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When the dust cleared after the quarterfinal round in Class 8A, there wasn’t a lot of surprised reaction.
That’s understandable as one of the first things people looked to see when the bracket was released was when would Lincoln-Way East and Loyola potentially meet? The answer was the semifinals and three weeks later that’s exactly what happened.
As for the other side of the bracket, there wasn’t a lot of surprise there either as both Naperville Central and York looked like teams that could put together deep postseason runs.
First round predictions: 14-2
Second round predictions: 7-1
Quarterfinal predictions: 4-0
Semifinal-round matchups
Lincoln-Way East vs. Loyola: This matchup seemed almost premeditated after the two teams have met in each of the last two Class 8A championships and have played in five of the last six previous postseasons. The Griffins haven’t seriously been pushed all season long having added the immense talents of QB Jonas Williams in the offseason to an offensive attack that almost never has much difficulty posting points regardless. Defensively, Lincoln-Way East is also extremely talented and hasn’t given opponents much room to breathe. It’s been a very interesting season for Loyola after an odd start. The Ramblers were overwhelmed by East St. Louis in their season opening loss to the Flyers and also took a surprising loss to St. Francis back in Week 3. But Loyola’s done a very good job of shaking off that 1-2 start and with a healthy QB in Ryan Fitzgerald the Ramblers look ready for another chapter in what has proven to be a pretty epic rivalry.
Pick: Lincoln-Way East
Naperville Central vs. York: It seems strange to say but Naperville Central has flown under the radar a bit despite its lone loss coming to powerhouse Lincoln-Way East. And the Redhawks have simply found ways to win, either by outscoring you or putting the clamps down so hard that you can’t do much to try to match them. The clamps were definitely put in place in Naperville Central’s win over Lyons in the quarterfinals while QB Sebastian Hayes did more than enough to guide his team into the semifinals. York seems to have been underestimated at every stage after finishing third in a deep West Suburban Silver race, but convincing wins over Edwardsville and Oswego should have provided fair warning that York’s quest to finally reach a state final game (they are 0-4 all-time in state semifinal games) wasn’t going to be shot down in the quarterfinal round.
Pick: York