Surprised to see Lemont up in the North. Could be a potential clash with Lakes in the 2nd round. Seems like that should be a semi final game, but what do I know? Is anyone good enough to beat Philips?
5a North
- Thread starter TonPlugZeroLock
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As Lee Corso says "Not so fast!" Nobody gave Johnsburg a shot against Phillips last year and look what happened there, Johnsburg and Alex Peete slayed Goliath, then Goliath petitioned for safer waters in 5a.
Safer waters? You do realize had they not petitioned up "Goliath" would have ended up in 3A. Edgys flush button would have broken from the massive volume of whining posters.
Phillips can be beaten, but it will take a great team effort, just like it takes to beat any good team. Whoever comes out of the bottom half of the northern bracket will give them a good test. Maloney at MCC has faced them before and clearly can coach his butt off! Antioch, Sterling, or MCC would be a great game for Phillips.
Peete was the focal point, Walter Payton didnt score in the Super Bowl either. Johnsburg had their number.
A Phillips-Lemont possible Q ,I just dont see Lemont scoring much on Phillips. Could be a 14-7 type game.
Phillips fumbled the game away plain and simple Johnsburg did nothing on the ground or through the air the entire game. 3 fumbles and a failed 2 point conversion is why Johnsburg won, not anything they actually did right.
Johnsburg did throw a TD pass from their own 25 or so i believe. Granted it was a short route and the WR made a move on the DB but still managed to score from their own end. I think the wind and Johnsburg kicking game were the two biggest factors in that game. Credit the Johnsburg coaches for taking advantage of the elements and their team strengths.
Right Johnsburg should have lost 21-7 if Phillips had just gotten out of their own way.
That's why they play the games now isnt it? Shoulda - woulda coulda. The Patriots should've beat the Giants but they didn't. I once had a hall of fame coach tell me "more big games are lost than won." All Phillips had to do was hand the ball to that #1 (name escapes me) about 35 times and go home. But credit johnsburg here, they did what they had to do to win the game. Could be the big one this year for the Skyhawks! Lets remember "if my aunt had plums she'd be my uncle."
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Wait - hold the phone!! What I heard last year was that Herscher would have beaten Phillips without the 4 turnovers and their version of Superman not getting a high ankle sprain. Phillips should have never even reached Johnsburg last year according to one of the 2016 threads that morphed 2016 HHS into 2017 BBCHS.
I guess Johnsburg got lucky they got to face Phillips and win versus the alternative of going against Herscher in the alternate universe game.
I agree MCC and Sterling has the potential but Antioc is 9-0 because they haven't played anyone, they will be knocked out in the first round by MCC, Only 3 schools with a chance are Lemont, Sterling or MCC and whoever comes out ahead in the North will clearly be state champions, I'm hoping the semi final game is Philips at Sterling.
I think MCC beats Antioch as well, however if Antioch was to make it pass the hurricanes and found themselves playing Phillips I think that they would make it a game because of their offensive style. They can turn the game into just a few possessions with a grind it out style.
I never said they would whoop them, I just think they are the best team in the top half of the bracket. They have a proven track record of postseason success the past several years and have already beaten Solorio once. Smart money would be on Phillips.
Oh yeah I get that Phillips is the favorite. I'm just saying that Solorio played them very tough not too long ago and could again.
Quincy Patterson is the truth over at Solorio! Either way I just have a tough time seeing any of these teams getting past Philips, this is a 3a team that beat Loyola (ranked #3 in 8a AP and #7 in Edgy's Power Rankings) in week 1! Even if Loyola was down some players that day, Loyola had even more players out against Bishop Amat who is ranked 21st in California according to Max preps (even though I hate Max preps rankings) and beat them! Don't get me wrong, I'm saying there's a chance (insert dumb and dumber gif) I just think it's a slim chance. My best bet is you hope you get them early after they have been playing the cupcake CPS schedule, and hope that they are rusty from not playing solid competition since the beginning of the year.
....or if you're MCC, get them in Woodstock on a muddy track, which somewhat neutralizes their speed advantage.
Lol well that too! Considering the way I look at the bracket working out it is a legitimate chance of happening. According to my predictions if MCC were to meet them in the Semis MCC would most likely have hosted 1 game and that would most likely be quarterfinal game and Philips would have hosted the first round and quarterfinal games. I understand we want to spread the wealth among schools, but I never really felt like it was fair for the lower seed to host a game. A lot of the time I think it benefits lower seeds because there are opportunities to host games later in the post season. Just thinking about the 09 5a playoffs when Montini was a 12 seed got the second round game against 4 seed MCC at home and avenged their regular season homecoming loss to them, and then got to host the semifinals against 7 seed Woodstock, and then we all know what happened from then on for the following 3 years. Not saying that either of those teams would have beaten Montini if they got to play at home, I just feel like it's not right to reward teams with lower seeds. I understand that opens up a whole other argument about strength of regular season schedule, but I just don't like the concept of how home games are rewarded.
Imagine the scheduling problems then! Not enough cream puffs to go around. Until the IHSA develops an algo that incorporates score diff, sos, quality wins, quality losses then you can't give the arbitrary higher seed all home games. Then the algo will be endlessly debated. The only thing the IHSA can do is to give the higher seed the option to host the first round games. Then the higher seeds can flip the script if they are comfortable with the first round opponent. If you can't beat a lower seed or much lower seed on the road, should you win a championship?
Edit: and endless conference shuffling that we currently have just to get to the magic number of wins and points. Open playoffs to all, or give higher seed first round option, or just win on the road.
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Unless I"m wrong an MCC vs Phillips matchup would be in the quarters, not semis.
@RockSoup Oh ya I totally feel ya, it would be opening up pandoras box, just another faulty thing about the playoff process, but for me at least it is better than letting everyone in. There seems to be no perfect way to do it, so I guess I can't complain too much.
Hypothetically Phillips wins round1--would face winner of Solorio/Back of the Yards in round 2--would then meet survivor of Lakes/Westinghouse/Lemont/Woodstock North in quarters--Then play survivor of Lower bracket in semis. MCC is in lower bracket.
I agree with the lower seeds not hosting. Last year Sterling was #1 overall seed I believe in 5A--they hosted round 1 then were on the road for the next 2 weeks.What did the #1 seed actually get them? A round 1 game against a CPP school.
That's why I said give higher seeds the option of hosting the first round. Beat the CPS school on the road and have a road game in hand and the #1 seed the rest of the way. Changes it all. Why should a 9-0 team in a weak conference be the #1 seed?
This is why I have always said that many teams love the option of a week 1 game on the road to play a CPS team. After a week 1 blowout chances are you're hosting for the next 2 rounds.
And not just 9-0 CPS teams. I used CPS because 14dec did with his story of last year's Sterling playoff route. There are some other conferences around the state that have their good team that year cruise to a 9-0 record while resting their starters in the second half in 7 of those games. And they think they deserve home field through the whole playoffs?
I had Triad going deep ... they lost last night. That and CM as my predicted 6a winner means my brackets are busted!
