UDSKRIFT 🔗
WEBVTT
00:00:05.240 --> 00:00:08.920
What we learned in week twelve of high school football, some wild
00:00:08.920 --> 00:00:15.120
conclusions in round of sixteen. This article
00:00:15.120 --> 00:00:18.480
is being read by an automated voice brought to you by Everlet.
00:00:19.740 --> 00:00:24.060
Just 11 of the 64 games contested in the Round of 16
00:00:24.060 --> 00:00:27.020
were decided by eight points or less, but the ones that were
00:00:27.020 --> 00:00:29.340
largely proved to be absolutely doozies.
00:00:30.200 --> 00:00:35.640
Easily the strangest and most controversial contest happened in Antioch, where Sycamore
00:00:35.640 --> 00:00:39.240
ended up with a 32-28 victory in a 6A contest.
00:00:39.750 --> 00:00:43.350
Antioch very much appeared to have won the game in dramatic fashion
00:00:43.350 --> 00:00:47.590
on a Hail Mary pass attempt that was deflected by two Sycamore
00:00:47.590 --> 00:00:50.710
defenders, with the ball bouncing up in the air without hitting the
00:00:50.710 --> 00:00:55.030
ground as an Antioch receiver was able to snare the deflection and
00:00:55.030 --> 00:00:57.830
raced into the end zone with what appeared should have been a
00:00:57.830 --> 00:00:59.590
stunning game-ending touchdown.
00:01:00.550 --> 00:01:05.030
But an inadvertent whistle was blown at the point, that was mistakenly
00:01:05.030 --> 00:01:07.590
believed to have been the end of the play as such the
00:01:07.590 --> 00:01:09.750
touchdown wasn’t allowed to count.
00:01:09.870 --> 00:01:13.550
The resolution to the kerfuffle was Antioch was to be granted one
00:01:13.710 --> 00:01:18.110
untimed down from the 13-yard line where the initial play was have
00:01:18.110 --> 00:01:22.190
ruled to concluded, the Sequoits were unable to convert into a touchdown
00:01:22.190 --> 00:01:24.430
and Sycamore secured the victory.
00:01:25.090 --> 00:01:29.090
It’s the second consecutive year that there has been a largely disputed
00:01:29.090 --> 00:01:32.930
final few seconds of a game. In a playoff game Fairfield led
00:01:32.930 --> 00:01:37.410
Petersburg PORTA 8-6 in the waning seconds of their contest. Then a
00:01:37.410 --> 00:01:41.490
series of clock management and down-counting issues led to PORTA getting a
00:01:41.490 --> 00:01:44.370
fifth down which they used to kick a game-winning field goal in
00:01:44.370 --> 00:01:45.570
a 9-8 win.
00:01:46.660 --> 00:01:50.660
Any attempt to try to reverse this decision with an appeal will
00:01:50.660 --> 00:01:54.740
likely meet the same fate as last year’s conflict where IHSA Executive
00:01:54.740 --> 00:01:59.140
Director Craig Anderson acknowledged the error of the officials, the IHSA didn’t
00:01:59.140 --> 00:02:04.340
consider overturning the result citing strong by-laws that final on-field decisions cannot
00:02:04.340 --> 00:02:06.020
be altered after the fact.
00:02:06.520 --> 00:02:11.160
Those stronger by-laws were cemented after a 2016 contest in the Class
00:02:11.240 --> 00:02:17.560
8A semifinals between Fenwick and Plainfield North. Fenwick led Plainfield North 10-7
00:02:17.560 --> 00:02:21.320
with a few seconds remaining and the Plainfield North quarterback threw the
00:02:21.320 --> 00:02:25.960
ball away as time expired and an intentional grounding penalty was called.
00:02:26.350 --> 00:02:31.470
The officials mistakenly awarded Plainfield North an untimed down which they used
00:02:31.470 --> 00:02:34.510
to kick a field goal and force overtime where they later won
00:02:34.510 --> 00:02:36.670
in overtime 17-16.
00:02:36.800 --> 00:02:41.200
That result was questioned in the court system which ultimately upheld the
00:02:41.200 --> 00:02:42.640
Plainfield North victory.
00:02:43.400 --> 00:02:47.240
The Antioch/Sycamore game was far from the only wild game in this
00:02:47.240 --> 00:02:47.880
round:
00:02:48.350 --> 00:02:52.030
Normal Community and Kenwood had a crazy battle in Class 7A.
00:02:52.190 --> 00:02:56.590
Kenwood held a 36-35 lead with 5:06 left to play in the
00:02:56.590 --> 00:03:00.830
game before Normal Community broke off a 73-yard run to get the
00:03:00.830 --> 00:03:03.870
ball to the 1-yard line and scored one play later to take
00:03:03.870 --> 00:03:05.630
a 42-36 lead.
00:03:06.500 --> 00:03:11.220
Kenwood countered by draining almost all of the remaining clock and scoring
00:03:11.220 --> 00:03:15.460
with 12 seconds left to tie the game at 42. The Broncos
00:03:15.460 --> 00:03:17.700
don’t have a kicker and had to go for two and the
00:03:17.700 --> 00:03:21.300
potential win but didn’t convert and the game went into overtime.
00:03:21.810 --> 00:03:25.730
Kenwood got the ball first and scored a touchdown but once again
00:03:25.730 --> 00:03:29.650
failed to convert the 2-point conversion, which opened the door for Normal
00:03:29.650 --> 00:03:33.570
Community to score a touchdown of its own, then kicked an extra
00:03:33.570 --> 00:03:36.290
point to walk off with the quarterfinal berth.
00:03:36.400 --> 00:03:40.960
Kenwood’s loss officially eliminated all of the Chicago Public League’s entrants from
00:03:40.960 --> 00:03:45.920
the IHSA postseason. 39 CPL teams qualified for the playoffs.
00:03:46.120 --> 00:03:50.120
Peotone’s first-ever berth in the quarterfinal round did not come without some
00:03:50.120 --> 00:03:50.840
drama.
00:03:51.190 --> 00:03:56.150
With the Blue Devils holding a late 21-14 lead, a botched punt
00:03:56.150 --> 00:03:59.030
snap led to the punter recovering the ball and running out of
00:03:59.030 --> 00:04:02.630
the back of the end zone for an Eastland-Pearl City safety to
00:04:02.630 --> 00:04:04.950
cut its lead to 21-16.
00:04:05.520 --> 00:04:08.960
Just under 40 seconds remained for EPC to try to make something
00:04:08.960 --> 00:04:13.600
happen after the free kick, but four incomplete passes sent Peotone to
00:04:13.600 --> 00:04:14.720
the quarterfinals.
00:04:14.990 --> 00:04:17.390
One of the first games of the weekend was one of the
00:04:17.390 --> 00:04:22.190
most surprising results. Wheaton North, who had lost to Geneva 42-14 in
00:04:22.190 --> 00:04:25.950
Week 7, found a way to turn the tables and defeated Geneva
00:04:26.030 --> 00:04:27.630
36-35.
00:04:28.060 --> 00:04:31.900
Geneva took its first lead of the game with 1:23 to play,
00:04:32.140 --> 00:04:36.460
forcing Wheaton North to drive 80 yards in about 80 seconds to
00:04:36.460 --> 00:04:41.100
secure the victory. They only needed 73 as Wheaton North’s sophomore quarterback
00:04:41.100 --> 00:04:46.780
Grant Neibch found Johnny Clayton for a 17-yard touchdown with 7.8 seconds
00:04:46.780 --> 00:04:47.340
to play.
00:04:47.740 --> 00:04:49.260
Strength in numbers
00:04:49.520 --> 00:04:55.520
There’s still heavy representation from several conferences within the 64 teams remaining
00:04:55.520 --> 00:04:56.880
in the postseason.
00:04:57.090 --> 00:05:00.930
Of course, the largest stronghold is in the Chicago Catholic League where
00:05:00.930 --> 00:05:06.130
10 teams Mount Carmel, Brother Rice, Loyola, St. Ignatius, Nazareth, Notre Dame,
00:05:06.210 --> 00:05:10.610
Fenwick, Providence, St. Francis and IC Catholic are still alive in the
00:05:10.610 --> 00:05:15.010
chase for state titles including many prohibitive favorites in Class 8A, 7A,
00:05:15.010 --> 00:05:17.890
6A, 5A and 3A still lurk.
00:05:18.320 --> 00:05:22.240
Four teams from the CCL were ousted as well. St. Rita, St.
00:05:22.320 --> 00:05:27.520
Patrick, St. Laurence and Montini. Montini was the defending Class 4A State
00:05:27.520 --> 00:05:31.680
Champion and also won the 3A title in 2024 and reached the
00:05:31.680 --> 00:05:36.560
semifinal round in 2023. Along with Lena-Winslow, Montini is now one of
00:05:36.560 --> 00:05:39.680
two teams no longer capable of defending a state title from a
00:05:39.680 --> 00:05:40.080
year ago.
00:05:41.010 --> 00:05:45.170
Although no other conference has as much remaining representation amongst the remaining
00:05:45.170 --> 00:05:50.770
64 teams, there are three-team contingents from the Western Illinois Valley Calhoun,
00:05:50.850 --> 00:05:56.610
Brown County, Camp Point Central, Illinois Central Eight Coal City, Peotone, Wilmington
00:05:56.690 --> 00:05:59.570
and Interstate Eight Morris, Rochelle, Sycamore.