By Greg Halbleib
Bloomington visits Normal Community tonight to continue a long-time Intercity rivalry to highlight Week 2 of the WJBC Friday Night High School Football Extravaganza.
Both teams collected one-sided wins in last week’s openers. Normal Community coach Wes Temples said he’s been around long enough to know that little things often turn this rivalry game.
“It seems almost every year it comes down to a little detail,” Temples said. “Something that happens on special teams or a mistake that’s made that’s normally not made usually separates this type of game.”
Normal West hosts O’Fallon, a bigger school that host Wildcats coach Darren Hess said will bring more personnel.
“In that border of (Class) 7A and 8A, they definitely have more depth,” Hess said. “They will be big and physical. Can we handle that barrage, and still be able to effectively run the football.”
U-High lost its Central State Eight Conference opener at Springfield 42-21, and Pioneers coach John Johnson hopes to rebound by streamlining the defense.
“We’re trying to keep it simple, read defense, just stay in our lane and fulfill our assignments,” Johnson said. “We blew some assignments versus that triple option and it cost us a couple of times.”
Prairie Central visits Central Catholic, with reports on the Extravaganza and full play-by-play at www.wjez.com. The Extravaganza will also feature a pair of Heart of Illinois Conference games, Ridgeview-Lexington at Deer Creek-Mackinaw and Eureka at Tri-Valley.
The Extravaganza begins at 6:10 with scene-setters, reports every quarter hour and post-game recaps until 11 p.m.
WJBC 1230 AM:
6:00 p.m. Football (Extravaganza) – Bloomington at Normal Community Listen live here
11:00 p.m. Baseball – St. Louis at Francisco
WJEZ 98.9 FM:
6:55 p.m. Football – Prairie Central at Central Catholic Listen live here
Greg Halbleib can be reached at [email protected].
