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Nearly all the top seeds earned victories in the opening round, even though some of them may have been a little bit more of an adventure than originally anticipated.
It makes for an interesting second round with several matchups that look like coin flips on paper.
First round picks: 15-1
Second-round matchups
Lake Zurich vs. Kaneland: Lake Zurich scuffled a bit to get past Crystal Lake Central in the opening round, but the fact remains that the Bears only misstep this season was a four-point loss to a very solid Class 8A team, Warren. Kaneland is one of the few that can play a resume game with Lake Zurich in this class, the three losses for Kaneland came at the hands of three teams (Washington, Morris and Sycamore) that currently have a combined record of 28-2.
Pick: Lake Zurich
Belvidere North vs. Wauconda: The mystery of whether of not Northern Illinois-10 teams are primed to make noise in the postseason continues with Belvidere North who didn’t exactly cruise to a win over a CPL team in the opening round. Wauconda had a scare of its own fending off a Grant team it already defeated in the regular season in a 21-20 win.
Pick: Wauconda
Lake Forest vs. Geneva: Lake Forest got a fortunate break from the draw and coasted to a victory over CPL-entrant Lake View in the opening round. But the breaks end now for the Scouts, who now have to grapple with a Geneva team has two losses on its ledger to quality opponents (Batavia and Wheaton North) by a combined four points.
Pick: Geneva
Cary-Grove vs. Highland Park: Cary-Grove has two losses on the season to Prairie Ridge and Huntley but by extremely narrow margins and if the Trojans look like they are a great danger to the other teams in the 6A draw. Highland Park lost to two non-playoff qualifiers and while it breezed to a win in the opening round of the CPL’s Mather the Giants don’t look capable of matching up to this caliber of competition.
Pick: Cary-Grove
Kankakee vs. Blue Island Eisenhower: Kankakee had little trouble with a South Suburban Conference foe in the opening round in Bremen and now gets another in Eisenhower. At least Bremen managed to score, which is something few have been able to do since the Kays surrendered 26 of its state-best 48 points allowed back in Week 1 to Nazareth. Eisenhower has to figure out how to do to things post points and keep Kankakee from posting them. No one’s been able to do both so far.
Pick: Kankakee
East St. Louis vs. Normal Community West: East St. Louis has strung together six consecutive wins and allowed just 29 points during that stretch. And if the Flyers are getting strong defensive play coupled with its high octane offensive attack that’s probably too much for opponents to overcome. Normal West has proven an ability to post points, but has also given up far too many to the better teams on their schedule as well.
Pick: East St. Louis
Washington vs. Crete-Monee: Washington might be the least talked about one-loss team in the state at this point. That’s a surprising fact considering that lone loss came in a 7-0 defeat to Kankakee where the lone points of the game were scored on a kickoff return. Crete-Monee also lost to Kankakee, but not nearly in as impressive fashion as Kankakee breezed to a 42-0 win in Week 9.
Pick: Washington
Richards vs. Glenwood: After back-to-back losses to Morgan Park and Libertyville to start the season, Richards has been a team on a mission particularly on the defensive side of the ball. That unit will be put to the test by a Glenwood team that has been rather prolific on offense with games where they have scored 77, 63 and 58 over the course of the season.
Pick: Glenwood