Looking at the potential postseason chances of the DeKalb County teams

It’s kind of difficult to do power rankings of DeKalb County prep football teams.

After all, there’s a very large school (DeKalb), two large schools (Sycamore and Kaneland), a small school (Genoa-Kingston) and a really small school (Hiawatha). Sycamore, DeKalb and Kaneland have all been capable of beating each other to varying degrees, but the other two schools rarely can contend with the larger ones simply because they have fewer students.

Genoa-Kingston isn’t beating DeKalb. Hiawatha will never be better on the field than Sycamore.

So it doesn’t make much sense to rank them head-to-head.

But as we are now a third of the way through the season, what we can do is take an early look at each team, and what kind of shape each is in for the ultimate goal – postseason success.

And it starts with DeKalb, arguably the strongest team in the county, but with the realities of being in Class 7A – and in a conference made up of Class 8A teams – has the toughest path to the playoffs, and the toughest path should they get there.

The Barbs are 2-1, and didn’t give up a point until a 44-21 loss to Edwardsville, a Class 8A opponent, last week. They beat rival Sycamore, and they’re healthy.

But the schedule from here on is brutal. They open DuPage Valley Conference play with Neuqua Valley, a team that nearly upset East St. Louis, one of the best in the state. Quarterback Mark Gronowski had seven (!) touchdowns again the Flyers in the 50-48 loss. They close conference play against Naperville Central and Naperville North that on paper are a combined 0-6. But the six teams they have lost to are a combined 17-1, including two out-of-state powerhouses.

All this is a long way of saying the Barbs, even at 2-1, have a very difficult road to the postseason against a very tough schedule. They’re a 7A team essentially playing an 8A schedule.

Then you go down to the smallest on the list in Hiawatha.

The Hawks almost took down their white whale last week, but fell to Marquette, 41-35, their first blemish of the year. Hiawatha seems playoff-bound at 2-1 with a forfeit win still looming against Varna.

A tough battle this week against Rockford Christian, a team that beat Hiawatha, 28-21, in Kirkland last year – should go a long way to showing what type of postseason success the Hawks can have.

Next up is Kaneland, which was looking very strong until running into Sycamore last week, falling, 35-14. But the Knights’ remaining Interstate 8 schedule to be set up for a strong final six games – I don’t think it’s beyond the realm of possibility that both the Knights and Spartans run the table.

At any rate, they go into the postseason, with a passing game led by quarterback Joe Smith and a four-pack of speedy receivers, the blueprint is there for postseason success.

Now we get to two teams that, at this very early juncture, seem poised for long postseason runs on top of potential conference success.

The Cogs are decimating their competition – outscoring their foes 131-13 so far this year with a game against a Mendota team this week that has been outscored 115-20.

The Cogs have looked scary good on both sides of the ball so far this year. The offense runs the ball with balance, the defense swarms like crazy. Stillman Valley is the other unbeaten team left in the Big Northern Conference – although Byron appears to be clicking after not having their quarterback in their Week 2 loss to the Cardinals.

FYI, G-K plays Byron in Week 8 and Stillman Valley in Week 9.

Finally there’s Sycamore, a team that’s only loss, 13-0, is at the hands of DeKalb. But if you really break down that loss, you see a silver lining for the Spartans.

They played a ranked team two classes higher and stayed within two touchdowns, while missing Manny Dominguez – arguably their best offensive player and second-best defensive player. And they lost their main running back, Logan Egler, during the game.

Then against Kaneland, without Egler, the Spartans still dominated offensively – and lost their best defensive player, Preston Ruud, in the second half. And still won by three touchdowns against a ranked Class 6A team.

A year after all five county teams made the postseason, but were all out before long runs, (at least) Sycamore and Genoa-Kingston are looking like teams that can have tons of playoff success.

And there’s still six regular season games left. So there’s plenty of time for exciting, strange or unexpected things to happen.

• Eddie Carifio is the Daily Chronicle sports editor. Email him at ecarifio@shawmedia.com.