Brother Rice vs. Joliet Catholic will highlight big Week 7

Good morning,

October has arrived, which means we have hit the stretch run of the regular season. From here on out teams will be fighting for their playoff lives. 

There’s a massive clash coming up on Friday. No. 2 Brother Rice will host No. 3 Joliet Catholic. The Hilltoppers are undefeated but haven’t played a ranked team this season. They do have a win against St. Louis Cardinal Ritter, which is 3-3. 

Joliet Catholic was unbeaten in the spring as well, but lacked a marquee win. So oddly, despite not losing since the playoffs in 2019 the Hilltoppers have a lot to prove. It should be a fun one.

Before sitting down and getting into all the usual rankings research I had a feeling that Lincoln-Way East, Naperville Central and Glenbard West were all likely to drop out this week. But they didn’t. All three hung on.

All three traditional powers lost to unranked teams this week. Here’s why they stayed in the Super 25.

Lincoln-Way East: The loss to Sandburg, which entered the game just 1-4, was definitely the worst of the upsets. But the Griffins resume is still better than plenty of ranked teams. They beat Crete-Monee (a regular contender to break into the rankings this season) 35-20 in Week 1. Lincoln-Way East also has a 21-13 road win against No. 18 Bolingbrook.

Naperville Central: It’s been one heck of a schedule. The 3-3 record isn’t pretty but the Redhawks have beaten No. 20 Hinsdale Central and Lincoln-Way East. They lost in overtime on the road at No. 4 Neuqua Valley. Losing at home to rival Naperville North, which is also just 3-3, looks bad. But I don’t like penalizing teams for playing tough schedules. The Redhawks resume is just stronger than the unranked 6-0 and 5-1 teams that could have replaced them.

Glenbard West: The Hilltoppers were dumped in the first draft. They don’t have the strong resumes of Lincoln-Way East and Naperville Central. But there weren’t enough teams sitting outside the Super 25 that were convincing, so Glenbard West stuck at the bottom. One hiccup is definitely allowed this season and York is undefeated.

Minooka started the season 1-3, with losses to Bolingbrook, Plainfield Central and Oswego. Heading into Week 6 the Indians’ only win was against winless Romeoville. 

Minooka’s under the radar 33-10 upset of undefeated Oswego East on Friday came out of nowhere. The Indians have kept their playoff hopes alive and reinvigorated their season. 

Receivers Trevor Hudak and Malik Armstrong and quarterback Ethan Murphy were all major contributors to the win. 

The Indians are at Plainfield North next week. 

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