All that stood between the Ridgewood football team and qualifying for the postseason last year was four playoff points.
Teams with five wins are always on the playoff bubble and a squad’s playoff points, the combined wins of all opponents, determines whether or not it qualifies for the 256-team field, which is then divided into eight classes. Forty-five squads that finished with a 5-4 record last season qualified as at-large teams for the playoffs, but 22 teams with a winning record were left out of the postseason.
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Every team with 40 playoff points made the playoffs in 2014. The final playoff berth went to a team with 39 playoff points. The Rebels, who were seeking their first playoff berth since 2002, ended the year 5-4 with 36 playoff points.
“Last year it was a pretty big upset that we didn’t get in because we were four playoff points away,” senior Vinny Scaletta said. “Hopefully this year we have a better chance. I think we will and I know we can. Our guys work really hard and we just have to apply everything we learn in practice and all the techniques that we use and learn.”
It could also be said that one win stood between the Rebels and the playoffs. Teams with at least six wins earn automatic berths.
“We know we missed last year by one game, so we don’t want to do the same thing this year and we’re trying to go all out,” junior Alex Rice said. “We put a lot of work in during the offseason and during the beginning of the season. We’ve been working since the end of school weight lifting and working outside and running.”
In an effort to accumulate more playoff points this season, the Rebels scheduled two new nonconference opponents to open the season.
Solorio, the Week 1 opponent, went 8-1 in the regular season in 2014 before falling 42-0 to Marian Central Catholic in the first round of the Class 5A playoffs. Urban Prep West, the Week 2 opponent, finished 4-5 last season, but registered a 7-2 mark in the regular season in 2013 and lost 45-12 to Phillips in the opening round of the Class 4A playoffs. The two CPS schools replaced 2014 nonconference opponents Niles West, a Class 8A school, and Crossroads Academy, a team based in Big Rock for home-schooled students in the area.
“It’s always hard to find teams that are our size,” Rebels coach Chris Zack said. “We’re a 4A school and there’s not a ton of 4A schools around here other than in the CPS. We wanted to get some teams that were comparable to our size, both roster-wise and the size of the school. Also we wanted to get some teams that we could definitely bang with and play with, but also that we know will win some games throughout the season and help get us playoff points going forward to help with the ability to clinch a playoff spot as the season goes on.”
The Rebels did indeed play with Solorio, losing 28-21 in Chicago on Friday, Aug. 28. It was a much more competitive game than Ridgewood’s nonconference contests last season — a 41-0 loss to Niles West and a 47-0 victory over Crossroads.
“A tough game [against Solorio] is obviously better than losing by 41 points last year [to Niles West],” Rice said. “It shows how tough we are and how hard we’re going to fight.”
“The more competitive games will help us with being more prepared to be in that situation and being ready to battle,” Scaletta added. “Most of the games we play are probably going to be pretty close and we have to know how we play in that situation.”
Zack was pleased with how his team competed against Solorio.
“We played tough against a pretty tough and athletic team,” Zack said. “Our guys came out and competed and played hard. Our guys played very tough and hard for all four quarters and we were in that game until the very end. Their coaches even came up to me afterwards and sent me an email about how our guys played tough. Our guys played well.
“I’m not a big moral victory guy, but there were definitely some moral victories to take from this game regarding how physical we played and how physical the team we played against was and we were able to compete and battle with them. They had some really good athletes and we were really able to hang in and be composed with them, so there’s a lot of good things to take from this game, even in a loss. I think we showed our guys and some of our fans that we can play a physical, athletic style game against teams that many people didn’t think we’d actually match up well with.”
Zack believes Solorio’s speed served as excellent preparation for the Friday, Sept. 4, home game against Urban Prep West. It’s scheduled to start at 7 p.m.
“We think we match up well with Urban Prep West as well,” Zack said. “These two games will get us ready for our two crossover games against the Metro Suburban West teams, Fenton and Glenbard South, and obviously prepare us even more for Week 5 and going into our conference play. We faced a lot of speed in [Friday’s] game and we’ll be going against a lot of speed this coming week. That definitely will prepare us because I’m not sure if we’ll see that kind of speed going forward. I definitely think that will prepare us for conference play without a doubt.”
Todd Marver is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.