Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Week Four is over...

...and Week Five looms large on the horizon. And you know what that means: the regular season is almost half over. There are still a number of undefeated teams, though, and some of them will face each other this weekend.

Personally, I'll be at Triton College to see if my dad's alma mater, Fenwick (4-0), can sneak up on Big, Bad Loyola (4-0) and end the Ramblers' 21-game winning streak. (Loyola's last defeat was at Stevenson, 24-21, on November 8, 2014. Pretty sure I was there.)

But here are four other games that will send one team home 4-1 while the other remains undefeated at 5-0:

Palatine (4-0) at Hoffman Estates (4-0)
Lincoln-Way West (4-0) at Homewood-Flossmoor (4-0)
Batavia (4-0) at St. Charles East (4-0)
Lyons (4-0) at Glenbard West (4-0)

And here are six more contests that will sorely test undefeated squads. How many of them will emerge 5-0?

Marmion (4-0) at Montini (1-3)
Glenbard North (3-1) at Naperville North (4-0)
St. Patrick (4-0) at Notre Dame (3-1)
Barrington (4-0) at Fremd (3-1)
Lemont (4-0) at Oak Forest (3-1)
Oswego East (4-0) at Plainfield North (3-1)

And -- what the heck -- here are two just plain good tilts between 3-1 teams:

Huntley (3-1) at Cary-Grove (3-1)
DeKalb (3-1) at Kaneland (3-1)

By the way, McNamara, Wheaton Warrenville South and Joliet Catholic are still looking for their first victory of the season. What is this, Bizarro World?

This week's rankings didn't change much. In fact, Mike Helfgot's top ten at the Tribune didn't change at all. Beth Long dropped Bolingbrook (2-2) in favor of Barrington (4-0) after the Raiders' 41-23 loss to Lincoln-Way East. And the positively sphinx-like MaxPreps computer elevated East St. Louis (4-0) and Lincoln-Way East (3-1) in place of St. Charles North (3-1) and Stevenson (3-1).

Whatever. There's still a long way to go.

Here are the current rankings from the three news services I follow. As you can see, Loyola, Homewood-Flossmoor, Brother Rice, Lincoln-Way East, Neuqua Valley and Barrington are common to all. (Teams are undefeated unless otherwise noted.)

Tribune:

1. Loyola
2. Glenbard West
3. Homewood-Flossmoor
4. Brother Rice
5. Lincoln-Way East (3-1) 
6. Mount Carmel (3-1)
7. Neuqua Valley
8. Palatine
9. Barrington
10. Prairie Ridge

Sun-Times:

1. Loyola
2. Homewood-Flossmoor
3. Mount Carmel (3-1)
4. Glenbard West
5. Brother Rice
6. Neuqua Valley
7. Lincoln-Way East (3-1)
8. Marist (3-1)
9. Oak Park and River Forest
10. Barrington

MaxPreps:

1. Loyola
2. Brother Rice
3. Homewood-Flossmoor
4. Prairie Ridge
5. Neuqua Valley
6. IC Catholic
7. Palatine
8. East St. Louis
9. Barrington
10. Lincoln-Way East (3-1)

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