it was they were very competitive in
that game. Then they went over to Saint Louis and beat Desmett, who
is one of the best teams in Missouri. It's a really good football team.
And I'll be perfectly honest, I underestimated. Yeah, they're playing really
good football right now. Now. We were over and we were talking at
Barrington on Saturday night for a live with Friday Night Drive on location Naperville Central
took a fourteen oer lead in that game, and there was a lot of
playoff football on Saturday. You and I were on the sidelines and I actually
said, all right, I'm taking off like I you know, I wanted
to get back. We had a lot of content coming on to Friday Night
Drive. I'll be completely honest with you with the way that game started.
I didn't think Barrington had much of a chance to come back in that game.
I thought Naperville Central looked like they came ready to play with moving the
ball effectively. I should have stuck around. Apparently, sus Well, I
stayed a little bit longer than you did. And Jake Bartleson and I were
hanging around for a little while, and I looked at Jake and and I
want to see if Barrington has a response here after they dropped down they fell
behind twenty one to seven, and they did. They came back in the
game and and I was like, okay, and then I'm like I was,
I'm like, I too was a little wiped out from the day and
was like and I had a pretty lengthy drive to get back home. So
I was like, I'm not gonna stay through halftime, but I have a
feeling that I'm gonna regret that decision. And I was actually considering turning around
shortly thereafter when I found out that it was it was once again at nip
and tuck Battle, but carried on to home. But Neighboryville Central came out
and did a lot of nice things. But Barrington, you know, to
their credit maintained contact when everything was going right for Nahberville Central, and that's
I think that was ultimately what the difference in the game was, because even
though it felt like Naberville Central might be on the verge of running away with
the game, Barrington didn't panic. They put together an impressive drive shortly after
they fell behind, you know, got into a good situation for themselves.
And that's kind of the hallmark of this team. I'm fascinated to see what
happens in this in the quarterfinals, in their next round. I felt like
this game several times this year I had to correct myself and go, those
guys played each other during the regular season, didn't they And then I'd be
like, no, they didn't. I don't thinking that. I just felt
like this game was inevitable. So I mean, I'm not really I can't
really explain why I had that little nugget in my brain that led me to
believe that they had played. They hadn't. They'd got several common opponents,
but they have not played. Yeah. I had that same thing too.
I don't know who was Main South and Palatine. Did they play? Yes,
they did? Maybe that's maybe that's why I'm thinking of it that way,
but yeah, I want to give a shout out or a name to
watch here. Devin van Ness Barrington defensive end was all over the field once
again. Last name I sound familiar to you. That's Lucas van Ness's younger
brother. Lucas van Ness with a standout at Barrington went on to Iowa and
which is taken in the first round in the NFL Draft by the Green Bay
Packers this past spring. You were a fool of me watching Devin play out
there. I thought it was Lucas citizens well, you know, when I
saw them earlier in the year. It I intentionally sometimes try to not look
when I'm just kind of watching a game. I try not to find out
what the key players are. I try to let my eyes find them.
It took no time at all for me to find him in the previous matchup
of when that I went to see Barrington. I mean I discovered him within
a minute of watching the defense play. I'm like, oh, yeah,
that's what it is, like it I mean, and then I checked my
program for verification, and you know, yeah, that's who it is.
So that's a fun little game that I like to play when I go to
games that I have not seen the team before, but truly a capable player
and a guy to watch as we head into the next round. He is
Steve Seussie. You can find him on Twitter at the sus. You can
find myself on Twitter at Kyle Naber. You can find Friday Night Drive on
Twitter at app and Drive and on Facebook. Instagram is TikTok as well.
We'll have full coverage of these state quarterfinals coming up Laura at Friday Night Drive
dot com throughout the week. Sus and I will be back later in the
week to preview that quarterfinal round suit, but before we sign off, give
us some final thoughts on this round. Well, the interesting thing that I
look at as we've moved past this round is there were so many games that
had like intriguing finishes and just kind of broke down that way, and it
was what I expected from this round. But now my head is kind of
spinning because interestingly enough, I haven't figured out where I'm going this week and
I can't make a decision. I mean, that's that's what it really comes
down to. And I kind of stopped off scheduled, you know, what
we needed to do, and then I looked and I was like, wait
a minute, I haven't given myself a game to go to yet. And
I tried to pick and I couldn't. So that's I still haven't decided,
and I'm going to give myself another day or two before I decide. I
might try something crazy like trying to go to multiple games. Something crazy.
Yeah, try to find that little area where I can, you know,
navigate the traffic to to see multiple games over the course of the afternoon.
So it's going to be fascinating either way. Because we still through two rounds,
in my opinion, we have not had what I would classify big upsets,
not a few what I would classify as minor upsets, but we have
not had so that what that means is we're heading on a collision course to
really really good football teams meeting each other all over the brackets and all of
the classifications. I think that starts us feet. Yeah, it's gonna be
a fun weekend of quarterfinal football. Come back with us on Thursday. We'll
find out where Sus and I are heading this week, and we'll preview all
those quarterfinal matchups and one more time, stick to Friday night Drive Dot com
for all of our coverage throughout the week. Thank you everyone who joined us
live for Steve Susie. I am Kyle Nabers. We'll talk to you guys
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