With 10 teams in the Southwest Prairie Conference this season and nothing but games against one another, the league’s four playoff teams’ only frame of reference was how they stacked up against one another.
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It turned out that Plainfield North’s third-place finish behind a couple of Class 8A teams had the Tigers extremely prepared for the 7A playoffs.
Few outside the Southwest Prairie area noticed Plainfield North’s four shutouts and seven total points allowed in Weeks 5-10, but the Tigers have everyone’s attention after crushing top-seeded and No. 5-ranked Bradley-Bourbonnais 49-20 in a second-round shocker on Saturday.
A week after the program’s first playoff win in six tries, a 42-0 rout of Highland Park, North dominated both sides of the ball, scoring 35 points before Bradley’s first first down to earn a home quarterfinal game against Rockford Auburn.
“It is definitely different when the conference schedule fills your entire schedule,” Plainfield North coach Tim Kane said. “You don’t have any nonconference games. The schedule we have, we play quite a few 8A schools and we had three schools qualify for the 8A playoffs.
“We felt like it would get us ready for the postseason, and it has worked out that way.”
Two of them, Oswego and Oswego East, had their seasons end Saturday with second-round losses but acquitted themselves well in Class 8A.
North’s defense was largely a secret most of the season, but the Tigers expected to be hard to score on with nine starters back from last season.
Dillon McCarthy and Kevin Block, who blanketed Camron Harrell, Bradley’s Iowa-bound receiver, had interceptions, and Ari Ekowa was a terror up front on both sides of the ball in their latest and greatest victory.
The offense has more than held up its end of the bargain, scoring more than 40 points for the eighth time behind Tyler Hoosman‘s 161 rushing yards and five touchdowns.
“The thing that helps us is that we’re not giving the ball up,” Kane said. “Our quarterback has only thrown a couple interceptions, and we’re not fumbling.”
Fox Valley focus: From a conference perspective, no league had a better weekend than the Fox Valley. Four of the FVC’s five playoff qualifiers are quarterfinalists, with the conference going 8-1 so far in the postseason.
The teams that put the conference on the map — No. 10 Cary-Grove and No. 4 Prairie Ridge — appear to be on a collision course for the Class 6A semifinals and a rematch of Prairie Ridge’s 26-14 Week 1 victory.
Cary-Grove (10-1) hasn’t been tested since, winning every game by at least 21 points and defeating Grayslake North 56-7 on Saturday.
Not to be outdone, Prairie Ridge (11-0) ended Montini’s seven-year streak of reaching the state finals in emphatic fashion, a 51-24 victory at Montini.
Third-place Huntley (8-3) beat Fremd 38-30 in Class 8A to earn a shot at No. 1 Loyola in Huntley next weekend.
Fifth-place Jacobs (7-4) was the surprise winner, upsetting Batavia 28-14 in Class 7A a week after Batavia beat fourth-place McHenry 42-12.
Pirates still afloat: Minus its star quarterback, No. 3 Palatine is a win away from back-to-back semifinal appearances after pulling out a 20-17 overtime victory at Lyons on Saturday night.
With Zach Oles sidelined by a broken collarbone in Palatine’s first-round victory over Notre Dame, D.J. Angelaccio continued to play well. He threw for 178 yards and rushed for 49 and a touchdown in the victory.
Palatine (11-0) will host No. 6 St. Charles East (11-0) in the only quarterfinal matchup of undefeated teams in Class 5A-8A.
IC hot: IC Catholic has probably been the favorite to win 3A since it defeated defending champion Bishop McNamara 34-0 on opening night.
Save for a 63-49 victory over Class 6A quarterfinalist St. Laurence, the 34 points it beat Bishop McNamara by was its smallest margin of victory.
The No. 11 Knights’ 65-0 second-round victory over Paxton-Buckley-Loda gave them a score differential of better than 500 this season (582-74).
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IC Catholic (11-0) will host Wilmington (11-0) in Elmhurst in the quarterfinals. Five of the eight remaining 3A teams are undefeated, including all four in the bracket’s top half.
Ninety-point club: Two teams that also know how to score points are Peoria and Deer Creek-Mackinaw, both of which reached the 90-point mark this weekend. Dee-Mack allowed 70 points to Hope Academy but still won by three touchdowns in a 91-70 win Saturday. The night before, Peoria routed Decatur Eisenhower 96-40. The Lions lost a fumble on their first possession then scored 14 touchdowns.
Both teams passed the previous playoff record, set in last year’s 80-40 win by Champaign Central against Jacksonville. Peoria has scored 632 points through 11 games, Dee-Mack 573.
Maine South and Lincoln-Way East have been postseason staples — and usually championship contenders — for years.
Their Class 8A quarterfinal matchup in Frankfort will be just their second postseason meeting. The first was a 30-24, double-overtime Lincoln-Way East victory in the 8A championship game in 2005.
Mike Helfgot is a freelance reporter for the baiduhai.