2023 IHSA football schedule release: 5 Times-area showdowns to circle on your calendar

With the IHSA releasing high school football schedules for the 2023 season, here’s a first-blush look at five intriguing matchups awaiting Times-area fans this fall.

Week 2: Streator at Ottawa

On the first day of September, the Pirates and the Bulldogs will meet for the 99th time in the state’s third-oldest high school football rivalry, one dating to 1894. The Pirates lead the all-time series 59-38-1 and are coming off a come-from-behind but ultimately convincing 42-14 victory last season at Streator on the night the Bulldogs rechristened their football facility after hometown NFL legend Doug Dieken.

While the history and rivalry always make this one a big game, how recent seasons have played out and how the schedules stack up for the two programs make it an almost must-have game for Streator and Ottawa’s playoff hopes.

Week 4: Elmwood Park at Seneca

Goodbye, Vermilion Valley Football Alliance. Hello, Chicagoland Prairie Football League.

Coming off an undefeated regular season and the Vermilion Valley North’s division championship, the Fighting Irish will follow up three games against former conference foes (Wilmington in Week 1, Lisle in Week 2 and Westmont in Week 3 in both teams’ Chicagoland Prairie opener) with their first new league opponent Sept. 15, Class 4A/5A school Elmwood Park, formerly of the Metro Suburban. It should be a great test for both teams and an early indicator of how the league’s larger and smaller schools might stack up as the season plays out in a conference with teams ranging in school size from 1A to 5A.

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Week 7: Ottawa at La Salle-Peru

The second of Ottawa’s two in-county rivalry games dating to the days when a can of soup sold for less than a dime, expect an intense meeting the night of Oct. 6 at Howard Fellows Stadium between two 2022 playoff teams.

La Salle-Peru won last fall’s 123rd meeting of the old rivals 31-7. It was the eighth consecutive season the Cavaliers defeated the Pirates and lifted L-P’s all-time series lead to 68-50-5.

With both teams coming off 5-5 seasons that saw them land on the right side of the playoff bubble, this obviously will be a big one beyond the historical and geographical reasons. Expect a wild one.

Week 8: South Beloit at FCW (at Woodland)

As the Flanagan-Cornell/Woodland co-op looks to rise back into the upper tier of the Illinois 8-Man Football Association ranks, this Oct. 13 game at first glance seems as if it could loom large for the Falcons’ hopes of returning back to the playoffs.

In an I8FA assemblage of teams that historically has been top heavy, the key for teams on the rise has been taking their lumps at the hands of the powerhouses but then winning close games against everyone else when the opportunity for a W presents itself. FCW did not play South Beloit in 2022, but the Sobos finished 5-4 and on the I8FA playoff bracket – a berth the Falcons would like to take in 2023.

Week 8: St. Bede at Marquette

Conference opponents again for the first time since 2011 when both were in the Big Rivers – Marquette leaving then for the Northeastern Athletic and St. Bede remaining to help form the Three Rivers, which it is leaving this season to become an inaugural member of the Chicagoland Prairie alongside the Crusaders – expect a fierce rivalry to be renewed at Gould Stadium this October.

Both programs have developed into small-school powerhouses since they last met, and there’s reason to believe this one could loom large for not only bragging rights but playoff seeding in the Class 1A playoff field.

Arrive early Oct. 13, football fans.