Three of our teams have made the second round of the playoffs
The first week of the second season is done.
And the Morris Redskins, Minooka Indians and Coal City Coalers are still around.
In the 2009 IHSA football playoffs.
Morris beat Chicago Raby at Hanson Stadium in ChiTown while Coal City defeated the Dunlap Eagles at the Dzuris Complex with both Saturday games being in Class 4A. Minooka defeated the Edwardsville Tigers at home on Friday in a 7A contest.
The Redskins will thus be the only home team this week. Morris will entertain the Mendota Trojans at 1 p.m. in a battle of NCIC squads. Mendota finished second behind Chillicothe IVC in the NCIC Lincoln Division with a 4-1 ledger. The Trojans are 8-2 overall after bowing out 8-3 last season.
Minooka, making its initial postseason appearance since 2003, will see a lot of the state this Saturday. The Indians will head down Interstate 55 to East St. Louis to challenge the Flyers.
Coal City fans will not put quite as many miles on the odometer on Saturday, but the Coalers contingent will still have a two-hour trip to the northern edge of LincolnLand where the team will tangle with the Richmond-Burton Rockets.
Richmond-Burton captured the Big Northern Conference East Division with an unblemished 5-0 mark. The Rockets, who bowed out 8-5 last season after winning three games in the playoffs, have seven victories in a row and are 9-1 this season.
Richmond-Burton is seeded second in the lower bracket of the 4A quadrant. Coal City has been given the No. 7 seed. The Rockets have posted some pretty impressive wins in 2009, beating the Oregon Hawks 35-7 in Week 1, the Winnebago Indians 35-16 in Week 4 and the Harvard Hornets 53-20 in Week 7.
Oregon, Winnebago and Harvard all qualified for the playoffs with the Hawks being 6-4, the Indians 8-2 and the Hornets 7-3. In addition, Richmond-Burton's lone loss was a 25-7 setback at the hands of the Stillman Valley Cardinals, who are currently 10-0 on the season.
Last week, Stillman Valley beat Rockford Christian Life 42-20, Winnebago knocked off Aurora Christian 28-14 and Oregon pounded Rockford Christian 44-14 in the playoffs. Harvard was the only team not to win, although the Hornets only dropped a 6-0 decision to McHenry Johnsburg.
Coal City was one of six Interstate Eight Conference schools that made the postseason. Four represent the I-8 Large Division; including the Coalers, Peotone, Reed-Custer and Herscher. Wilmington and Plano qualified from the I-8 Small Division.
The six teams were cut in half last week, with Coal City, Herscher and Wilmington surviving. The Small champion Wildcats of Wilmington continued their unblemished season under coach Jeff Reents with a 33-7 decision over Reed-Custer. The Herscher Tigers drilled Chicago Dyett 32-6. Peotone lost 40-7 to Richmond-Burton while Plano dropped a 33-16 verdict at Geneseo.
Minooka, champion of the Southwest Prairie Conference, was joined by SPC schools Oswego and Plainfield North in the playoffs. The Panthers of Oswego stayed alive, edging Bloomington 28-26, while the Tigers of Plainfield North ran into Chicago St. Rita and fell 40-14.
The Indians were the highest scoring team in the Southwest Prairie, with Minooka now rolling up 315 points in its 10 outings. Plainfield North bowed out with 287 while Romeoville had 265 in just its nine regular-season contests.
East St. Louis comes in 8-2 after eight consecutive victories. The Flyers have not lost to an Illinois opponent. East St. Louis lost its opening two games with a 49-28 setback to Cincinnati Elder and then a 27-16 defeat to Middletown. Both schools are located in the state of Ohio.
