By Greg Halbleib
A long-time Intercity rivalry highlights Week 5 of the high school football season.
Bloomington searches for its first win of 2015 while host Normal Community is trying to avoid its first loss in Friday’s 7 p.m. kick-off. Normal Community looks to run its Big 12 Conference winning streak to 19 games.
NCHS coach Wes Temples said the opposite records don’t mean a thing.
“Records are out the window,” said Temples. “It’s a huge rivalry between us and Bloomington. There’s not a whole alike between the schools. The community gets behind you, the school gets behind you. Our kids know they’d better be ready or they’ll be upset with their performance if they don’t prepare the right way.”
Visiting Purple Raiders coach Rigo Schmelzer said the Ironmen have few weaknesses. “It’s a team that’s solid,” said Schmelzer. “They are a physical squad in all three facets of their game.”
Normal West rallied for a wild win last week over Grayslake North to improve to 2-2 and visits Richwoods (1-3). West coach Darren Hess says last week’s 59-54 victory told a lot about his team.
“Our kids just keep believing,” said Hess, “and I think that’s the right recipe if you want to be successful.”
Central Catholic hosts Pontiac in a battle of 3-1 squads in Corn Belt Conference action. Saints coach Mike Moews says the visiting Indians’ running game must be stopped.
“They still throw the ball 25 to 30 percent of the time,” said Moews, “but they do want to run it similar to us, so we have to have some guys who can play in space, hold the edge on them and not let them get out there and cause us problems.”
Another match-up of 3-1 Corn Belt teams takes place in Fairbury as Prairie Central hosts U-High. Defensive coordinator Trevor Von Bruenchenhein fills in as head coach for the visiting Pioneers this week and gives a vote of confidence in the game plan.
“We’ve got to be sound in our line assignments and disciplined in our secondary,” said Von Bruenchenhein. “They like to run their zone read so we have a couple of things in place to stop that.”
The WJBC Country Financial Friday Night Extravaganza will also feature reports from Dee-Mack (3-1) at Tri-Valley (4-0). Coverage on WJBC-AM 1230 begins at 6:10 p.m. with updates every quarter hour from all games and post-game
until 11 p.m. Scores can be found on WJBC.com and the WJBC Facebook page with frequent updates on the special Friday night Twitter feed (@WJBCHSFootball, #WJBCHSFB).
The Central Catholic vs. Pontiac game can be heard on WJEZ.com.
The Bloomington Thunder will open their second season in the United States Hockey League as they host the Waterloo Black Hawks at U.S. Cellular Coliseum at 7 p.m. WJBC.com will be your voice for Thunder hockey all season long.
Illinois State volleyball opens Missouri Valley Conference play at Missouri State at 7 p.m. Listen live on WJBC.com.
Greg Halbleib can be reached at [email protected].
