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From the beginning of this high school football season, the Southwest Prairie Conference race figured to be a wild ride.
Joliet Central and Joliet West joined what had been an eight-team conference. With their entries, the league went to full round-robin schedule.
That meant nobody had to be concerned with arranging nonconference matchups. The competitive balance, meanwhile, was likely to be as strong as or stronger than ever.
Two weeks into the fray, Plainfield East joins five-time defending SPC champion Oswego and Oswego East, which has taken a giant stride forward with the addition of Iowa-bound running back transfer Ivory Kelly-Martin, atop the standings with 2-0 records. Joliet West, Minooka, Plainfield North and Plainfield South all are 1-1 and feel as though they can be playoff teams.
To make the playoffs, an SPC team will need to finish 5-4. If you can beat Joliet Central, Plainfield Central and Romeoville, all of whom currently are 0-2, you would need to beat two of the other six to get in. Lose to one of them and you would need to beat three of the other six.
It’s not an easy task regardless of how you do against the three teams currently winless, and who is to say one or two of those teams won’t get hot and knock off two or three of the more likely playoff contenders? But five teams easily could qualify, and you can imagine scenarios where six will get in. Seven is possible mathematically but virtually impossible in practice.
“This is a wide-open conference,” Plainfield South coach Bill Bicker said after the Cougars’ 12-3 loss to Joliet West last Saturday afternoon. “There should be entertaining games all season long. One thing that’s interesting is there have been some defensive struggles early.”
Although leading only 3-0 late in the second quarter against Joliet West, South had the upper hand in terms of possession time and opportunities.
The Cougars were victimized by the Tigers’ goal-line stand shortly before halftime, and a couple of plays later, West receiver Terrance Neal turned a short reception into an 85-yard scoring play. Instead of trailing, 10-0, at half, the Tigers enjoyed a 6-3 lead.
In the second half, the Tigers had the ball more often and their defense bent but stepped up and made the big plays.
“The first half our offense didn’t run more than 20 plays,” West coach Jason Aubry said. “The second half we were able to run the ball and that made a big difference.”
The Cougars, meanwhile, had opportunities all afternoon but failed to make it happen.
“We had plays to make that were there,” Bicker said. “Things we wanted to do were open. It was not for lack of effort that it didn’t get done. That’s the nature of the game, though. You can’t expect kids to be perfect.
“We will watch the film. What it will show us is there were plays to be made. We’ve got to make ’em.”
My weekend of coverage began last Friday night with Minooka’s 33-7 victory at Joliet Central. The Steelmen led, 7-0, on the strength of Jomarre McNair’s 61-yard interception return for a touchdown. But the Indians moved ahead, 13-7, at halftime thanks to Isaiah Hill’s excellent grab of a 31-yard scoring pass from John Carnagio.
McNair, who was blanketing Hill on that TD reception, went down with severe leg cramps on the play. He played sparingly the rest of the way and was not at 100 percent when he did get back on the field.
As much as the Steelmen missed McNair at his receiver position on offense, they suffered from his absence in the defensive secondary at least as much. With McNair sidelined, Carnagio went 7 for 10 in the third quarter alone, for 146 yards and three touchdowns.
“Our skill players got on a roll in the second half,” Minooka coach Paul Forsythe said. “(Max) Christiano made a real nice play on his touchdown.”
Although having the tough-to-swallow 7-6 Week 1 loss to Oswego on its ledger, the Indians are a candidate to contend for the SPC title. This week, they are at Plainfield East, which has beaten Joliet Central, 6-0, and Plainfield Central, 41-20, so far.
Another intriguing matchup is Saturday’s Oswego at Joliet West game. The Panthers blanked Plainfield North, 12-0, last week.
“We’re looking forward to facing Oswego,” Aubry said. “They’re obviously a good team, but they haven’t been scoring a lot. I was happy with our defense (against Plainfield South). Hopefully, we’re ready to go against Oswego.”