1. It was the best of times........ I was really struggling last week in trying to find a Saturday Week 5 game with really any teams I'd hadn't seen yet in person....sure I could go back to Lyons and see them take on York....as York and Proviso west are the only two Silver teams I haven't seen live. Yet I noticed that Kenwood was playing it's home games at Lane Tech....and Week 5 hosting Morgan Park was appealing. I saw Kenwood in Week 1 lose a close game to Glenbard North but I hadn't seen Morgan Park. Also in the equation for me was that my son and wife came home last minute for the weekend so I needed a game I could get into quick, see what I needed to see quick then get back home for some family time. Cool. I was able to get to Lane Stadium around 12PM....and to this day the combination of major repairs and renovations done to Lane Stadium...not to even mention the development of the area around Lane Tech is pretty wild. I remember going to cover Lane Tech when they had all grass (which was mostly back then weeds, some dirt, some glass) then they "upgraded" to temporary lights which ran on gas generators and went maybe 10 feet high at the most....throw in the enormous crowned field at Lane and you left night games literally blinded walking back to a pitch black parking lot with zero lights found anywhere....let's just say you spend the rest of the night trying (hoping) to get your eyesight back while also smelling diesel fumes for a good 18-24 hours afterwards. Let's just say that Saturday was a much more enjoyable experience at Lane Stadium.
2. It was the worst of times......- OK so I already knew going in both Morgan Park and Kenwood just don't like each other....that's no surprise for really anyone who has followed CPL football over the past 4-5 seasons. Both Morgan Park and Kenwood are coaches by young, up and coming names Chris James (Morgan Park) and Sinque Turner (Kenwood) and both have worked hard to turn the programs around. I attended and covered last seasons game at Gately....and while that game also was no doubt chippy....and had a parade of penalty flags...the nonsense finally settled down and they played football. This game at Lane Stadium? The game started off with a penalty and ended in the game being called over with over 5 minutes left to play in the 4th quarter and Morgan Park being awarded the 22-13 win. Why? The game just never settled down....the chipiness never stopped and it just grew as the game wore on. The ref I felt did everything they could to quell it....starting with the opening coin toss and a stern warning from the refs about not putting up with any crap etc. and this was a veteran CPL crew calling the game FYI. Around the 8 minute mark in the 4th quarter, a fight broke out on the field (note...I didn't see any fights whatsoever in the stands) on the MP sideline with a Kenwood defender and a Morgan Park Offensive linemen. More coaches and then a few additional kids ran into the field and chaos ensured. Sun Times Michael O'Brien did a terrific job of reporting and documenting this fights etc on his Twitter account if you are looking for more details.
My overall take? It was just incredibly sad... a potentially great day for CPL football. I'm also sad for two on the rise football programs led by truly dedicated young coaches all wasted by ridiculous nonsense. It's a refection of society these days and it's not going to go away sadly. Leave the nonsense at home or out in the streets....and get back to playing football again. I'm sure CPL and I'm guessing IHSA will take a very close look at this incident....some kids will get suspended and who knows maybe forced to forfeit a game? In the end we all lose....yet never forget high school football is an extra curricular not a right.....it's a privilege to play the game. Sometimes in some cases that privilege can and will get taken away so we'll see where this goes.....but this was not good at all. Just sad.
3. Morgan Park has some dudes- I'll get into more specifics later on each team including starting lineups, names to watch and such. Yet Morgan Park has some underclassmen to watch this season. Junior RB Tysean Griffin is a sophomore who is already a Power 5 recruit and a four star ranked names. Others include junior WR Chris Durr Jr. sophomore QB Marcus Thaxton is another along with sophomore LB Jovan Clark and sophomore DE Devante McLaurin. I'll have much more on the up and coming names from Morgan Park this week.
4. Kenwood's DE Marquise Lightfoot has HUGE upside- Only a junior, Lightfoot took part in one of the Rivals Camp and saw his recruiting stock explode. Lightfoot continues to impress me on a lot of different levels each time I've seen him play live (twice now in 2022) and his physical size and frame, potential for more growth and development in tremendous. Lightfoot has really impressive get off, he's also a twitchy athlete who just can bend and get great lean on his outside pass rush. The sad part of the events in this loss will get lost and that is Marquise Lightfoot was having a MONSTER game here.
5. So can the CPL top tier teams hang with the suburbs? Yes...,especially this season from after what I've seen live. However, after seeing both teams just go out of whack in this rivalry game I'm a bit more worried about both Morgan Park and Kenwood's chances. Playing well in the suburbs in the post-season means being able to overcome bad plays, bad calls and just staying locked in and focused on the game and just playing football. If the Kenwood team I saw in Week 1 against Glenbard North can return....they can be a handful in 6A. Morgan Park? No one will want to run into a more disciplined game and stay locked in for four quarters? They can no question be a major challenger in 5A. Simeon will also be a monster team in 6A. IF both Kenwood and Morgan Park can get it's act together...they no doubt can make a solid run....but right now to me that's a big ask.
