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An awful lot of energy is often expended on talking about the teams from the power conferences when it comes to how teams might fare in the postseason.
Based on the results of the 2024 postseason so far, it feels like those conversations were merited in being had.
A whopping eight CCL/ESCC teams have reached the semifinal round, including three of the final four teams in Class 5A.
Three teams have advanced from the SouthWest Valley while two teams from the DuKane, Illinois Central Eight and Illini Prairie have also moved into their respective final fours.
Those five conferences account for over half of the remaining teams left in the postseason.
Powerhouses being powerhouses
As promised there were more than a few exciting matchups in the quarterfinals including:
• In Class 2A, Quincy Notre Dame rattled off 21 consecutive points to take a late touchdown lead over Maroa-Forsyth. And Maroa-Forsyth had to march the length of the field in four minutes to try to get them in position for a potential tying or game-winning score.
The Trojans engineered that drive and scored with 52 seconds to play – and then made the gutsy call to go for the 2-point call and got it securing a 22-21 win in a game that pitted what many regarded as the two favorites to win the Class 2A title.
• That 2-point decision went the opposite way in the Class 3A semifinal between Benton and Monticello.
The two teams were locked up heading into overtime and Monticello punched in a touchdown and successfully kicked the extra point. Benton matched the touchdown, and then the Rangers elected to go for the 2-point conversion – but were stopped cold on the attempt and Monticello marches on.
• Richards already played with fire in the opening round with a 1-point win over Dunlap, but the Bulldogs decided to do it again as they narrowly defeated favored Kankakee.
But for all the close calls there are several teams that made the first three rounds of the playoffs look fairly easy.
• Lincoln-Way East dominated in a win over Stevenson in the quarterfinals, which was the latest in a string of easy postseason wins where it has outscored opponents 125-7.
• East St. Louis finally gave in and surrendered a few points in a quarterfinal matchup with Glenwood which were the first points the Flyers have allowed in the postseason to date. But, of course, they also posted 58 points in the win, giving them 173 of them in the postseason.
• Belleville Althoff wasted no time securing itself a place in the semifinals, jumping out to a 34-0 lead in the first quarter. Althoff hasn’t been remotely pushed thus far, scoring 172 points through three games.
The newcomers
Seven of the remaining 32 teams are still seeking their first ever championship game appearance with a win in the semifinal round.
Three of the four teams remaining in Class 2A have never reached a title game. Johnston City, Farmington and Chicago Christian are playing in rarified air for their programs as Johnston City is the only one of the trio that has even reached a semifinal contest,
In Class 4A, the clash between Mount Zion and Normal University will produce a finalist regardless of who wins the matchup, while in Class 8A York has reached the semifinals four different times without being able to make the final step to the state championship game.
Running it back
Typically the postseason tends to create matchups where the two paired opponents don’t have much experience with one another.
That’s simply not the case with this postseason as there are many common threads between the remaining combatants.
The most obvious one is the looming Class 8A battle between Loyola and Lincoln-Way East. These two teams have met in the last two 8A title games, both Loyola wins. But the Ramblers/Griffins rivalry runs deeper than that.
The two teams have locked horns in five of the last six postseason contested seasons with Loyola holding a substantial lead in wins with four victories. But none of the games have been decided by more than 11 points, which was Lincoln-Way East’s lone win in the series in the 2017 8A title game.
In Class 1A, Belleville Althoff and Camp Point Central dueled in the quarterfinals last season and will lock horns in the semifinal this time around. Althoff was considered a heavy favorite in the contest last year but Camp Point Central overpowered Althoff early and that victory catapulted them to a title two weeks later.
Class 7A’s semifinal matchup between Mount Carmel and St. Rita rekindles a long-time rivalry between the schools that was so valuable to both that when St. Rita was removed from the CCL/ESCC Blue Division the two still got to battle in a non-conference game. Mount Carmel won a Week 2 matchup this season 28-0.
Cary-Grove dismantled Geneva in a Class 6A quarterfinal last season, 41-7 on its way to the Class 6A title. It sure likes Geneva is positioned to give the Trojans a much better fight this time around.
St. Francis surprised Nazareth in Week 9 of the regular season in a result that was overshadowed by the chaos of the final weekend of the season. Now Nazareth, who is trying to defend its Class 5A state title of the last two years, will try to make that result look like a fluke in a semifinal rematch.
Joliet Catholic breezed past Morris last season in a quarterfinal matchup, winning 41-7. And these two programs seem to be drawn to one another in the postseason considering this will be the 11th time the two have battled in the postseason. Joliet Catholic leads the postseason series 8-2.
Tolono Unity beat Monticello 42-28 in Week 9 as Unity continued its powerhouse second half as it started the season just 2-3. Monticello will get the chance to see if they learned anything from the first meeting.