When Homewood-Flossmoor takes on...

...Mount Carmel this Saturday at Gately Stadium in Chicago, it will pit two of the state's best running backs against each other.

H-F's Malik Norman (above) has rushed for 1,987 yards and scored 31 touchdowns this season for the Vikings. Michael Banks (below), of the Caravan, has averaged 10.4 yards per carry this year and scored 14 touchdowns. I know what you're thinking: Wow, what a game this is going to be!

“It’s going to be exciting playing against [Banks],” said Norman. “There haven’t been too many people I’ve been good friends with that I’ve had an opportunity to play against. May the best man win.”

May the best man win -- right. Wait a minute. Did he just say good friends?

Yes, he did. Apparently, Norman and Banks played on the same team in eighth grade. In 2006 the pair led the Homewood-Flossmoor Junior Vikings to a third-place finish in the nation.

“It was a hell of a backfield,” said Jim Calderone, president of the H-F Jr. Vikings Youth Football Organization.

I'd say so!

“Michael was just so fast. He had like 25 touchdowns in nine games. Malik was a football player. You know what I mean? He was something, too.”

To paraphrase Flounder in "Animal House," This is going to be great!