Marquette, Seneca face tough second-round road trips in playoffs: The Times Week 11 preview

Here’s a look at the second-round playoff matchups awaiting Seneca and Dwight/Gardner-South Wilmington in Class 2A along with Marquette in 1A.

Class 1A

Marquette (6-4) at Galena (6-4)

When: 1 p.m. Saturday

About the Crusaders: This is a matchup of two teams that pulled off upsets in the opening round. Marquette Academy did it in resounding fashion, 44-6 at eight-win Rushville-Industry, the decisiveness of the win perhaps more surprising than the result going in favor of the playoff-regular Crusaders. Marquette’s defense (limiting run-heavy Rushville-Industry to 233 yards from scrimmage) and wing-T running attack (led by Payton Gutierrez’s 167 yards and two TDs, Jaxsen Higgins’ 165 yards and one TD, and Grant Dose’s 88 yards and three TDs) were firing on all cylinders in the opener. It will likely take another such effort to propel the Cru to the 1A quarterfinals for the first time since making back-to-back trips to the semifinals in 2015 and 2016, also under current head coach Tom Jobst. Last week’s win lifted Marquette to 2-4 against 2024 playoff teams overall and 1-1 against fellow 1A playoff teams this season.

About the Pirates: Galena had to rally late and survive a thriller in its opening-round matchup at Stark County, defeating the Rebels 43-42 on a do-or-die 2-point conversion attempt with just more than a minute remaining. Survive it the Pirates did, however, despite trailing by 15 points in the fourth quarter, and due to being 1A North’s No. 12 seed to Marquette’s No. 13, the Pirates will be hosting this Saturday matchup with the winner likely hosting undefeated LeRoy in the third round. RB Myles Schumacher (89 yards rushing, 36 yards receiving in the opening-round victory) and QB Roman Romer (12-for-21, 203 yards passing; 58 yards rushing) are the centerpieces of an offense that prefers to run but acquitted itself quite well when behind and forced to throw last week in Wyoming. The Pirates’ win at Stark County was their first against a fellow Illinois playoff team, with their four losses coming at the hands of 7-3 Eastland-Pearl City (22-6), 9-1 DuPec (61-13), 10-0 Lena-Winslow (22-10) and 7-3 Stockton (34-0).

Friday Night Drive pick: Galena

Class 2A

Elmwood-Brimfield (9-1) at Dwight/GSW (7-3)

When: 1 p.m. Saturday

About the Trojans: Elmwood-Brimfield enters the second round on a five-game winning streak that began with a pair of close victories over 4-5 Bureau Valley (27-21) and 7-3 Macomb (31-28) followed by blowout wins over 3-6 Abingdon-Avon, 0-9 Lewistown and 56-26 last week of Fithian Oakwood to kick off the postseason. The visitors will bring a powerful offense to Dwight, having scored 27 or more points in every game save for its lone loss (a shutout at the hands of Farmington in Week 5) and having reached 40 points seven times, 50 points four times, 60 points twice and 70 once. Elmwood-Brimfield has done just about all of that damage on the ground, led by a pair of running backs approaching 2,000-yard rushing seasons – Bo Windish (1,711 yards, 26 TDs, 8.9 yards per carry) and fellow senior Matthew Glenn (1,690 yards, 21 TDs, 8.8 per attempt). Windish also is the team’s leading receiver, with 11 of the Trojans’ 15 receptions for 226 of their 263 passing yards.

About the Trojans: Dwight/Gardner-South Wilmington made school history with last Friday’s 41-13 upset (on the bracket, anyway) of old conference rival Momence, the program’s first playoff victory since 1983. Now the Trojans will try to make a little more history by advancing to the third round for the first time in school annals. Any upset bid will have to start with the Dwight/GSW defense – which got off to a great start the first third of the season but surrendered 20 or more points to every opponent save one the final two-thirds of the regular season, including 57 to 9-1 Maroa-Forsyth and 52 to 9-1 Seneca – putting in its best performance of the season against a high-scoring Elmwood-Brimfield rushing attack. Part of that upset formula would be Seneca’s own running game led by Ayden Collom, Evan Cox and Dylan Crouch piecing together long, clock-eating, field-flipping drives that end in both points and limited opportunities for Elmwood-Brimfield.

FND pick: Elmwood-Brimfield

Seneca (9-1) at BHRA (10-0)

When: 2 p.m. Saturday

About the Fighting Irish: Seneca received maybe a little more of a test than most expected in last week’s opening round, trailing six-win El Paso-Gridley by four points heading into the third quarter of an eventual 39-23 Irish victory. Leading rusher Brody Rademacher (1,425 yards, 17 TDs, 16.4 per-carry average on the season) and Nick Grant (514 yards, 5 TDs including last week’s game-winner, 8.4 per attempt) both rushed for over 100 yards in the comeback win over the Titans. With QB Paxton Giertz (238 yards passing; 439 yards rushing) they will be asked to lead Seneca’s run-heavy power-T attack against what has been a stingy Blue Devils defense allowing just 13.2 points per game, albeit with no shutouts. Perhaps counterintuitive for an old-school rushing offense, big plays have powered Seneca. The Irish defense, too, should have its hands full with BHRA’s multi-faceted offense. Seneca will be looking to return to the Class 2A quarterfinals for a second straight season, with the winner of 9-1 Chicago Christian versus 9-1 Tri-Valley awaiting the Irish if they do.

About the Blue Devils: Bismarck-Henning-Rossville-Alvin has been in the playoffs each of the past 14 seasons, but not to the third round in any of those trips. That’s something the Blue Devils will try to change after an undefeated regular season and then a surprisingly nail-biting 14-6 win in the opening round against 5-5 Erie-Prophetstown last Saturday. Champions of the Vermilion Valley Conference, the Blue Devils have averaged 41.3 points per outing this fall thanks to a balanced attack led by 1,000-yard passer Anderson Thomas (75-of-115 for 1,190 yards, 17 TDs, 4 INTs), 1,000-yard rusher Evan Parish (1,471 yards, 21 TDs, 8.8 per carry) and approaching 1,000-yard receiver Chaz Dubois (39 receptions, 746 yards, 9 TDs). BHRA’s top two wins on its resume include a 21-20 victory in Week 2 over 6-4 Westville and 42-14 in Week 7 over an 8-2 Momence team that got blown out in the opening round by a Dwight/GSW squad the Fighting Irish beat by 30 points in their Chicagoland Prairie Conference meeting this season.

FND pick: Seneca