Thursday, November 14, 2013

I'll be in Oak Lawn...

...on Saturday night for the Lincoln-Way North - Richards game. I may have to stop in at Petey's Bungalow on 95th Street, above, for a quick pre-game dinner before the matchup. I don't know a thing about the place but you gotta love that neon sign! (Is that a Manhattan?)

I wrote about the contest here; below are the rest of my picks for 6A (remember, upsets in bold).

Boylan over Prairie Ridge
Batavia over Lake Forest
Richards over Lincoln-Way North
Providence over East St. Louis

No. 13 Prairie Ridge (7-4) travels to No. 1 Boylan (11-0) on Saturday afternoon and, while I love the Wolves, I'm afraid their Cinderella season is about to come to a screeching halt. Although the Crystal Lake squad scored a big upset over Lakes in Round One, they just narrowly got past Marmion last week, 21-20. During the regular season, PR beat Dundee-Crown and Grayslake North but lost to Notre Dame, Jacobs, Cary-Grove and Huntley. Undefeated Boylan, meanwhile, is on a roll. The Titans beat Hononegah, Harlem, Guilford, Belvidere North (twice) and Cary-Grove. I gotta think they're headed to DeKalb.

The last time (the only time?) the two schools met was in the semifinals in 2010, when Boylan defeated PR at home, 14-7.

My next game, No. 6 Lake Forest (9-2) at No. 2 Batavia (10-1), is my least confident pick of Class 6A. But I have to go with the Bulldogs. While the Scouts beat St. Catherine (WI), Warren, Hubbard and De La Salle this year, they lost only to Lake Zurich and Stevenson. Batavia, though, beat Glenbard North for the second year in a row, Geneva, St. Charles North and East, DeKalb and Rolling Meadows. Their lone defeat was at home to Richards in the second week of the season.

The two squads last met in 2011 when Batavia downed Lake Forest, 31-17.

Finally we have  No. 6 East St. Louis (8-3) at No. 8 Providence (7-4). The Celtics are enjoying a bit of a Cinderella season themselves after upsetting Crete-Monee and Quincy in the first two rounds of the playoffs. But Provi's 5-4 regular season record is deceptive. All four of those losses were to top-notch teams: Joliet Catholic, Loyola, St. Rita and Mount Carmel. (It's a good argument for including 5-4 schools in the playoffs.) The New Lenox squad also beat De La Salle and Fenwick, which also made it to the second round. East St. Louis, for their part, had an up-and-down season as well, beating Rockhurst (MO) before losing three straight to Montini, Edwardsville and O'Fallon. They then went on to defeat Belleville West, Normal Community West and Normal Community.

In 2006 the Flyers bowed to Providence, 35-13. I think Saturday's game will be a little closer than that.

Remember, I'll be live tweeting that Lincoln-Way North - Richards game @BoringOldWhtGuy.

Tomorrow: Class 7A.

1 comment:

Ed Crotty said...

Great sign at Petey's. Second only to the Seven Dwarfs sign in Wheaton. Wishing you a great game.