High school football: Marengo, Richmond-Burton, Woodstock North and Cary-Grove notes

ROCKFORD – After Marengo clinched a share of its first Big Northern Conference East Division title since 1997 with a 59-13 win over Rockford Christian on Friday night, senior running back Jarrell Jackson’s attention turned to another division rival: North Boone.

“Do you know what they did tonight?” Jackson turned and asked. “North Boone…? Did they win?”

The Vikings, who lost to Richmond-Burton, 42-19, knocked Marengo out of the playoffs with a one-point win in the final week of 2014. The Indians had enough wins, finishing 5-4, but not enough playoff points to advance to the Class 4A football postseason.

In that game, a two-touchdown lead for the Indians with 5:21 remaining turned into a 29-28 defeat, extending Marengo's playoff drought to 11 years. The streaking Indians (8-0 overall, 6-0 BNC East) are headed back to the playoffs with a chance to secure its first undefeated regular season in 18 years with a win against North Boone.

They also can exact a small bit of revenge by keeping the Vikings out.

North Boone (4-4) will visit Marengo at 7 p.m. Friday at Rod Poppe Fields needing a win to make the playoffs. The Vikings have 37 playoff points and will finish with at least 40, which has always been enough to get in during previous seasons.

Born to run: Richmond-Burton was able to surprise North Boone on its first play Friday, a 35-yard pass. The Vikings likely were expecting a running play from R-B, because that's what it thrives on.

R-B defeated North Boone, 42-19, and attempted only one other pass the entire game, which was incomplete. The Rockets ran for 317 yards behind their big offensive line on 42 attempts.

R-B is 7-1 and leans heavily on Joe Dittmar (759 yards) to get the inside yards, while Joe Wolfram (616) does his best work outside. They each have nine touchdowns. Wide receiver Blaine Bayer leads the team with four receptions, two of which have gone for touchdowns.

Win and you’re in: Woodstock North (4-4 overall, 2-3 Fox Valley Conference Fox Division) needs a win at Grayslake North (5-3, 4-1) Friday to become playoff eligible. The Thunder will be guaranteed 38 playoff points and could get more with wins by Cary-Grove, Prairie Ridge and Chicago Noble/UIC.

Woodstock North likely will have enough points, but without a win against Grayslake North, that point will be moot. The Knights have a four-game winning streak against the Thunder and prevented Woodstock North from making the playoffs last season.

The Thunder will be tasked with halting running back Dami Oladunmoye and the Knights offense, which has put up 28 or more points in seven of eight games amid a three-game winning streak.

Thunder coach Jeff Schroeder saw some positives in Friday night’s 42-7 loss to Prairie Ridge which could help his team prevail this week.

“We just have to play great defense and score,” Schroeder said. “[Friday night], we did a better job of keeping possession of the ball and we have to put more drives together and make more plays.”

Role models: Dundee-Crown coach Mike Steinhaus views Cary-Grove, which defeated the Chargers, 48-7, on Friday, as a program they should emulate.

C-G consistently plays at a high level and coach Brad Seaburg’s teams lost in state championship games in 2012 and 2014.

“We played a first-class program tonight and we are not at that level yet,” Steinhaus said. “We talked to our guys about wanting to play like Cary-Grove because they always play hard. Our guys played hard tonight and we never quit.”

C-G suffered its only loss in Week 5 to Huntley, 29-8, then received a forfeit from McHenry. The Trojans put up 99 points combined in their last two games.

“We came together as a team and played hard,” C-G running back Ryan Magel said. “Our confidence level is high now”.

– Steve Theil, Ryan Altman and Dan Berg contributed to this report.