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Speaker 2: This is State Representative Steve Reich. Since twenty sixteen. It's
Speaker 2: been my privilege to represent the sixty third district in
Speaker 2: the Illinois House. I'd like to continue representing you, and
Speaker 2: I'm asking for your vote on November fifth. Thank you
Speaker 2: pay for by citizens to elect Stephen Reich.
Speaker 3: All right, welcome in to Friday Night Drive. The local recap,
Speaker 3: of course of our semi finals and what a semi
Speaker 3: final round it was. We got a lot to talk
Speaker 3: about and plenty to dive into. So we're glad you're
Speaker 3: with us here as we get ready for the final
Speaker 3: week of the football season here in the state of Illinois.
Speaker 3: My name is Matt Rudelock. Glad you're with us this
Speaker 3: evening as we're taping this on Monday night. Steve Usci's here, boy,
Speaker 3: how is your weekend? Young man?
Speaker 4: A little adventurous, a little bit more so than I
Speaker 4: kind of expected that it would be. So, uh, definitely, uh,
Speaker 4: kind of like you said, kind of a crazy weekend.
Speaker 4: When I looked back at it after it was all
Speaker 4: said and done, you know, when you've got almost half
Speaker 4: of your semi final games decided by a touchdown or less,
Speaker 4: you've had a pretty interesting weekend.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I would say that, you know, for all
Speaker 3: those that that look at the brackets and they say, well,
Speaker 3: why are they one seed with you know, with not
Speaker 3: as much depth that say you and I have throughout
Speaker 3: the course of the year, I would say that the
Speaker 3: teams that were supposed to be there probably what were
Speaker 3: there in the first place, And that showed you with
Speaker 3: the competitive games we saw everywhere that these are some
Speaker 3: great matchups and we got some great brackets out of this.
Speaker 3: This looked This's turned out great this year.
Speaker 4: Yeah, there were a lot of teams that you know,
Speaker 4: came out a different seed positions than maybe you were expecting.
Speaker 4: But you know, ultimately, when you kind of looked at
Speaker 4: it and you looked and headed into this weekend, I
Speaker 4: felt like there was the potential for a whole bunch
Speaker 4: of close games and a lot a lot of them
Speaker 4: came to fruition, some of them did not, and then
Speaker 4: there were a few others that I did not think
Speaker 4: were going to be close games that turned into very
Speaker 4: much the case. So you know, it was just kind
Speaker 4: of a hodgepodge of things that ended up going on,
Speaker 4: and just as I expected, all of the sources weren't
Speaker 4: what I expected. There's a lot of crazy stuff going on.
Speaker 4: Around three thirty four o'clock when some of those games
Speaker 4: were wrapping up, the two o'clock games were starting to
Speaker 4: show their shape. I mean, it was, it was very
Speaker 4: very interesting. I actually was so interesting what was going on.
Speaker 4: My game that I chose at one o'clock kind of
Speaker 4: got away from things, so I left a little bit
Speaker 4: early to get to my next game. I actually ended
Speaker 4: up pulling off the road so I could follow along
Speaker 4: with some of the games that were playing that were
Speaker 4: closing up, because I didn't obviously didn't want to take
Speaker 4: some reckless driving situation to find out what the score
Speaker 4: was in the semi final game. So I pulled off,
Speaker 4: got some gas, and just sat there for about fifteen
Speaker 4: or twenty minutes watching various things wrap up. So yeah,
Speaker 4: that was basically that was basically my Saturday after late afternoon,
Speaker 4: so I.
Speaker 3: Had I got asked to do radio duty for De
Speaker 3: Paul Radio. At the last second, well, what time is
Speaker 3: that game? Four o'clock? That takes me out of all
Speaker 3: of this. And there was a you know, the game
Speaker 3: at Geneva course that I wanted to watch and go
Speaker 3: see in person. I didn't get a chance to do it,
Speaker 3: so I had on the radio on my way, and
Speaker 3: then when the radio signal died, I made sure to
Speaker 3: get NFHS on, but I wasn't watching, so I was
Speaker 3: just trying to listen and try and you know, carry on.
Speaker 3: And I thought the Cruise did a nice job with
Speaker 3: that that broadcast, but that was something I was paying
Speaker 3: attention to, but also kind of checking to see all
Speaker 3: the other games going on. Around one o'clock, I checked
Speaker 3: the I checked the East Saint Louis score and said,
Speaker 3: well that's decided. I mean, it took two seconds to
Speaker 3: kind of do that. But which one of the games
Speaker 3: that you were paying attention to that you thought was
Speaker 3: not going to be tight? Which one of you surprised?
Speaker 3: Which surprised you the most? That was like, oh, this
Speaker 3: is a good.
Speaker 4: One, you know, I think one of them that kind
Speaker 4: of surprised me a little bit. It was one that
Speaker 4: you just mentioned there and it went in a different way.
Speaker 4: I was pretty confident that Kerry Grove was gonna win
Speaker 4: that football game against Geneva and the fact that it
Speaker 4: was right there and Geneva was leading, you know, a
Speaker 4: good portion of the way and just kind of trading
Speaker 4: it punch for punch and ended up winning that football game.
Speaker 4: That was the one that I was kind of monitoring,
Speaker 4: and it was giving me the reaction of, Oh, here
Speaker 4: we go. This is a little bit more interesting than
Speaker 4: I thought it was. I mean, And like I said,
Speaker 4: there were a lot of them that materialized pretty much
Speaker 4: exactly the way that I thought they would. One of
Speaker 4: them that was monitoring real close was the DePaul Prep
Speaker 4: Cole City game. That was I was very interested in,
Speaker 4: and that was a definitely a puncher's game. It went
Speaker 4: right down to the wire, you know. It never really
Speaker 4: seemed like either team had total control of that game.
Speaker 3: What's interesting about that game from where I was was
Speaker 3: being at DePaul, and there are some DePaul people who
Speaker 3: are very invested in what's going on with the Paul
Speaker 3: praffintex to Paul staffers, maybe the most important one in
Speaker 3: the athletic department as a kid on the team that's
Speaker 3: down into Paul Prepp had in his Central Michigan. So
Speaker 3: we were all watching that one on the stream when
Speaker 3: it got tight. So I watched the finish of that
Speaker 3: one down in Cole City. I gotta say, the folks
Speaker 3: in Cole City, that field is beautiful. Yeah, I will
Speaker 3: tell you that they good job, good job sports Boosters,
Speaker 3: good job school board. You got it right that and
Speaker 3: that that's a that's a building that deserves a good
Speaker 3: field like that. So that was cool to see. I
Speaker 3: had no idea they had a turf field down there
Speaker 3: all these years. Is it this year the first time? Yeah?
Speaker 4: They just they just got it this year. And they
Speaker 4: did a whole reconstruction of like the whole area over
Speaker 4: their baseball softball Field's got to redo everything. So and
Speaker 4: that's a that's a complex. It was pretty good to start.
Speaker 4: So when they when they beefed it up in the
Speaker 4: way that they did, it made for it made for
Speaker 4: a really nice setting. I haven't seen a game there
Speaker 4: live with it with turf, but I actually was driving
Speaker 4: by there one time because it's not too far from
Speaker 4: where I live. Yeah, and I just went over and
Speaker 4: took a look just because I was curious, and it's
Speaker 4: a it's a very nice facility.
Speaker 3: So kudos for De Paul going down there and winning,
Speaker 3: because that's not an easy place to play. But kudos
Speaker 3: to the Cole City folks because, you know what, you
Speaker 3: put on a good show for a lot of people
Speaker 3: that were tuning in to see what that looked like.
Speaker 3: And every seat in that building was taken and that
Speaker 3: was Cole City football. That was enjoyable to watch, and
Speaker 3: just a heck of a finish that was really a
Speaker 3: fun finish to Paul had a chance to put that
Speaker 3: thing away, didn't quite do it. Then they had to
Speaker 3: hold on for dear life in the last three.
Speaker 4: Minutes or so.
Speaker 3: An impressive finish to hold on and get that win.
Speaker 3: And you know who knew that the DePaul Pram, the
Speaker 3: DePaul prep Rams would be in a state championship game
Speaker 3: here Friday night. Now, that's that's just awesome. Something we
Speaker 3: wouldn't have been talking about August or September really when
Speaker 3: you got that found to it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, there was just a litany of games this year.
Speaker 4: It almost fit the script for De Paul where they
Speaker 4: just a very close game they played a lot of
Speaker 4: close football games this year, decided by a touchdown or
Speaker 4: last decided late in the game, win, lose, draw, whatever
Speaker 4: it was. They were in a lot of those close
Speaker 4: football games, and in a game like that one, maybe
Speaker 4: that benefited them, the fact that they had been in
Speaker 4: those situations before and knew not to tighten up and
Speaker 4: knew that they just had to play through it and
Speaker 4: do what they had to do. Because you know, as
Speaker 4: much as we talked about Cole City putting together a good,
Speaker 4: good situation, other than those two games that they lost,
Speaker 4: their other games were all runaways. They hadn't had a
Speaker 4: lot of games where every play, you know, could swing
Speaker 4: the outcome of the game one way or another. So
Speaker 4: for De Paul, they're used to that. They've had five
Speaker 4: or six of those games already. So for them, they
Speaker 4: were they were in a situation that they were comfortable
Speaker 4: with and had experienced before.
Speaker 3: Let me ask you the other way, obviously, the one
Speaker 3: that we you know, you talked about Geneva and character.
Speaker 3: I'm won't get in depth with all of these games.
Speaker 3: We kind of go down class by class, but just
Speaker 3: kind of get the overall feel of which one was
Speaker 3: a blawout that you didn't think was going to be
Speaker 3: a ballout.
Speaker 4: You know, I thought, just based on past history, and
Speaker 4: I'm learning more about them as I go week to
Speaker 4: week to week here, you know, I thought Camp Point
Speaker 4: Central would give bell Ball all tof at least a
Speaker 4: little bit better of a game than they did. And
Speaker 4: I guess I'm I'm wildly underestimating the power that is
Speaker 4: dear Hill Junior because Mike, I mean, he put together
Speaker 4: a massive game. I was looking at this state stats
Speaker 4: earlier today. That young man's averaging eighteen yards of carry.
Speaker 4: That's ridiculous. I mean that, I mean that carry. Yeah,
Speaker 4: and it's not they are one A team, but they
Speaker 4: did not play a one A schedule. That's I mean,
Speaker 4: until the playoffs got here, they had not played a
Speaker 4: single one A team. Every other team on their schedule
Speaker 4: two A, three A six A seven A beat.
Speaker 3: A six A playoff team in week nine.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean it's just I mean, yeah, that's I mean,
Speaker 4: they beat a seven A playoff team earlier in the year.
Speaker 4: I mean, so it's like they're they are. They are
Speaker 4: everything that I think everyone is trying to tell you
Speaker 4: that they are. They are very, very impressive and that
Speaker 4: the fact that they just they kind of they were
Speaker 4: scoring seemingly every couple of minutes in that game, and
Speaker 4: Campoint Central threw a couple of early punches and tried
Speaker 4: to match them, but eventually they just they couldn't. I mean,
Speaker 4: I mean, Campoint Central very good football team, but it
Speaker 4: looks like All Top's a different beast.
Speaker 3: We'll go through class by class here and then I
Speaker 3: want to come back to All Tough and the implications
Speaker 3: of winning and what that does from a basically a
Speaker 3: success factor and the multiplier, because you wrote some really
Speaker 3: good stuff today about that and I was looking at
Speaker 3: it going wow, Okay, so I want to hold that thought.
Speaker 3: But let's start with one a work our way back
Speaker 3: up as we kind of started already a little bit
Speaker 3: with that. And how about Lena Winslow. Lena Winslow is
Speaker 3: one of those teams. It's just still I think it's
Speaker 3: amazing how they've just flown under the radar this year.
Speaker 3: Now we're going to find out, you know, as they
Speaker 3: go in kind of I would say, as an underdog
Speaker 3: against the All Top Catholic here in the state championship.
Speaker 4: Game, Yeah, I think they are. And it's definitely kind
Speaker 4: of a weird position for Lena Winslow to be in
Speaker 4: that role. I mean, let's let's be honest, over the
Speaker 4: last six seven years, you were drawing them on that
Speaker 4: final line. If you you're doing your you know, pre
Speaker 4: playoff bracket predicting, it just you could you could start
Speaker 4: on that last line and build your way back. It
Speaker 4: was just as easy to do that. But uh, Lina's
Speaker 4: Lina's a really good football team, and you kind of
Speaker 4: maybe wondered exactly how good their team was when I
Speaker 4: don't want to say they struggled in the regular season,
Speaker 4: but they did it just knock people out like they
Speaker 4: they have in past years where they were just kind
Speaker 4: of steam rolling teams in the n U I C.
Speaker 4: But in the playoffs they've kind of gone back to that.
Speaker 4: They've gone gone back to the situation where they've just
Speaker 4: kind of just rolled over almost everybody in their path
Speaker 4: and and did a really they dominated Leroy, which was
Speaker 4: something that I really didn't see happening. I thought that
Speaker 4: that would probably be a Lina Winslow win, but I
Speaker 4: thought it would be a little bit more competitive than that.
Speaker 4: And once again, it looks like a lot of times
Speaker 4: in the bracket, you're not sure if you're going to
Speaker 4: get two teams to the final that I think we're
Speaker 4: the two best teams in one A. I think these
Speaker 4: two were the best two teams in Yeah. I think
Speaker 4: we've been looking at that all year.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think we've been looking at it all year
Speaker 3: as that that's the matchup you want to see in
Speaker 3: one A. Let's remember Lena Winslow. Since twenty seventeen, they've
Speaker 3: gone thirty one and two in the playoffs alone, thirty
Speaker 3: one and two. So it's a remarkable success here. And
Speaker 3: if they can get a win over a team like
Speaker 3: Altop Catholic, that certifies their legacy as one of the
Speaker 3: greatest programs in the state of Illinois, to be very
Speaker 3: very honest with you, if they can beat an all
Speaker 3: top team like this. So that's what it's at stake
Speaker 3: for Class one A. Let's go to Class two A
Speaker 3: because this was fun. Usually two A is kind of
Speaker 3: the forgotten class across the state here when you look
Speaker 3: it down to it. Not so much last year with Wilmington,
Speaker 3: but it was kind of like, oh, Athens this year,
Speaker 3: that's nice. This year is oh, who's that team Chicago
Speaker 3: Christian getting there. How about the Chicago Kurst and squad
Speaker 3: trying to find their way through and winning the biggest
Speaker 3: game in Farmington history. How about that?
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was definitely a situation. I was kind of
Speaker 4: monitoring that. And as as the weekend has gone by,
Speaker 4: I've learned a little bit more about the Chicago Christian
Speaker 4: football team, but I didn't kind of know before. This
Speaker 4: is about as close to iron Man football as you're
Speaker 4: gonna get, this Chicago Christian football team. They've got eight
Speaker 4: guys who are the listed starters on both sides of
Speaker 4: the football. They've got multiple guys who never leave the
Speaker 4: field's dream, you know. And it's one of those situations.
Speaker 4: Was listening to the coach the coach's conference calls today
Speaker 4: and and it's and and their coach was basically like,
Speaker 4: you know, sometimes I'd like to take them on the field,
Speaker 4: they won't. They take them off the field, they won't
Speaker 4: let me. I mean, that's that's basically what it comes
Speaker 4: down to is that this is a senior dominated football
Speaker 4: team that really really believes in itself right now. And
Speaker 4: you know, this is a program that I'll be honest
Speaker 4: with you, does not have that much much of a
Speaker 4: postseason pedigree they've won. They've now won four games in
Speaker 4: this in this postseason run. Prior to that, in the
Speaker 4: entire school's history, they had won six playoff games. So
Speaker 4: I mean, that's it, That's all it was. So this
Speaker 4: is this is a storybook season for Chicgo Christian. Obviously
Speaker 4: they'd love to finish it out with a championship, but
Speaker 4: it's not going to I personally don't think it's going
Speaker 4: to deflect anything away from how much they've accomplished the season.
Speaker 3: No, the deepest run they ever had was one time
Speaker 3: getting the quarterfinals and then Driscoll, the old Driscoll Catholic Highlanders,
Speaker 3: took him out and it wasn't close. But you know,
Speaker 3: this is the kind of thing their their performance in
Speaker 3: the postseason the last few years out and round one
Speaker 3: forty one, nothing out and round one forty one to seven,
Speaker 3: out in round one forty two to six, And so
Speaker 3: they get a rematch here coming in here with you know,
Speaker 3: a team in morele Force that they've seen before. They
Speaker 3: have a little tape on them, so it's a different team.
Speaker 3: And I'm not I would call Morella the favorite just
Speaker 3: because of their pedigree and just what they've done on
Speaker 3: the field this year, but I would say the margin
Speaker 3: of favoritism is a little closer than you would even
Speaker 3: say in the one A game.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think it's gonna be an interesting game. It's
Speaker 4: I think it's very important for Chicago Christian to kind
Speaker 4: of limit it possessions here because the one thing Moroa
Speaker 4: does like to do is play really fast on offense.
Speaker 4: They've got a lot of weapons and you know which
Speaker 4: Chicago Christian have, and so many guys going both ways.
Speaker 4: My concern would be if morea Forsyth is allowed to
Speaker 4: just run it at high octane, Kyle Christian might run
Speaker 4: out of gas. So I think it's one of those
Speaker 4: things where you know, how the tempo of this game
Speaker 4: is going to be very important to how it plays out.
Speaker 3: They've put points on the board all season long, and
Speaker 3: you know, when you have a team like Maria Forsyth three,
Speaker 3: you know it was good. But they got that big
Speaker 3: upset over Quincy Notre Dame. There's a little tick of
Speaker 3: motivation to say, hey, we got to finish the job here,
Speaker 3: and I know those kids are thinking about that that
Speaker 3: Quincy Notre Dame game has long gone in their memory
Speaker 3: at the moment, but it just shows you that Josh
Speaker 3: Jose continues to put together a year and in year
Speaker 3: out really good football teams. The youth program is humming
Speaker 3: down there. Everything in Morolla, everything in Forsyth, everything is
Speaker 3: going their way. And you know, getting a win over
Speaker 3: our buddies down at Johnston City, you know, they hung
Speaker 3: tough with him. They had to go in there and
Speaker 3: do it. I'm curious to see what that environment was like.
Speaker 3: I didn't get a chance to check in on that game,
Speaker 3: but you know, kudos to Johnson City for hanging in
Speaker 3: there and having great, great postseason run.
Speaker 4: You know, for Moroa, I think a lot of it is,
Speaker 4: you know, finally getting past that semi final hurdle. It
Speaker 4: seems kind of ridiculous to say that this is gonna
Speaker 4: be the I believe, the ninth appearance of a morele
Speaker 4: Forsyth coach Josh Justa's coach team in a final. But
Speaker 4: for the last four out of the last five seasons,
Speaker 4: Mereale Forsyites gotten beat in the semifinals. So for them,
Speaker 4: you know, finally getting past that semi final role and
Speaker 4: getting back to the title game probably takes a little
Speaker 4: bit of a weight off of particularly the coaching staff
Speaker 4: finally saying yes, we can get back. So for them,
Speaker 4: you know, I'm sure that they're they're rolling in with
Speaker 4: a lot of positive momentum and and feel like they
Speaker 4: can finish the job this time.
Speaker 3: It's amazing that he've been doing it since and two
Speaker 3: thousand and five in terms of the way the program
Speaker 3: has really turned out almost two hundred and fifty wins. Now,
Speaker 3: it's awesome what they're seeing down there in marele FORESSI
Speaker 3: up to three A. Now Wilmington Montini. What happened to
Speaker 3: the Wildcats?
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was one of those things where I felt like,
Speaker 4: you know, they were gonna have some issues with whether
Speaker 4: or not, you know, some one of their defenses was
Speaker 4: probably gonna crack in this game, and it seemed likely
Speaker 4: that it might be Wilmington's. And that's what happened because
Speaker 4: early in the Montini scored very quickly the game and
Speaker 4: kind of put Wilmington back on their heels. And it
Speaker 4: just felt like what Wilmington does usually they get a
Speaker 4: bunch of stops and then they're able to put together
Speaker 4: long drives that kind of take away, you know, the
Speaker 4: other team's momentum ability to you know, ability to kind
Speaker 4: of take control of the game. Well, both of those
Speaker 4: components kind of deserted them in the Mantini game. They
Speaker 4: gave up the early score, which is something I probably
Speaker 4: don't think that they've done in years, to be completely
Speaker 4: honest with you. So they were always the whole you know,
Speaker 4: already had to start playing from behind right out of
Speaker 4: the box, were unable to get their running game going
Speaker 4: kind of until later in the game. They ended up
Speaker 4: putting up decent rushing stats in the game, but that
Speaker 4: was well after the outcome was kind of in hand.
Speaker 4: So Mantini, I think, just kind of physically bullied Wilmington
Speaker 4: around a little bit, which is also something that they're
Speaker 4: not really accustomed to having happened to them. So just
Speaker 4: you know, unable to kind of use the components of
Speaker 4: what they were able to do. Mantine he did a
Speaker 4: really good job of taking it away. And they've been
Speaker 4: doing that to teams all year long, and when they
Speaker 4: do it and their schedule, that's really saying something about
Speaker 4: the quality of their defense. That is a top shelf
Speaker 4: defense that has been performing against quality six A, seven A,
Speaker 4: eight A programs in their regular season. I mean only
Speaker 4: one team has scored more than three touchdowns on them
Speaker 4: all year, so that speaks to the quality of that defense.
Speaker 4: It's an experienced team, tons of senior leadership on that group.
Speaker 4: I feel like, you know, this march that they've put
Speaker 4: together was kind of expected from this group. So for
Speaker 4: them to complete it by getting to the state championship
Speaker 4: game isn't really all that big of a surprise to him.
Speaker 3: Maris scored twenty one points on them in Week three.
Speaker 3: That's the most they've given up at all this season,
Speaker 3: so in any game and everything else was tight Fenwick
Speaker 3: if you remember the Fenwick game is fourteen to ten.
Speaker 3: That was nip and tuck the whole way too. But
Speaker 3: I want to ask you, because you've been around, You've
Speaker 3: been around these parts a long time with Montini. When
Speaker 3: Chris and Erano left for a while, some of the
Speaker 3: air of the program went with them. And so now
Speaker 3: we're in year eight of Mike Bukofski, who I've always liked.
Speaker 3: I've always thought he ran a great program. He is
Speaker 3: a great coach. There were a lot of coach holdovers
Speaker 3: that stayed from that staff. They finally got over the
Speaker 3: hump to get to the state championship game. They were
Speaker 3: twelve and one in twenty eighteen, but then they went
Speaker 3: backwards three and six two times, and you're like, I
Speaker 3: don't know if this is this is the you know,
Speaker 3: the way they're going to do with this, and even
Speaker 3: slipping back in class because of enrollment, you weren't sure.
Speaker 3: But now you start to see that kind of building
Speaker 3: a little bit, and it just feels like Montini's starting
Speaker 3: to work their way back a little bit.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the biggest obstacle for them and kind of sustaining
Speaker 4: was the difficulty of their schedule, Like I mean it,
Speaker 4: it became a situation where you felt like, especially when
Speaker 4: they dropped back and like classification wise, the biggest challenge
Speaker 4: was going to be whether or not they'd actually get
Speaker 4: into the playoffs just get there. Yeah, if they got
Speaker 4: into the playoffs, they would be dangerous. But the problem
Speaker 4: was they were having trouble getting into the field. So
Speaker 4: once we saw like like last year for example, they
Speaker 4: got back in and they got beat by byron a
Speaker 4: superpower everyone else did super superpower that scored more points
Speaker 4: than anyone had in state history. So and they almost
Speaker 4: won that game. But and now this time they're following
Speaker 4: through here. Now that success is going to get them
Speaker 4: bumped back up into classification. We'll talk about that later,
Speaker 4: but it's it's a situation where you look at it
Speaker 4: and said, you know, the stars have not been aligned
Speaker 4: for the program in a while, and there are various
Speaker 4: circumstances to why it slipped in the way that it did.
Speaker 4: It's nice to see them back in this situation that
Speaker 4: they're in, but they've certainly earned this spot in the
Speaker 4: championship game. This schedule was a gauntlet, no question about it.
Speaker 4: And then for them to do what they've done, especially
Speaker 4: defensively inside of that really impressive.
Speaker 3: And folks downstate are going to sit there and say, well,
Speaker 3: this is Chicago, go bias, you know when it comes
Speaker 3: to talking about Monticello. But I will tell you this,
Speaker 3: that was one of the best finishes that we've ever
Speaker 3: seen in the semi finals. Just how dramatic it was
Speaker 3: with Monticelo getting a win over Unity, another team that
Speaker 3: all toof was able to squeak past at some point
Speaker 3: dround the season. So you know, when you look at
Speaker 3: what Monicello can do, I'll ask you this way, what
Speaker 3: is what does what does Colton Colin Welter have to
Speaker 3: do to stay with Mantini because they can put some
Speaker 3: points in the world, but they're so good defensively too.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's it's really kind of an interesting dilemma for
Speaker 4: Monticello and how they approach this game. If you look
Speaker 4: at their statistics, they're off the charts. I mean, you know,
Speaker 4: they have all kinds of components. They can run the football,
Speaker 4: they can they can throw it, they can do the
Speaker 4: things that they need to do. They can score quickly
Speaker 4: if they have to. But it becomes kind of a
Speaker 4: a balancing game, I think for them, because I don't
Speaker 4: think they want to get into a situation where they've
Speaker 4: they've got to put up fifty to win this football game.
Speaker 4: I don't know if they can, to be completely honest
Speaker 4: against this defense. So how do you approach it? Do
Speaker 4: you just attack when the opportunities present themselves and let
Speaker 4: the time of game and all that other stuff take
Speaker 4: care of itself. Or do you kind of you know,
Speaker 4: hunt and peck and you know, kind of piece together
Speaker 4: some drives that last for a while and work your
Speaker 4: way down the field. But then you get into the
Speaker 4: hornet's nest of are you going to be able to
Speaker 4: do that against the Mantini defense. Maybe you just got
Speaker 4: to take your shots when they're available to you because
Speaker 4: they might not come very often.
Speaker 3: Now, Ma Solo has done this before. These kids were
Speaker 3: a lot younger twenty eighteen, so you know that sounds
Speaker 3: like to you and I sounds like yesterday. That's six years,
Speaker 3: which is a lifetime for a senior in high school
Speaker 3: who says, yeah, I remember that when they were in
Speaker 3: fifth or sixth grade. So you have to keep that
Speaker 3: an aspect of it. So there's some familiarity with just oh, yeah,
Speaker 3: we can do this. But for you know, for a
Speaker 3: well turned company's he's won state championship after state championship.
Speaker 3: This is not a new challenge for him. So the
Speaker 3: best thing they have going is the guy driving this
Speaker 3: thing in the first place, and knowing that their coach
Speaker 3: has won four state championships at the very least, and
Speaker 3: able to put a good game plan against a team
Speaker 3: that seasoned like Monty.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm interested to see what kind of levers he
Speaker 4: pulls in this situation because it's a program that has
Speaker 4: had obviously, like you just said, a lot of success,
Speaker 4: has shown a pedigree to advance deep in the playoffs.
Speaker 4: How much how much difference does he show to Montini
Speaker 4: in this situation? How many things does he you know,
Speaker 4: does he go in the bag of tricks? I mean,
Speaker 4: what does he do? I mean, he's a creative guy.
Speaker 4: I've seen the program for a long time. I mean,
Speaker 4: he's one of those guys that I think if there's
Speaker 4: something defined, he'll probably find it. So I mean that
Speaker 4: it'll be just interesting to see, you know, how he
Speaker 4: you know, how he decides to attack this defense because
Speaker 4: I'm sure he's aware how good it is and and
Speaker 4: the fact that he may not have a lot of
Speaker 4: opportunities to uh, to take that big hit, if you will.
Speaker 3: You're listening to the Friday Night Drive podcast as we
Speaker 3: recap the semi finals and take a small peek at
Speaker 3: what's going to be happening Thanksgiving weekend down at Illinois
Speaker 3: State University and Hancock Stadium. Matt Ruleld, Steve Sussi with
Speaker 3: you here. Let's talk about four A. Now, we talked
Speaker 3: a lot about De Paul, so we'll leave what happened
Speaker 3: with them there. Let's talk about Mount Zion because for
Speaker 3: them to go up and get that road game and
Speaker 3: get a win and then get to get to go
Speaker 3: back is a big help for them, I would say
Speaker 3: at this point in the season.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I was trying to think of this today. I mean,
Speaker 4: we were talking a lot last week about if whether
Speaker 4: normal university, you know, won, then they would be very
Speaker 4: comfortable with their surroundings. I didn't. It didn't even occur
Speaker 4: to me to think to myself, well, that works out
Speaker 4: pretty well for Mountain Zion now that they got to win,
Speaker 4: because now they now they have experience routine down on
Speaker 4: the state championship field. They know what it's like, they
Speaker 4: know what it's like to be under the lights, they
Speaker 4: know the surroundings, they know the setup, and it's just like, well,
Speaker 4: well that's that's a that's a nice little setup for them.
Speaker 4: But uh, And it didn't even occur to me today
Speaker 4: until the coach was actually talking about that during coach's
Speaker 4: conference calls today. So definitely an interesting situation. This is
Speaker 4: a Mountain Zion team. We talked a little bit about
Speaker 4: it last week in terms of some of the elite
Speaker 4: offensive players that they have. This is a team that
Speaker 4: I think has the potential to be very very tricky
Speaker 4: to stop. You know, Braden Trimble is a kid that
Speaker 4: you know the really adage that is doing everything but
Speaker 4: drive the bus. I'm not so sure he might not
Speaker 4: actually be driving the bus. I mean, that's that he
Speaker 4: is capable of doing everything, contributes in so many ways
Speaker 4: to this football team. Is so tricky to you know,
Speaker 4: he's a guy you have to know where he is.
Speaker 4: And the problem with that is he's not the only guy.
Speaker 4: You got to know where he is. So this is
Speaker 4: an interesting football team, and it's one that has has
Speaker 4: had really kind of a strange metamorphosis over the course
Speaker 4: of the season. At one point they were three and
Speaker 4: three and it really kind of looked like they weren't
Speaker 4: going anywhere. I mean, they lost them a tune earlier
Speaker 4: in the year, a team that I believe finished two
Speaker 4: and seven. I mean I was like, what's going on
Speaker 4: with them? And now we find them clicking on all
Speaker 4: cylinders and in a state championship game.
Speaker 3: It's matt tuned, sus. You know they're gonna come after
Speaker 3: you if you don't get it right. Mattuned Yeah, tell you.
Speaker 4: Said, yep, yeah, I realized that as soon as as
Speaker 4: soon as I said it, I didn't say it right.
Speaker 3: I'm fixing it so that the social media folks don't
Speaker 3: have to Yeah, there you go, but you're right. I'm
Speaker 3: looking at their schedule too and just kind of saying, Wow,
Speaker 3: what an adventure and to have two teams at ten
Speaker 3: and three to kind of get there. It's kind of fun,
Speaker 3: but it's very odd to look at it. Keep in
Speaker 3: mind for both De Paul Prep, maybe not so much
Speaker 3: for them as it is for Mountain Zion. These are
Speaker 3: kids that played on the state the state basketball team too,
Speaker 3: So this is nothing in terms of an environment that's like,
Speaker 3: oh my goodness, what are we doing here as our
Speaker 3: team won a state championship before. The answer is no,
Speaker 3: but we're right there. We competed at the highest level.
Speaker 3: So for Mount Zion, I mean, I look at The
Speaker 3: Paul as kind of a favor, but I think this
Speaker 3: is probably a more even game then people think because
Speaker 3: of the fact that there's a there's a comfort level
Speaker 3: that I think the Mount Zion folks are going to
Speaker 3: have right when they get there. It's gonna be Braves
Speaker 3: Nation when they come up there for Friday Night.
Speaker 4: Well, we saw it early on that this was going
Speaker 4: whatever ended up happening, we were going to have a
Speaker 4: different looking for a final it just that was what
Speaker 4: was going to happen. With Rochester bowing out early in
Speaker 4: the tournament. It was just like, well, this is going
Speaker 4: to look different, we just don't know how different. And
Speaker 4: that's definitely what we've got here. We've got a team
Speaker 4: that has not been in a state championship game in
Speaker 4: forty four years, and the other team has never been
Speaker 4: in one. So and when the other team was in
Speaker 4: that forty four year drought, they were known by a
Speaker 4: different name. So this is a totally brand new for
Speaker 4: a final.
Speaker 5: Hi from State Representative Steve Reich, and I'm here to
Speaker 5: wish everybody a happy Thanksgiving. Let's make it a happy
Speaker 5: Thanksgiving for our neighbors as well. My office is conducting
Speaker 5: a food drive for local food pantries here in McHenry
Speaker 5: County at ten seventy two Lake Avenue. If you're out
Speaker 5: and about, drop some non perishable food items off at
Speaker 5: my office.
Speaker 2: And we'll see that they get delivered.
Speaker 4: Every dollar helps. Let's make happy Thanksgiving for hey football fans.
Speaker 3: Listen up. I'm top there and I drive a Hawk.
Speaker 3: I got it from my friends at Hawk Volkswagen.
Speaker 4: So drive what I drive. Drive a Hawk off Volkswagon
Speaker 4: on Jefferson Street in Joliet or online at HAWKVW dot com.
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Speaker 6: Land that specializes in custom apparel. So if you need
Speaker 6: your logo on team apparel, hoss co is the place
Speaker 6: to go. Visit Bethehass dot com and use code Friday
Speaker 6: Night for twenty percent off your order. They have it all.
Speaker 3: Let's go to five A now and talk about the
Speaker 3: rematch of the rematch of the rematch of the rematch
Speaker 3: Nazareth and Juliet Kathley. First off, let's talk about Julia
Speaker 3: Catholic because I thought Morris would put up a little
Speaker 3: bit more of a fight. But I also think that
Speaker 3: this proves a Julia Catholic is a lot better than
Speaker 3: people give them credit for. And I think they're going
Speaker 3: to be ready to go this time around.
Speaker 4: Yeah, this should be I think this has the potential
Speaker 4: to potentially be the most interesting State Final game of
Speaker 4: the weekend. And you'd say, well, what's so interesting about it.
Speaker 4: We've already seen this thing multiple times before this, But
Speaker 4: I think that's what makes it interesting. I mean, it
Speaker 4: was a sixteen to thirteen game in the regular season.
Speaker 4: You know, Nazareth finally broke away with a fourth quarter
Speaker 4: a long fourth quarter touchdown pass, which is something that
Speaker 4: Nazareth can do. But you know, Joli Katholck has played
Speaker 4: outstanding football in the playoffs. They've only allowed twenty points
Speaker 4: in four playoff games and not that much more yardage.
Speaker 4: I mean, this has been a situation where they have
Speaker 4: been absolutely stifling the other teams in their side of
Speaker 4: the five A bracket at this point in time. So
Speaker 4: they're playing as good a football as they have all
Speaker 4: season as they head into this game. You know, I
Speaker 4: went to the Nazareth game on semifinal. Boy, they look
Speaker 4: pretty sharp too. I mean, they really took care of
Speaker 4: business and and we're particularly troublesome on defense to what
Speaker 4: in Saint Francis, So that was that was a really
Speaker 4: really impressive effort. It feels like the core of this
Speaker 4: Nazareth roster has been there for about fourteen years at
Speaker 4: this point in.
Speaker 3: Time, Yes, and it really has.
Speaker 4: These names are the same kids that I feel like
Speaker 4: I've been talking about forever and they're all now they're
Speaker 4: all seniors, and they're all really really good. You know,
Speaker 4: Gabe commits the Stanford commit that kid. It feels like
Speaker 4: there's three of them on the field. I mean, it
Speaker 4: seems like he's everywhere.
Speaker 3: You gotta remember, like a guy like Mogan Malachuck has
Speaker 3: probably played at least nineteen playoff games at this point
Speaker 3: for his career all four years. And so and Logan Malachuk,
Speaker 3: as much as I like him as a player, everyone
Speaker 3: has to remember that if if Julia Katholick doesn't lose
Speaker 3: their running back late in the first half of that
Speaker 3: state championship game a year year ago, the Hilltoppers are
Speaker 3: walking out with that state title. But Nazareth rallied because
Speaker 3: of that and was they were able to get that win.
Speaker 3: And so I'm sure that's on the minds of folks
Speaker 3: with Julie Kappa coming in. What made Nazareth so sharp
Speaker 3: on Saturday from what you were able to see compared
Speaker 3: to what we've seen them before. Obviously they're really good,
Speaker 3: But that's Saint Francis team, that's all. That's an awfully
Speaker 3: good football team over there.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, they forced four turnovers and that seemed
Speaker 4: to kind of really deflate Saint Francis. But I'll tell
Speaker 4: you for me, what was the pivotal situation in that game,
Speaker 4: Nazareth took a twenty seven lead in halftime, and I
Speaker 4: saw something that I don't believe I've ever seen. I
Speaker 4: was scanning my memory banks and I don't believe I've
Speaker 4: ever seen this. So on this on the ensuing second off,
Speaker 4: the second half kickoff to start the game Waeen, Saint
Speaker 4: Francis runs the kickback, so they're down a touchdown. They're
Speaker 4: feeling really really good about themselves, and then they kicked
Speaker 4: the ball back to Nazareth. Nazareth does the same thing
Speaker 4: to them, back to back kickoff returns to start the
Speaker 4: second half. Don't believe I've ever seen that in my life.
Speaker 4: Pretty sure I probably won't ever see it again, but
Speaker 4: that kind of showed that. It was like, well, they're
Speaker 4: within a touchdown, gotta do something. Okay, let's do this,
Speaker 4: and then they just came back to kick and you
Speaker 4: saw it developing and there was like, oh man, I mean,
Speaker 4: I don't know how big of a momentum pendulum switch
Speaker 4: it was, but it might have been one of the
Speaker 4: biggest ones I've ever seen. Saint Francis feeling real good
Speaker 4: about themselves, feeling like they're back in the football game
Speaker 4: and fifteen seconds later they're right back in the same
Speaker 4: situation they were five minutes ago.
Speaker 3: I have seen it one time, and that was in
Speaker 3: twenty oh three Carmel at Marian Kathlic Okay, Like I
Speaker 3: think that was one of those seventy to sixty three games.
Speaker 3: It was insane, Like I think we were there till
Speaker 3: midnight and it was thankfully it was September, but I'm
Speaker 3: not kidding. We were creeping up past eleven thirty still
Speaker 3: going because it was just nuts. So I have seen
Speaker 3: it one time. But that's it, And you're right, the
Speaker 3: momentum swing boom, the pendulum just going all over the place.
Speaker 3: Let's talk about to six s a here because and
Speaker 3: let's talk about Richards because I thought Richards would do
Speaker 3: something here and that didn't happen. What happened to the
Speaker 3: Richards Bulldogs?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean sometimes history bears fruit. I mean that
Speaker 4: we talked about it a little bit last week. It
Speaker 4: was Richards has not done well in previous matchups with
Speaker 4: the East St. Louis, and of fairness, a lot of
Speaker 4: teams haven't done a lot with East Saint Louis. But
Speaker 4: you know, we saw it real early in the year.
Speaker 4: This I think the CEA Saint Louis team is a
Speaker 4: different breed than what we've we've got in the past
Speaker 4: few years.
Speaker 3: That they are.
Speaker 4: Wholly focused on winning football games in whatever way they
Speaker 4: need to win football games. They don't care if it's flashy,
Speaker 4: they don't care if it draws oohs and ohs. They're
Speaker 4: just gonna take whatever the defense the other opposing defense
Speaker 4: has to give them. And they've got to give them
Speaker 4: something because it's not possible to shut off all the
Speaker 4: options completely, so you have to you have to give
Speaker 4: them something. And unlike in past years maybe where they
Speaker 4: would really they really enjoyed, you know that air it
Speaker 4: out and complete the sixty yard touchdown pass. Bill de
Speaker 4: condunc you to death too, if they if they if
Speaker 4: it's what suits them and it's what you're giving them.
Speaker 4: So I think they've just done a really, really nice
Speaker 4: job of recognizing what the opposition is giving them and
Speaker 4: just taking full advantage of that. And that's what I
Speaker 4: think makes this team as dangerous as any East Saint
Speaker 4: Louis team we've ever seen.
Speaker 3: This is the fifth straight appearance for East Saint Louis
Speaker 3: in the state championship game twenty nineteen, they beat Prairie Ridge,
Speaker 3: doubling them up forty three to twenty one. The score
Speaker 3: gives you a whole hum feel. Then the first Carry
Speaker 3: Grove loss thirty seven to thirty six in twenty twenty one,
Speaker 3: twenty twenty two, when you thought Prairie Ridge might do
Speaker 3: the same thing, No, instead it was the Flyers, the
Speaker 3: largest margin of victory ever in a title game, and
Speaker 3: we saw the clockfront which I think I've never saw
Speaker 3: in Champagne before. And then last year where you thought
Speaker 3: Kerry Droven is gonna do this again, and then seventeen
Speaker 3: plays later, in a ten minute drive in the fourth quarter,
Speaker 3: they were able to pull the upset and East Saint
Speaker 3: Louis was left wondering, how does this happen to us again?
Speaker 3: They're paying a more conventional opponent in the Geneva Vikings,
Speaker 3: so we're able to get by Carry Grove. But the
Speaker 3: thing about Geneva is that the last time they were
Speaker 3: in a state championship game, guess who was there East
Speaker 3: Saint Louis. And there's something about Geneva and East Saint
Speaker 3: Louis with a history where the Vikings they've faced this
Speaker 3: this Juggernaut before they've walked in with this mentality. They've
Speaker 3: played good two and a half quarters, maybe three quarters
Speaker 3: of football against them before things bottom out. But they
Speaker 3: didn't have an All American receiver and the best player
Speaker 3: I've ever seen put on blue and white before, Talon
Speaker 3: Taylor was catching the ball all over the place on Saturday?
Speaker 3: Can he and his teammates make this interesting on Saturday?
Speaker 3: With East Saint Louis. I have the Flyers as a
Speaker 3: heavy fav.
Speaker 4: Yeah. I think you're right. You know, I hope that
Speaker 4: it's an interesting game, and I think there are some
Speaker 4: things that lead you to believe that maybe it can be.
Speaker 4: But you just look at like all of the pieces
Speaker 4: that East Saint Louis has, and and we didn't even
Speaker 4: we talked about their offense when I was breaking them
Speaker 4: down a little bit earlier. Their defense is better, and
Speaker 4: it was it was really really apparent how good the
Speaker 4: defense was, even though it was all the way back
Speaker 4: in Week one when I saw them live what they
Speaker 4: did with Loyola. They they completely took Loyola out of
Speaker 4: that game. And you're talking about an ad A finalist
Speaker 4: right now. Granted it's a lot different version of that
Speaker 4: Ada finalist right now than it was back in Week one.
Speaker 4: But the fact that East St. Louis's defense was able
Speaker 4: to do that, they made Loyola's offense look pedestrian in
Speaker 4: that game. I mean I was down on the sideline,
Speaker 4: I was watching it close up. I mean, there were
Speaker 4: a lot of different things going on in that game.
Speaker 4: But that's a really, really good defense. And you know,
Speaker 4: I think Geneva has a fair amount of playmakers, and
Speaker 4: obviously with Taylor they have a great one. But you know,
Speaker 4: when East St. Louis has so many players on defense
Speaker 4: that are playmakers and guys that can do things, I
Speaker 4: don't know how many matchup mismatches Geneva is going to
Speaker 4: be able to create, to be completely honest with you.
Speaker 4: So that's the challenge that comes into this situation. And
Speaker 4: you know, you look at it and say, well, they've
Speaker 4: been beat before. I mean, it can happen again. But
Speaker 4: it's I think this is this is a particularly interesting
Speaker 4: version of East St. Louis that I think just seems
Speaker 4: to have all the pieces in the places that they
Speaker 4: need to have.
Speaker 3: Those pieces should be that one would be a good
Speaker 3: one at least to start. I will say if they
Speaker 3: can hang in there by halftime and then all of
Speaker 3: a sudden things get interesting. But the thing is, for
Speaker 3: the Vikings, I think they need to get in a shootout.
Speaker 3: This needs to be a first to sixty kind of thing.
Speaker 3: And that's not that's not comfortable for a lot of people.
Speaker 3: But let me add this to and just because it's
Speaker 3: it's my hometown, I came back from that DePaul game
Speaker 3: in the city after the game is over, but we're
Speaker 3: talking about seven o'clock at night and the vibrance of
Speaker 3: the town and you can feel that there was a
Speaker 3: big victory and maybe a bit of a surprise to some.
Speaker 3: I think it was a little more split down the
Speaker 3: middle about belief in this one here. But that's the
Speaker 3: fun part of what we're talking about in terms of
Speaker 3: these journeys, places like Mountain Zion and their downtown Saturday
Speaker 3: night places like you know, even the Lombard or if
Speaker 3: you want to go in further song Monticello. That place
Speaker 3: was rocking after that game and how long did that
Speaker 3: carry on into the evening hours. That's the fun part
Speaker 3: about state final football and state playoff football. So I
Speaker 3: just kind of want to point that out and then
Speaker 3: later you had Batavia and let's go to seven A
Speaker 3: because I don't know what it is about the Battle
Speaker 3: and Bulldogs. We need a new nickname for them, because
Speaker 3: they're more cardiac kids than anything else. Isaiah Brown with
Speaker 3: that amazing catch. That was one of the best catches
Speaker 3: I've ever seen, and that might be the biggest catch
Speaker 3: in Batavia football history.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I was. I was kind of following along with
Speaker 4: that game. At the end of the game kind of
Speaker 4: merged right along with halftime of the Lincoln Way East games,
Speaker 4: so I was able to kind of follow along with
Speaker 4: what was going on. And I saw that Lincolnway Central
Speaker 4: had scored a go ahead and score with about two
Speaker 4: minutes left, and before my mind's eye could even calculate
Speaker 4: what's the score and what the situation was, my immediate
Speaker 4: reaction was they left Batavia too much time, too much time.
Speaker 4: That was when I heard it was just a little
Speaker 4: over two minutes. I was like, too much time. And
Speaker 4: then when I when I found out, of course that
Speaker 4: they scored with I believe thirty two or thirty one
Speaker 4: seconds left in the game, I was like, well, that's
Speaker 4: that's kind of what I expected at this point in time,
Speaker 4: you know, I feel for both of the Lincoln Way
Speaker 4: programs that have been vanquished by Batavia in the final
Speaker 4: minute of games over the course of his playoff it
Speaker 4: was it was a tough pill to swallow for I'm
Speaker 4: sure both of those teams. But Batavia's got some playoff magic,
Speaker 4: some mojo that I don't know if a lot of
Speaker 4: other programs have the equivalent of it, But it seems
Speaker 4: like if you're in a close game in the fourth
Speaker 4: quarter with Batavia, get worried because it's not gonna be
Speaker 4: a situation that you're probably gonna like with the end
Speaker 4: of it.
Speaker 3: It's not like it's a veteran quarterback marching you down
Speaker 3: the field to This is a sophomore quarterback and Michael
Speaker 3: Vander who's been on the team for what four weeks?
Speaker 3: Five weeks?
Speaker 4: I think he joined the team fully as a varsity
Speaker 4: player in week seven.
Speaker 3: Perfect Yeah, okay, so he's played basically half a season
Speaker 3: as everyone else, and the poise and comfort level for
Speaker 3: the for not only him, but the other ten around him.
Speaker 3: And as I was watching the final drive and my
Speaker 3: thought was, how in the world is Dennis pier and
Speaker 3: talking to this kid? What is he saying? How is
Speaker 3: it keeping him calm. That's one of the greatest coaching
Speaker 3: elements that I've seen is just throwing a sophomore quarterback
Speaker 3: in there, and they figured it out with this kid
Speaker 3: twice and it was the exact same score, twenty five
Speaker 3: to twenty one.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's it's really kind of a crazy situation. I
Speaker 4: was at the first one against Lincoln Way West and
Speaker 4: and it was it was just it was funny, like
Speaker 4: I talked to him after. I talked to quarterback after
Speaker 4: the game, and it was just like, I kind of
Speaker 4: it's okay, like and I'm like, boy, the wonder of
Speaker 4: being a high school sophomore not realize they're not realizing
Speaker 4: the significant significance of what you just did. And then
Speaker 4: and then you know, a few weeks later doing it
Speaker 4: essentially doing it again. That's that's something special. I mean,
Speaker 4: I'm more interested now. I didn't actually see that the
Speaker 4: breakdown of the game, But I talked a few weeks
Speaker 4: ago about him not having a nameplate. I'm gonna seek
Speaker 4: him out and see if he doesn't. I'm gonna seek
Speaker 4: him out and see if he got one. For the
Speaker 4: state final.
Speaker 3: You gotta give him one. It's on television. For goodness sakes,
Speaker 3: you gotta now do it on Thanksgiving after practice.
Speaker 4: Come on there you go?
Speaker 3: All right? So they go into this one against Malt
Speaker 3: Carmel as heavy underdogs. I think the Caravan are going
Speaker 3: to roll no matter what. And uh and I know
Speaker 3: the folks from one town, one team don't want to
Speaker 3: hear that you have one shot stay in this game
Speaker 3: early by taking the lead and keeping this, you know,
Speaker 3: as tight as possible. But I think Mount Carmel is
Speaker 3: one of the best teams in the state. And they've
Speaker 3: proven it once again that that road victory over Saint Reid. It.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean the last four times, the last four
Speaker 4: playoff seasons for Batavia, this is how it's come to
Speaker 4: an end for them. They've lost to Mount Carmel, so
Speaker 4: they've you know, only one of those games was was
Speaker 4: what would be classified as being fairly competitive. It came
Speaker 4: down to the wire, actually, but you know, the other
Speaker 4: ones have not been, you know, and I think right
Speaker 4: now the bridge between those two teams is pretty wide.
Speaker 4: It would take it would take a you know, I
Speaker 4: think it would take a pretty herculean effort for Batavia
Speaker 4: to be able to trade punches with this football team
Speaker 4: right now, and the way that they're playing. You know,
Speaker 4: Mount Carmel has just been, uh just been flexing us,
Speaker 4: particularly its offensive muscle, through these playoffs in impressive fashion.
Speaker 4: And I you know, I'm not really sure now that
Speaker 4: it appears that Jack Elliott is healthy, I just I
Speaker 4: don't really know. Yeah, I mean, I'm not really sure
Speaker 4: how they're they're gonna be able to rain that in.
Speaker 3: All right, So I have a thought for you. All right,
Speaker 3: get ready to get the viral moment out. I've walked
Speaker 3: through this in my head, and this is I'm gonna
Speaker 3: stumble as I spit this out. But you have Batavia,
Speaker 3: you have Geneva. Okay, they're in back to back games.
Speaker 3: These are rivals. If you're not familiar from around the state,
Speaker 3: they're they're three miles apart. Okay, here's my thought. I
Speaker 3: think that the Geneva and Batavia student sections should figure
Speaker 3: out a way, knowing that they are heavy underdogs against
Speaker 3: East Saint Louis and Mount Carmel, they should both go
Speaker 3: down there together and make that environment as loud as possible.
Speaker 3: You think about the amount of students eighteen hundred and
Speaker 3: one school seventeen hundred another, Why don't we get three
Speaker 3: thousand kids down there to make this thing insane? And
Speaker 3: you got a six hour party out there? Why not?
Speaker 5: Right?
Speaker 3: That would be an amazing environment. Now, I don't think
Speaker 3: it would ever happen because this will require the administrations
Speaker 3: to the schools and the school districts and all that stuff.
Speaker 3: But boy, the students, you know, they have the ability
Speaker 3: to communicate on their phones right now, I'm sure they
Speaker 3: all have friends from the other town. Figure out a
Speaker 3: way to make a three thousand Army Tri Cities student
Speaker 3: section and take down both East Saint Louis and Mount Carmel.
Speaker 4: What do you say, can we make that happen? Boy,
Speaker 4: that'd be fascinating to watch. If it didn't materialize, I'll
Speaker 4: tell you that much. It would be something that would
Speaker 4: be I think would be a remarkable thing that I think,
Speaker 4: regardless of how the outcomes of the games came out,
Speaker 4: it would be something you would remember for probably a lifetime.
Speaker 3: To be sacrilegious for me to even suggest this. I
Speaker 3: have betavior friends. One of my best friends is a
Speaker 3: potavial lung class at eighty eight. I think this might
Speaker 3: be the only way to kind of make sure that
Speaker 3: everyone stays in both games. At this point, I don't know,
Speaker 3: but still it'll be fun to see that environment. And
Speaker 3: even if they don't do that and you see the
Speaker 3: student switching, you know after a loss, the awkwardness will
Speaker 3: be very interesting. That's the fun part about the state finals.
Speaker 3: Let's wrap up with Class eight A and then I
Speaker 3: want to talk about what you wrote. For sure that
Speaker 3: it's the best play call I've ever seen, and I
Speaker 3: had it in my head with York. I thought, just
Speaker 3: run backwards and get to the ends. It's ten seconds.
Speaker 3: They can't even if you have to kick off, that's
Speaker 3: going to eat more time. And they actually did it,
Speaker 3: and I was so impressed with the execution of that
Speaker 3: safety play for York. It's awesome to see them break
Speaker 3: through the semi final round and get down there for
Speaker 3: the first time.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was. And you know when you watch that,
Speaker 4: like I heard about that after the fact, I'm like going, yeah,
Speaker 4: that's that's definitely a way to go. And sometimes I'm
Speaker 4: in that situation. I've seen those situations before and I'm like,
Speaker 4: why not try that? But they had the ideal situation,
Speaker 4: an absolute speed burner there that could run around and
Speaker 4: stretch that out if possible, and it almost took a
Speaker 4: second to realize what was happening as you were watching
Speaker 4: it develop, but really kind of a kind of a
Speaker 4: fascinating thing that was going on.
Speaker 3: It's one of those, Oh, I have a state final sprinter,
Speaker 3: why don't I just make sure that he runs as
Speaker 3: fast as he can and use the speed. But the
Speaker 3: best part of that play, if you watch it, because
Speaker 3: I've seen it a couple of times in social media,
Speaker 3: but I watched it live too, was that he avoided
Speaker 3: two hits in the back of the end zone and
Speaker 3: was I think he was surprised himself that he was
Speaker 3: still in play knocking off the clock. And kudos to
Speaker 3: the your coaching staff who said they wanted to go
Speaker 3: in the fourth quarter with the ability to see the
Speaker 3: clock and the scoreboard in the other end. I don't
Speaker 3: think they had that in mind in terms of why
Speaker 3: they would need to see the clock. Which is great Loyola.
Speaker 3: You watch them face to face firsthand, you know every
Speaker 3: time I think Lincoln Way East is going to get
Speaker 3: the upper hand, and that environment was probably rocking. What
Speaker 3: was it like and what was the despair like at
Speaker 3: the end of that one?
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 4: It was one of those things is you were kind
Speaker 4: of like watching it develop. There were little nuances of
Speaker 4: the game that you didn't really even realize were happening,
Speaker 4: you know, until you thought about it after the fact.
Speaker 4: At the time, you're thinking to yourself when Loyola on
Speaker 4: three separate occasions, had to settle for field goals rather
Speaker 4: than score touchdowns, You're thinking, well, this, that's probably a
Speaker 4: really good thing for Lincoln Way East. But they didn't
Speaker 4: get those touchdowns. But what you didn't realize at the
Speaker 4: time was there was a difference between what usually happens
Speaker 4: in Lincoln Way East games. Teams are not getting a
Speaker 4: chance to kick that field goal. I'm not even talking
Speaker 4: about touchdowns. Lincoln Way East was not getting three and out,
Speaker 4: they were not taking Loyola off the field, and Loyola
Speaker 4: was getting some points, they weren't getting as many as
Speaker 4: they would have liked, right putting up points royal and punt.
Speaker 4: And that was something that you didn't realize that it
Speaker 4: was happening until it happened. Until we got through the game.
Speaker 4: They did not punt. Every time that they you know,
Speaker 4: had the football, they did something with it. They got
Speaker 4: themselves in a situation where they were kicking field goals,
Speaker 4: they did something with it. And in the second half
Speaker 4: they showed the benefit of having to play a quality
Speaker 4: opponent almost every week that they put the put the
Speaker 4: cleats down on the field. They showed the benefit of that.
Speaker 4: Put together a monster drive to start the third quarter,
Speaker 4: put together another monster drive that completed the third quarter.
Speaker 4: They didn't get any points out of that. Lincoln Way
Speaker 4: US picked off a pass the goal line, but it
Speaker 4: showed up a bunch of clock and it was just
Speaker 4: one of those things. And then then they put the
Speaker 4: final touches on it with another long drive that just
Speaker 4: took a bunch of clock away. Never got Lincoln Way
Speaker 4: East a chance to have an opportunity to get into
Speaker 4: a rhythm. And then I saw something that I never
Speaker 4: thought I was I probably would ever see is Jonas
Speaker 4: Williams completed a pass with two minutes left in the
Speaker 4: fourth quarter. It was the first pass he completed in
Speaker 4: the entire second half. So Loyola had effectively completely out
Speaker 4: any offensive rhythm that Lincoln Way East ever hoped to attain.
Speaker 4: That's just as simple as it got. They they forced
Speaker 4: a three and out with three incompletions on one drive.
Speaker 4: The other completion, they got a situation where they were
Speaker 4: third in short and they fumbled a hand off, so
Speaker 4: they didn't get a first down. So those two drives
Speaker 4: prior to the pass completed with two minutes left, that
Speaker 4: was all they got. A series of incomplete passes and
Speaker 4: a running sequence that did not let them a first down.
Speaker 4: And that was basically the only two drives that they
Speaker 4: had at it for most of the second half.
Speaker 3: Twenty twenty two, Loyola had to beat York and then
Speaker 3: Lincoln Way East, twenty twenty three, Loyal had to be
Speaker 3: York and Lincoln Way East, and twenty twenty four Loyola
Speaker 3: might have to flip it and beat Lincoln Way East
Speaker 3: and then York, and so we get to see York
Speaker 3: and Loyola do it again for a third straight time.
Speaker 3: What is Loyola, what is your cap to do to
Speaker 3: make sure that they stay with Loyal as long as
Speaker 3: they can.
Speaker 4: Well, they can't let Loyola do essentially what they did
Speaker 4: to Lincoln Way East. They can not allow them to
Speaker 4: piece together fourteen fifteen play drives that chew up eight
Speaker 4: minutes of the clock and just turn it into a
Speaker 4: Essentially you're only going to get about five possessions for
Speaker 4: the entire game. And that's what Loyola essentially did in
Speaker 4: that game. They just turned it into a much smaller
Speaker 4: game in terms of often some opportunity for the opponent.
Speaker 4: And you know, just you look at you look at
Speaker 4: what they're doing right now. They are imposing their will
Speaker 4: on the opposition. And the biggest key for Yorke that
Speaker 4: I can see in this game is just simply can't
Speaker 4: let that happen. I don't know how they do that,
Speaker 4: but that's gonna be what decides whether or not that
Speaker 4: this is a competitive game, because if they allow Loyal
Speaker 4: to impose their will, they're going to do exactly the
Speaker 4: same thing that they did the Lincoln Ways. They're just
Speaker 4: they're just gonna drive and drive and drive and drive
Speaker 4: and drive and figure out a way to get themselves
Speaker 4: in a position to put points on the board, field goal, touchdown, whatever,
Speaker 4: and before you know it, you look up at the
Speaker 4: board and you're behind. And that's that's all they're trying
Speaker 4: to do at this point.
Speaker 3: There are two things I found interesting from from Ryan
Speaker 3: Fitzgerald over the course of the weekend. Won him calling
Speaker 3: out critics in a very prominent newspaper in town about
Speaker 3: how his prediction went. But the other one is what
Speaker 3: he said after the game talking about Lincoln Way's not
Speaker 3: playing a fourth or quarter game all year. And I
Speaker 3: want to bring that to what the what the private
Speaker 3: schools have done in terms of their battle testing and
Speaker 3: how this relates to the multiplier and to the success factor.
Speaker 3: You wrote some really good stuff. Can you lay out
Speaker 3: that again just in terms of it, just because it's
Speaker 3: still remarkable just to see and print, let alone hear
Speaker 3: it about where these teams are gonna fall next year.
Speaker 3: This is going to be a very different layout next year,
Speaker 3: I would imagine.
Speaker 4: Yeah. I think that the first thing you have to
Speaker 4: start with is the fact that, I mean, we ran
Speaker 4: into this a little bit last year and people didn't
Speaker 4: really fully understand what was going on. You know, basically
Speaker 4: you re establish this every two years, and one of
Speaker 4: the things that that comes into play is that the
Speaker 4: success formula is something that the ISSA has put in
Speaker 4: place to I guess protect sort of against private school
Speaker 4: dominance in a particular classification. So over that two year period,
Speaker 4: the previous this year and the previous year, if a
Speaker 4: team wins a state trophy, which is a championship or
Speaker 4: a runner up in two consecutive years, then they must
Speaker 4: move up one classification above where they achieved that success in. So,
Speaker 4: for example, since Juliet Catholic, Nazareth, and Mount Carmel are
Speaker 4: both guaranteed all guaranteed to have won either a championship
Speaker 4: or a runner up trophy by winning those semi final
Speaker 4: games this week, they are now subject to the success formula.
Speaker 4: So all three of those teams will be moving up
Speaker 4: one classification next year from where they competed in having
Speaker 4: that success. So in the case of Juliet Catholic and Nazareth,
Speaker 4: they will move up from five A to six A.
Speaker 4: From Mount Carmel's case, they will go from seven to
Speaker 4: eight A. And it does not matter if the enrollment
Speaker 4: numbers come out in the spring and their enrollment number says,
Speaker 4: well they should be in four A or they should think.
Speaker 4: It does not matter. The success formula supersedes all of
Speaker 4: that other stuff, all of it that basically those schools
Speaker 4: are locked into that classification. If they qualify for the playoffs,
Speaker 4: that's where they'll play. So that's the first step in
Speaker 4: this process. There are three teams that are doing that,
Speaker 4: so they will move up in that situation. So then
Speaker 4: you start thinking ahead, what class is going to be
Speaker 4: pretty nasty next year? Looks like six to A to me,
Speaker 4: I got completely honest with you. You got the existing teams
Speaker 4: that have kind of established themselves. As long as East
Speaker 4: Saint Louis still elects to play up, then that makes
Speaker 4: for extremely deep six A classification with the addition of
Speaker 4: Nazareth and Joliet Catholic. So that's the first stage in
Speaker 4: this process. Then you go to the multiplier because that's
Speaker 4: a situation where you have to look at it and say, okay,
Speaker 4: what happens with those The last period, en Roman period,
Speaker 4: had fourteen teams that qualified to be multiplied, which basically
Speaker 4: means their enrollment is taken by a one point sixty
Speaker 4: five multiplier. It's a there's an increase that comes with that.
Speaker 4: So of those teams, seven of those fourteen are losing
Speaker 4: their multipliers, and the qualification for doing that is over
Speaker 4: that same two year period you have to win at
Speaker 4: least three playoff games. So you look at that the
Speaker 4: teams that are losing their multipliers. Brother Rice, Marist, Saint
Speaker 4: Ignatius Saint Teresa, Ice, Catholic, and Fenwick.
Speaker 3: So we stop you there because that's despite Saint Teresa
Speaker 3: winning a state title two years ago.
Speaker 4: Yes, yes, so that's the I mean you look at that. No,
Speaker 4: see Saint Teresa won it three years ago. Yeah, So
Speaker 4: that doesn't factor into this because it's only the last
Speaker 4: two years. Two years ago they were actually winless head
Speaker 4: was yeah, and then this year they lost one game,
Speaker 4: so they so they will drop as well. So what
Speaker 4: happens with those teams? For example, Brother Rice was a
Speaker 4: seven A playoff team this year they lost in the
Speaker 4: old opening round, so that without those three playoff wins,
Speaker 4: they will go from seven eight to five AM. So
Speaker 4: that's a situation right there. Marist is another one eight
Speaker 4: eight to six A okay, and that's using the enrollment
Speaker 4: numbers that we have, same thing for Sant Ignatius eight
Speaker 4: eight to six A. All right. The one that I find
Speaker 4: most interesting in this situation, I see Catholic four A
Speaker 4: two way. So they they may make they have made
Speaker 4: the decision in the past to play up, they may
Speaker 4: choose to do so again, but based on their current
Speaker 4: enrollment number not being multiplied, they're clearly a two a
Speaker 4: team exactly. That's a situation. And then the other team
Speaker 4: that was factored into this multiplier situation that I find interesting.
Speaker 4: In this situation, Sacred Heart Griffin actually was subjected to
Speaker 4: the success formula in the last two year packet. They
Speaker 4: were they were the only team that actually was, so
Speaker 4: they were a five A team in the postseason. Not
Speaker 4: only does Sacred Heart Griffin no longer qua five for
Speaker 4: the success formula, they no longer qualify for the multiplier,
Speaker 4: so they drop from five A to three A. So
Speaker 4: that's something in that situation too. Keep in mind, all
Speaker 4: of these teams could choose to say, hey, no I
Speaker 4: want I would rather play where I was play, I
Speaker 4: can play up. But by the letter of the law,
Speaker 4: as long as they're enrollment number doesn't change violently, this
Speaker 4: is what will happen to those schools. Now they're so yeah,
Speaker 4: go ahead.
Speaker 3: Go ahead. No, I was just gonna say, I wanted
Speaker 3: to factor in the fact because what I stare at
Speaker 3: is four A five A now, yeah, because that's where
Speaker 3: the movement is. So if I'm Sycamore, if I'm Prairie Ridge,
Speaker 3: and let me bring this out. Because the Fox Valley
Speaker 3: Conference schools are all losing enrollment, every one of them.
Speaker 3: Prairie Ridge, Carrie Grove, both Crystal Lakes, they're all dropping,
Speaker 3: with the exception of one. My central rockets are going up.
Speaker 3: Everyone else is losing enrollment. So if your Carrie Grove,
Speaker 3: this might be the best thing to happen to you,
Speaker 3: because everything's pushing up, and I wonder if things go on,
Speaker 3: are there enough teams stuck in six A that would
Speaker 3: push you down and get you to five A.
Speaker 4: Anyway, some of those teams, some of those vacancies are
Speaker 4: gonna have to be filled by someone, right Like, that's
Speaker 4: the reality of the situation. So you know some of
Speaker 4: those teams. It won't change some of those teams because
Speaker 4: there are some eight A to six A switches, which
Speaker 4: obviously means some teams are gonna go up too. So
Speaker 4: it's kind of a counterbalance type of thing. That kind
Speaker 4: of gets us to the next point is while there
Speaker 4: were teams that went down, there are also teams that
Speaker 4: go up. We had nine teams that are making a
Speaker 4: jump that did not have a multiplier and now they do.
Speaker 4: So you've got some very interesting teams that are making
Speaker 4: that change. I'll run down the list real quickly here
Speaker 4: Belleville alts off.
Speaker 3: They have to win this weekend because it's not gonna
Speaker 3: be as fun the next few years.
Speaker 4: So Lawrence, my team, Chicago, Christian Quincy, Notre Dame, Wheaton Academy,
Speaker 4: Normal University, and this is probably the most interesting one
Speaker 4: to me just because of what happens to them de
Speaker 4: Paul Prep.
Speaker 3: So they have to win this weekend, not just because
Speaker 3: oh we got to win the state championship. I'm not
Speaker 3: sure they're going to like the road getting back there
Speaker 3: next year.
Speaker 4: Go ahead, Well, the thing about DePaul Prep you have
Speaker 4: to consider here is back when DePaul Prep's calculation for
Speaker 4: their enrollment that they're currently using, is that school's enrollment
Speaker 4: has exploded, has just increased, it has exploded. It is
Speaker 4: almost fifty percent larger than it was the last time
Speaker 4: that we figured out these enrollments because we do it
Speaker 4: in a two year period, So DePaul Prep's enrollment number
Speaker 4: is going to be much much larger before you consider
Speaker 4: the fact that they're now going to be multiplied, which
Speaker 4: they weren't before. So not only do you have that
Speaker 4: enrollment spike, you have a multiplier on top of it,
Speaker 4: and it's entirely conceivable. I don't know exactly what DePaul
Speaker 4: but De Paul's enrollment number will be when the issa's
Speaker 4: new numbers come out. It is entirely conceivable though that
Speaker 4: DePaul Prep could be an eight day school. That sounds crazy,
Speaker 4: but that's that's that's the biggest that they're going to
Speaker 4: be the largest number jumped, both in natural enrollment and
Speaker 4: then what in jumping enrollment wise from uh, you know,
Speaker 4: having the multiplier attached. They're they're enrollment number now I
Speaker 4: believe is eight thirty three for calculation in the state traded.
Speaker 4: I was just going to say that I believe, I
Speaker 4: believe it will be over two thousand when this is recalculated.
Speaker 4: That's incredible. So that's the that's the big story. And
Speaker 4: then looking at some of the other classification jumps, just
Speaker 4: off the top, all Top goes from one A to
Speaker 4: three A, Wheaton Academy goes four to five, Quincy Quincy
Speaker 4: Notre Dame goes two to four, Montini three A to
Speaker 4: four A five A bubble. They're kind of mixed there,
Speaker 4: you know, so it makes sense, you know, yeah, those
Speaker 4: those make sense, you know, for the most part. But
Speaker 4: that when you sort all of this out and you
Speaker 4: just kind of look at what the landscape will look like.
Speaker 4: Some of those playoff fields look a lot different. It's
Speaker 4: it's an exercise that I will be undertaking in the
Speaker 4: off season. But just to kind of get a grips on, well,
Speaker 4: you know, if we just use these enrollment numbers, how
Speaker 4: do the playoff fields look? I will play around with
Speaker 4: that because I think it's gonna look pretty fascinating if
Speaker 4: you take out the factor of you know, maybe some
Speaker 4: of these teams will elect a playoff, but what if
Speaker 4: they don't, this is what the fields will look like
Speaker 4: it would look like if they choose to. So it
Speaker 4: becomes a really kind of an interesting machination type of thing,
Speaker 4: because like you had a couple of teams that elected
Speaker 4: to move up from five A to six A to
Speaker 4: I think in some ways to get away from some
Speaker 4: of those teams that were in five A. Well now
Speaker 4: those teams are in six A. So what do you
Speaker 4: can take to me? So what are you gonna do now?
Speaker 4: It's just like so then it becomes kind of like
Speaker 4: which level or do you want to pull? Which problem
Speaker 4: do you want to undertake? So I think that's going
Speaker 4: to be pretty fascinating it. And I think some of
Speaker 4: this process was really really hindered a couple of years
Speaker 4: ago by the COVID year because it was much more
Speaker 4: difficult to obviously, they.
Speaker 3: Held they held them.
Speaker 4: That's why, Yeah, they it was much more difficult to
Speaker 4: acquire three playoff wins when you only had one season
Speaker 4: to do it. Now you have two seasons to accumulate
Speaker 4: those three wins. So now that's why you're seeing a
Speaker 4: larger list of schools having to have to actually be
Speaker 4: multiplied because, like I said, there were fourteen before next year,
Speaker 4: in the next pocket, there will be eighteen. So you know,
Speaker 4: it's definitely one of those situations where you're starting to
Speaker 4: see some of those programs that you're like, going, they
Speaker 4: shouldn't be in that classification. Well a lot of them
Speaker 4: won't be anymore. They won't be.
Speaker 3: Do you hear those loud cheers? Those those are I
Speaker 3: believe those are loud cheers coming from let me check, yep,
Speaker 3: they're coming from Rochelle, They're coming from Morris, they're coming
Speaker 3: from Highland and Peoria, and also they're coming from Vincennes
Speaker 3: with Morgan Park as well. You want to talk about
Speaker 3: paths opening up and possibilities. Well there you go, even
Speaker 3: if ben Academy can't get through because of these sorts
Speaker 3: of things. So it would be interesting to see. And yes,
Speaker 3: of course sycamore as though, so you know, and that's
Speaker 3: just looking at five. It can't wait to look it
Speaker 3: for it. And I can't wait for that day when
Speaker 3: you put those fake brackets out there, because I want
Speaker 3: to see what that looks like. Just tease us like
Speaker 3: a week before so we can mentally get ourselves around that,
Speaker 3: say February or so, all right.
Speaker 4: You're no problem to trust me. There's all kinds of
Speaker 4: exercises that I have to do to keep myself engaged
Speaker 4: until we get to the next season. So and the
Speaker 4: and the massive twenty twenty five schedule document that I
Speaker 4: have not started yet. Oh man, enough it is not
Speaker 4: enough to keep me entertained all off season. So I
Speaker 4: have to find other things to strike my fancy.
Speaker 3: Plus spring trainings in February. See I get pitchers and
Speaker 3: catchers reports. Suit, Hey, le'vey amred on long enough? We
Speaker 3: gotta go, all right, we will be back next week
Speaker 3: to wrap up the state finals. And again I want
Speaker 3: to see the Geneva Batavia student sections together. Let's just
Speaker 3: let's just get weird. Dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria.
Speaker 3: Put them all in one student section. Please have a
Speaker 3: lot of teachers and faculty there. Just observe that just
Speaker 3: in case it gets weird. But it would be awesome
Speaker 3: to see against eat St. Louis and Mount Carmel enjoy
Speaker 3: the state finals this weekend. I will make my way
Speaker 3: down there to watch as a fan for once. That'll
Speaker 3: be fun. Not calling games this year, I'm just gonna
Speaker 3: enjoy it as a fan. So Steve SUSSI will be
Speaker 3: out there. I'll be out there and for Steve my saying.
Speaker 3: My name is Matt Rude Wall. Thank you so much
Speaker 3: for watching and listening. This has been the Friday Night
Speaker 3: Drive podcast from Shaw Local Sports. We'll see you next
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