The Game of the Week...

...will feature Mount Carmel (4-0) at St. Rita (4-0) on Friday night. (And I'll be in New Jersey for my niece's wedding.)

The home team Mustangs are undefeated, of course, and ranked No. 7 by the Tribune, No. 10 by the Sun-Times, No. 9 by MaxPreps, No. 6 in 7A by the AP and No. 3 by BOWG (who?).

By my count, St. Rita quarterback Tommy Mister has rushed for 11 touchdowns on the season and passed for an additional three, to Xavier Allen, Julian Crum and John Ladd. In addition, D. J. Miles and Tyre Lee have rushed for two each.

One caveat: Last week, against an overmatched Hales team, Mister was sacked four times. Is there a problem there, or were the Mustangs just looking ahead to this week's showdown?

Here's a rundown of St. Rita's first four games (home team in CAPS):

St. Rita 28, Marist 26
ST. RITA 42, Danville 7
ST. RITA 55, St. Laurence 14
St. Rita 42, HALES 14

Mount Carmel, the defending 8A champ, is ranked No. 1 in all the polls (except one). As I mentioned in an earlier post:

Carmel's Carmel, the team to beat, the New York Yankees of Illinois high school football.

So imagine my surprise when I saw Caravan coach Frank Lenti in the Loyola bleachers Saturday afternoon wearing a Yankees cap similar to the one above. Coincidence?

The longtime Mount Carmel coach is the winningest in Illinois history, with a career record of 330-59 and 10 championships in 15 state-final appearances. Wow!

As for the offense, by my count, quarterback Marko Boricich has rushed for four touchdowns and thrown for three, one each to Christian Searles, Rich O'Brien and Brendan Griffin. Searles has three more, including an interception return against St. Patrick in Week One. Matt Domer, the Illinois-bound senior, has six on the season and Jimmy Mickens has three.

Here's how the Caravan has fared so far:

Mount Carmel 40, St. Patrick 0
MOUNT CARMEL 49, Morgan Park 8
MOUNT CARMEL 42, Bishop McNamara 0
MOUNT CARMEL 28, Brother Rice 20

Who's going to win this one? I've been looking forward to it for three months now. My question is, can Mount Carmel's defense stop Tommy Mister, the best dual-threat quarterback I've seen this year?

Here's a history of the rivalry dating back to 2004:

2012: MOUNT CARMEL 27, St. Rita 0
2011: ST. RITA 17, Mount Carmel 7
2010: ST. RITA 35, Mount Carmel 14
2009: St. Rita 54, MOUNT CARMEL 18
2008: ST. RITA 35, Mount Carmel 21
2007: MOUNT CARMEL 35, St. Rita 19
2006: ST. RITA 7, Mount Carmel 6
2005: MOUNT CARMEL 21, St. Rita 20
2004: Mount Carmel 42, ST. RITA 35

Should be a heck of a game! I'll be recording it and following it live on Twitter.