By Greg Halbleib
The regular season in high school football concludes Friday night with high-powered matchups, including the top two teams in Class 2A meeting in the WJBC Friday Night Extravaganza’s featured game.
Tri-Valley visits Deer Creek-Mackinaw in a battle of 8-0 squads. In the Illinois High School Association’s playoff outlook heading into the final weekend, the squads are first and second respectively in the overall projections of Class 2A seeds. Dee-Mack coach Job Linboom says the contest couldn’t be scripted any better.
“You really couldn’t set this up any better if you were writing a movie script,” Linboom said. “The defending state champs, they have that long streak, conference rivals, we played each other twice last year, and it’s in Week 9 as opposed to a Week 2 game. It’s really a once-in-a-lifetime situation.”
Tri-Valley coach Josh Roop points to two critical keys in the battle for the Heart of Illinois Conference championship.
“This time of year, it always comes down to two things–line play and turnovers,” said Roop. “If you can get great line play and limit your turnovers, you’re usually successful at this time of year.”
Bloomington (5-3, 4-3 Big Twelve Conference) can assure itself a spot in the playoffs for the first time in three seasons with a victory at home against Danville (6-2, 5-2). BHS coach Joe Walters says his team knows what’s in front of them.
“A win means we’re in for sure and we’re playing next week,” said Walters. “If we don’t get it, we play the wait-and-see game all day Saturday. It’s nice to be done and know your fate instead of just waiting it out.”
Normal Community (7-1, 6-1 Big Twelve) returns home for the first time in four weeks on Friday when the Ironmen meet Champaign Central (4-4, 3-4). Ironmen coach Wes Temples says it will be good to be home.
“Going on the road is not a bad thing, but when you do it four weeks in a row it gets a little old at times,” Temples said. “We’re excited to be home. It’s Homecoming and we’re honoring the state championship team of 10 years ago, so there are a lot of good things going on and we’re excited to be back.”
Normal West (4-4, 4-3 Big Twelve) needs a victory at home Friday in its game with Peoria Notre Dame (6-2, 5-2) to have a chance to qualify for the playoffs, and West coach Darren Hess hopes his team responds.
“We’ve been in playoff mode for the last three weeks and this is just another round for us,” Hess said. “I’m hoping that we can answer the bell. We’ve been slowly and surely building confidence in these past three weeks to get us ready for a great football team in Notre Dame.”
Central Catholic (7-1, 6-0 Corn Belt Conference), winners of seven straight, hits the road for a non-conference game at Tolono Unity (6-2, 3-1 Okaw Valley Conference). Saints coach Mike Moews says his team is treating it as a tuneup for the playoffs.
“Our approach has been in this game as our first playoff game,” said Moews. “Unity is a very good team and the type of team we’ll see in the playoffs. Our approach and preparation has been with that mindset.”
U-High (2-6, 2-4 Corn Belt) concludes its season at home as Moline (2-6, 1-4 Western Big 6 Conference) visits Hancock Stadium. Pioneers coach Trevor Von Breuchenhein says his team is ready for the season finale.
“We said what kind of mark do we want to leave on the season,” Von Breuchenhein said. “I think the guys are responding the way we’d expect them to. No one’s giving up.”
The Friday Night Extravaganza begins at 6:10 on WJBC-AM 1230 and WJBC.com with updates every quarter hour and post-game coverage until 11 p.m. Scores can be found on the Friday night Twitter feed (@WJBCHSFootball, #WJBCHSFB). Playoff pairings will be announced Saturday night and WJBC-AM 1230 and WJBC.com will have special coverage from 8 p.m. until 9:30 p.m.
Also on WJBC.com, Illinois State volleyball travels to Peoria to face rival Bradley in a 7 p.m. match heard here. Bloomington Thunder hockey returns to U.S. Cellular Coliseum to face the Muskegon Lumberjacks for a 7 p.m. face-off with pre-game at 6:45 on WJBC.com here.
Greg Halbleib can be reached at [email protected].
