October is here and we’re already approaching the end of the regular season. These next couple weeks will certainly qualify as spooky season for area teams looking to secure playoff spots, lock up first-round byes and avoid those scary early playoff draws.
While the Southland’s elite teams continue to stake their claims among the state’s top contenders, a second tier of area teams has emerged over the last few weeks, establishing themselves as solid competitors who are all capable of making a playoff run in the right bracket.
Let’s examine these teams a bit closer — and take a look back at a couple noteworthy Friday night games — in my Week 7 takeaways.
Outside the top 10 all season, but let’s not overlook them
There are 10 area teams who have not cracked the Daily Southtown’s top 10 at any point this fall but have at least four wins. Several of them have had impressive runs over the last few weeks and they deserve some of our attention.
Let’s start in the wild South Suburban Blue, where TF North (5-2, 4-0) hosts Oak Forest (4-3, 3-1) in a first-place showdown Friday night.
The Meteors shook off a 31-6 setback against Shepard in Week 6 to hold off Lemont 7-3 on Friday. Jaleil Littleton caught a 29-yard pass from Jermaine Henley for the game’s lone touchdown. Aside from that loss to the Astros, T.F. North has held three of its last four opponents to seven points or less.
Oak Forest, which edged Hillcrest 26-21, is looking to get hot late and go on another postseason run after reaching the 5A semifinals last season.
Tinley Park (4-3), meanwhile, beat T.F. South 26-20. Led by senior quarterback Randy Ludke, the Titans are vastly improved after last year’s 1-8 finish.
In the South Suburban Red, Shepard (4-3) — which had the aforementioned impressive 31-6 win over T.F. North in Week 6 — rolled 50-0 over Argo behind three TD runs from Elijah Motley.
Reavis (4-3) pulled off a 21-14 overtime win over Eisenhower to pick up its fourth win.
Evergreen Park (5-2) has also been consistent, especially on defense, giving up 20-plus points only twice all season.
One of the Mustangs’ victories that is looking better every week is a 17-6 win in the season opener over Ag Science (6-1, 4-0), which has not lost since. The Cyclones take on Goode (5-1, 4-0) on Thursday at Stagg Stadium with the Public League Red Southwest title on the line.
Leo (4-3) and Thornton (5-2) are headed to the playoffs for the first time since 2013 and 2019, respectively.
That leaves Crete-Monee, which we’ll come back to later.
An instant classic in Oak Lawn
Friday night’s crosstown showdown lived up to the hype as Richards rallied for a 28-25 win over Oak Lawn in the most exciting game I’ve seen all season.
Credit the Bulldogs (5-2, 4-0) for rallying behind big plays from senior quarterback/kick returner Eric Jacobs and junior running back Jordan Lewis.
Richards has won five straight and is closing in on another South Suburban Red title.
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But it was hard not to feel for the Spartans (6-1, 4-1), who controlled the game for large portions of the second half then — after letting an 11-point lead slip away — drove all the way down to the goal line with a chance to win before fumbling at the Bulldogs’ 1-yard line in the final minute.
The recovery from a pile of players by Josh Valenzuela clinched the win for Richards.
Nonetheless, Oak Lawn showed that unlike past teams over the last 30 years, the Spartans can go toe to toe with Richards. And they are capable of making some noise in the postseason.
Most eye-opening score
Crete-Monee 52, Bradley-Bourbonnais 14.
The Warriors (6-1) lost their opener 25-15 to Yorkville but have rolled to six straight wins, with only one game decided by less than 20 points.
The competition had not been great, but Friday’s thumping of a solid Boilermakers team shows we need to pay more attention to Crete-Monee.
The running back duo of junior Amarre Carey and senior Dominic Jackson combined for 304 yards and four TDs for the Warriors, who will get a huge test Friday night when they host Kankakee (5-2) with the Southland Conference title on the line.