In the first game, the home team Panthers spoiled the Falcons' perfect season with a last-second field goal by Hector Ortiz, above, 17-15. (There were actually five seconds remaining on the clock, but you get the idea.) It was a great game and definitely worth the drive out to Carol Stream.
The second contest ended with a running clock as the Ramblers dominated the visiting Crusaders from the get-go. I left after Loyola went up by the final score, 45-0, in the middle of the third quarter.
My thoughts after Week Eight are all over the place, so I'll just recount them in no particular order.
* Wheaton North looked big and tall and strong and athletic. (Maybe it was the white uniforms.) Starting quarterback John Peltz has the best arm I've seen all year and has a bevy of talented receivers in which to throw, including Matt Biegalski and junior Clayton Thorson, who also plays quarterback on some downs (don't ask). But the receivers had trouble catching the ball on Friday night and penalties ended up killing the Falcons. (How, I thought, could a previously unbeaten team get penalized so much in Week Eight?)
* As for Glenbard North, they're a scrappy bunch, including quarterback Brian Murphy, wide receiver Ryan Storto and running back Justin Jackson. (Each of the three played offense and defense.) The Panthers played their hearts out and upset the mighty Falcons, but I'm not sure if either of these squads will go very deep in the playoffs.
* Oh, and don't expect too much from Glenbard North next year; the sophomores got crushed, 49-8, in the undercard on Friday.
* It's getting almost predictable, but a guy in the stands told me before the game that the DuPage Valley Conference was the best in the state in the same matter-of-fact tone you would expect from someone reminding you that the earth was round. And it made me think, does everyone think theirs is the best conference in the state? Ask yourself, if the DVC and the Catholic League Blue are so great, why didn't either Loyola or Wheaton Warrenville South win their championship game last year?
* Which brings me to the Loyola game. There was an awful lot of giddy high-fiving around me Saturday for a team that was beating lowly Brother Rice. The Crusaders are now 4-4 and have lost to Marist, 49-35, Mount Carmel, 56-7, and Providence, 42-21. I wanted to tell the folks around me, "Loyola's not that good; Brother Rice may just be that bad." (But I didn't want to get punched or anything.)
* And that reminds me, so who is good this year? Who are the teams to beat in the playoffs? Well, Loyola and Mount Carmel in 8A, certainly. Maine South? They haven't played anyone since Wheaton South in Week Two. (At one point on Saturday I thought to myself, what happens when the Hawks meet someone like Loyola in the postseason? Then what? Remember, Maine South lost in the second round last year.) What about Marist? Or Palatine? They both lost to smaller schools that they should have beaten. How about Neuqua and Waubonsie? Yeah, I'd be afraid of those two. Very afraid.
* Now while 8A is a little light this year, 7A is loaded with strong programs: Lincoln-Way East, Glenbard West (although both got beat in the second round last year, too), Rockford Boylan, Batavia and Cary-Grove. I think they would all be very competitive in 8A.
* But first we have to get through Week Nine. And my Game of the Week may surprise you.
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