By Greg Halbleib
A Big Twelve Conference meeting between two Intercity squads highlights the fourth week of the high school football season.
Normal West (2-1, 2-1 Big Twelve) crosses the Twin Cities to Fred Carlton Field in Bloomington to face the Purple Raiders (2-1, 2-0). West coach Nathan Fincham said the teams are similar.
“With the aggressive style they have, which is very similar to ours, we need to be able to recognize the blitz and be able to protect our runners and our throwers,” Fincham said. “Defensively, we need to play assignment-sound football and make sure we know what our job is because they have a quarterback that likes to move a lot.”
Bloomington coach Scott Godfrey put a large key on containing West quarterback Carson Camp.
“If we allow him to run and scramble, we cannot cover their DBs that long,” Godfrey said. “We have to get after him and we’ve got to keep him in the pocket. Offensively, we have to take care of the ball and we have to get our passing game back on track. Our pass game has not been what it was in Week 1.”
The Extravaganza will also include quarter-hour reports from Olympia (2-1) at Central Catholic (0-3), Jacksonville (1-2) at U-High (0-3), Tremont (2-1, 1-0 Heart of Illinois Small) at LeRoy (1-2, 0-1) and Ridgeview-Lexington (2-1, 1-0 HOIC Small) at Heyworth (2-1, 0-0). Score updates and interviews will also be provided from Normal Community (3-0) at Lapeer, Mich. (2-1).
The Extravaganza begins at 6:05 p.m. on AM 1230 WJBC and WJBC.com with scores and around-the-horn reports every quarter hour and post-game coverage until 11 p.m. Scores can also be found on the WJBC Sports Twitter feed (@SportsWJBC, #WJBCHSFB).
Week 4 high school football schedule (all kickoffs 7 p.m. unless noted):
Big Twelve:
Normal West at Bloomington
Peoria at Peoria Manual
Champaign Central at Urbana
Peoria Richwoods vs. Peoria Notre Dame (at Dozer Park)
Danville at Champaign Centennial (Sat. 1 p.m.)
Illini Prairie:
Olympia at Central Catholic
St. Joseph-Ogden at Tolono Unity
Monticello at Rantoul
St. Thomas More at Illinois Valley Central
Prairie Central at Pontiac (live WJEZ-FM 98.9 & WJEZ.com–click here to listen)
Central State Eight:
Jacksonville at U-High
Chatham Glenwood at Decatur Eisenhower
Decatur MacArthur at Rochester
Springfield Lanphier at Springfield
Springfield Southeast at Sacred Heart-Griffin
Heart of Illinois Large:
Tri-Valley at El Paso-Gridley
Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley at Fieldcrest
Deer Creek-Mackinaw at Eureka
Heart of Illinois Small:
Ridgeview-Lexington at Heyworth
Tremont at LeRoy
Central Illinois:
Macon Meridian at Clinton
Apollo:
Charleston at Lincoln
Lincoln Prairie:
Toledo Cumberland at Blue Ridge
Sangamon Valley:
Dwight at Clifton Central
Non-Conference:
Normal Community at Lapeer, Mich.
Madison at Fisher (Sat. 2 p.m.)
Eight-Man:
Flanagan-Cornell-Woodland at Edwardsville Metro-East Lutheran
Sports Director Greg Halbleib can be reached at [email protected].
