Class 5A Semis
- Thread starter Alexanderthegreat1
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That’s a great question, and in my opinion if the defense plays like they did against Boylan, my answer would be they are about the same or better.
I really don't know the answer. First thought was last year but the longer I think the harder it gets to answer. I think there's areas they are better this year where they brought guys back (db's/lb's/offensive skill players/OL). Others like interior DL and QB where they lost tremendous talent but have filled with more than capable kids. I don't think it's really fair to say for the kids on either of those teams who is truly better.
Really just two very different types of teams. Last year's team had more of a revenge edge to them. Not happy about getting knocked out in Sycamore as jr's and wanting to get over that quarterfinal hump. This year's team went through some earlier and late season injuries and have kind of gotten refocused after the butt kicking week 9. Just hope they can keep it close this week.
I am having vivid flashbacks to 1975:
Carl Zambo’s undefeated Hillcrest Hawks team in white jerseys with powder blue pants (led by skilled left-handed QB Terry Browne and Ted Chakos) rolled into a packed on both sides Joliet Memorial Stadium for a classic battle, back when the State Playoffs were just a pup.
Backed up to their own goal line with 2 minutes left and leading 20-14, rather than risk a fumble or blocked punt, Gordie Gillespie elected purposely take a Safety to get the free kick and hand it over to his Defense. It worked. The next week the Hilltoppers beat Naperville Central and the week after beat Springfield Griffin for the program's first state championship.
Several who participated in that game are now gone and many who saw it are gone too. It is now just a fading history that the 2018 Hilltoppers have only recently heard. They are in the process of creating their own legacy.
A memorable journey back in time that this match up brought back to me.
Carl Zambo’s undefeated Hillcrest Hawks team in white jerseys with powder blue pants (led by skilled left-handed QB Terry Browne and Ted Chakos) rolled into a packed on both sides Joliet Memorial Stadium for a classic battle, back when the State Playoffs were just a pup.
Backed up to their own goal line with 2 minutes left and leading 20-14, rather than risk a fumble or blocked punt, Gordie Gillespie elected purposely take a Safety to get the free kick and hand it over to his Defense. It worked. The next week the Hilltoppers beat Naperville Central and the week after beat Springfield Griffin for the program's first state championship.
Several who participated in that game are now gone and many who saw it are gone too. It is now just a fading history that the 2018 Hilltoppers have only recently heard. They are in the process of creating their own legacy.
A memorable journey back in time that this match up brought back to me.
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How many tabs you ever take, man? They say more than ten you’re legally insane.
I don’t believe them - that’s all BS.
Read on Disabato's column that the Hillcrest starting QB has been cleared to play.
I remember that game pretty well. After that free kick, Hillcrest drove deep into Joliet Catholic territory. I can still "see" Joliet Catholic quarterback Mark Parker turning away from the sidelines(he later stated he was too nervous to watch)on a 4th and long on what would be Hillcrest's last play. One of the greatest high school games I've ever seen. It was like watching Michigan and Notre Dame at their collective best go at it. And the rest is history...…………..
You saved me a lot of typing regarding the quality of Boylan/St Francis. I just would have added something about the weakness of Boylan's closed conference this season as borne out by their playoff performances.
Boylan beat St Francis by two TDs that’s not barely beating them. That theory never works anyway.
The point was that Boylan’s only “good win” on the season was St Francis and St Francis themselves beat no one good. The only 2 good teams in their conference (IC and Bishop Mac) are smaller schools and both blew St Francis out. So Boylan’s 2 score win is not enough against them to be impressive.
Not to be a dick, but St Francis came closer to beating IC then JCA did losing 42-0 Does that mean St Francis is better than JCA? Lets just wait till Saturday and see if your theory holds water.
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You certainly can't interpret too much from common opponents once removed, but I can't get my head around Sterling being a step change better than a team that beat them by 4 TDs and ran for almost 400 yds against them. That said it's all about match ups and I think the consensus is this game is a toss up - maybe the weather will throw an interesting wrinkle into Saturday as well
I see what you did there... So I will just go ahead and be a dick and say I don't think you have a chance to beat the team that beat Sycamore who beat you by 4 (F-O-U-R) touchdowns. But like you said we will just wait until Saturday.
Not the same team after getting a few starters back, that same team that lost to Sycamore beat Kaneland 42-21 and Kaneland beat Sycamore by 21 Just goes to show you can’t predict games by common opponents.
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Some information received on getting to the Sterling/Montini game.
FOOTBALL GAME TRAFFIC ALERT AND PARKING INFORMATIONThere will be a Holiday Parade in Sterling and Rock Falls between 12:45 - 1:15 on Saturday.You will want to avoid the downtown areas. If you are traveling to the game,
from the east take the Dixon exit (Rt 26). Take a right on Galena (Rt 26). Take Galena across River and take a left on Rt 2. In Sterling, take a right on Lynn Blvd (Kohls). Turn left on 6th Ave. You can take 6th Ave until Miller Rd or LeFevre Rd and take a right.
Visitor parking is available in the Miller Road parking lot (North of HS), along the streets of 4th Ave and 5th Ave north of the HS, and in the 5th Ave parking lot (East of the HS).
Gates are located the north and south ends of Roscoe Eades Stadium.
FOOTBALL GAME TRAFFIC ALERT AND PARKING INFORMATIONThere will be a Holiday Parade in Sterling and Rock Falls between 12:45 - 1:15 on Saturday.You will want to avoid the downtown areas. If you are traveling to the game,
from the east take the Dixon exit (Rt 26). Take a right on Galena (Rt 26). Take Galena across River and take a left on Rt 2. In Sterling, take a right on Lynn Blvd (Kohls). Turn left on 6th Ave. You can take 6th Ave until Miller Rd or LeFevre Rd and take a right.
Visitor parking is available in the Miller Road parking lot (North of HS), along the streets of 4th Ave and 5th Ave north of the HS, and in the 5th Ave parking lot (East of the HS).
Gates are located the north and south ends of Roscoe Eades Stadium.
From the east it’s not going to change anything. It’s not like Sterling is a metropolis. Take the Dixon exit and not the Rock Falls exit and it will have a whopping no change for you.
Not sure what this means. At any rate, you should go ahead and take the Rt 40 exit at Rock Falls.
To be fair, I don't sandbag and it should be clear by now. Secondly, I'm hoping for a couple good games here. If Sterling and Hillcrest get trounced it's not gonna be pretty on the boards. That said I got Montini and JCA moving on.
Gene,
Didn’t you read Seyton’s post(Seyton=Sterling Warrior?)... the Montini Sterling game was close and the score doesn’t really tell much about the way the game went or was played. Had Sterling not made the minor mistakes they made it was 14-14 going into half time!
Didn’t you read Seyton’s post(Seyton=Sterling Warrior?)... the Montini Sterling game was close and the score doesn’t really tell much about the way the game went or was played. Had Sterling not made the minor mistakes they made it was 14-14 going into half time!
All kidding aside, Sycamore was the better team in NIPL 12 and gave Montini all they could handle. Gonna be a good one with JCA in the State Championship next week. Two schools with a lot of great football traditions and history against each other.
Gene are you saying in your view from watching the two Montini playoff games that sycamore better than sterling?
I know sycamore beat sterling in the regular season but I heard there were a bunch of injuries on sterling that made that game not representative of the true sterling. the injuried guys were all back for the Montini game so you saw full strength sterling and full strength sycamore.
Unfortunately both weren’t healthy. Please don’t take this as an excuse. Playoff time you have to be firing on all cylinders, and Sterling wasn’t. That’s the reason for the loss.
Number 5 got banged up last week against boylan. He played a drive or two on both offense and defense before the coaches pulled him as he was not good to go. Also the running qb (12) got limited to 2 drives. First one drove down to about the 8, he got lit up on a keep and fumbled. He’s also a starting safety. He then went in again on the drive before half and on film after he scores his head hits the turf pretty hard. Doctors/trainers did not clear him to go back in.
Number 8 was healthy though. Those were the first offensive snaps he’s taken in about 6 weeks. Last week was the first game he played defensively at lb. He was the bell cow on most the sustained drives.
Voodoo: Meant no disrespect to Sycamore but Sterling was not as good a team offensively as Sycamore. Congrats to Sterling for making the semi finals for the 2nd year in a row. IMO, Sycamore had a very good offensive line which dominated the 1st half at Montini. Sterling did not dominate Montini's defense but from what I was told by others (I couldn't make the game) who were at that game, they played hard but didn't have enough horses to come from behind after trailing 28-0. During the game against Sycamore I think Montini only had 2-3 possessions in the entire first half. That only happened against BR. Totally understand why Sycamore beat Sterling with that offense line and the play makers behind it.
Thx! I was thinking Sycamore as well, but just wasn’t sure based on some of the posts from the sycamore/sterling game from the regular season.
I believe you're thinking of Jordan Westerkamp who was really good at Nebraska.
I wrote a long winded post about yesterday's game in another thread (the "Sterling Exposed" thread). I'd be interested in Sterling and Montini fans' take on it.
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Gene,
Didn’t you read Seyton’s post(Seyton=Sterling Warrior?)... the Montini Sterling game was close and the score doesn’t really tell much about the way the game went or was played. Had Sterling not made the minor mistakes they made it was 14-14 going into half time!
Oh come on - that's not at all what my post said! It was much more thoughtful than that. I said Montini was clearly better, but three plays led to 21 Montini points.
You're entitled to your opinion on my post, of course, but I'm disappointed that's what you took away from it.
I thought we were allies against that guy from Hersher? Then again we're probably all allies when it comes to him.
EDIT: I'm not Sterling Warrior. I'm Seyton.
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Sterling had injuries and Turnovers. Two things they could not have if they wanted to contend with Montini. I don't want those to come off as excuses but they are reasons why the game ended up like it did.
The staff and players at Sterling are building and they will break through at some point. I would think anyone at the game or who watched would say these two teams weren't far apart. It will take a special class to overcome some of the advantages that suburban private schools have but its coming.
Best of Luck to the Broncos this week.
The staff and players at Sterling are building and they will break through at some point. I would think anyone at the game or who watched would say these two teams weren't far apart. It will take a special class to overcome some of the advantages that suburban private schools have but its coming.
Best of Luck to the Broncos this week.
you mean advantage public schools have? not sure I have seen a 5A private school with a school funded $50,000 Video Board like at Sterling HS.
Stable: You had me until you mention the advantages suburban private schools have. Perhaps your not aware that Montini was success factored up to 6A and this year dropped down to 5A. Perhaps your not aware that Montini has around 650 kids and around 325 boys in the school. Sterling has around 1000 students, don't know how many boys but it would seem that Sterling would have the advantage in the number of boys who play football based upon student population. Put in the costs of tuition at the suburban private schools and maybe the real advantages are with well to do school districts who pockets are filled by the tax payers which also includes those taxpayers whose kids attend private schools.
Other than this not being true you really got me. Paid for by advertisers. Any school could do it.
You will never hear me say Sterling High School isn’t extremely fortunate to have all of the things they do.
What exactly does the video board do for Sterling? What advantage does that give them?
Not much of a conversation to have if you are really going to say that there isn’t certain advantages that those schools have over a school like Sterling.
I don’t blame any private school for playing by the rules that are in place but to pretend like Sterling and Montini are drawing from the same resources or to imply Sterling has the advantage there is both naive and dumb.
Good thing the public/private debate hasn't been beaten to death here
must really be impressive when teams come to play the 2A private school that uses that same field.
you might think so...but newman chose NOT to use the video board this year. could have used it and easily made enough on advertising to pay for the use of roscoe eades stadium, which was $14,000 this year ($2,000 per game).
