Most Surprising Team in the Playoffs
- Thread starter Wassup13
- Start date
Bolingbrook has been the biggest surprise to me. They lost a tough 1-point game to a very good H-F team in Week 8 and followed that with a loss to Andrew in Week 9. Didn't see them beating HC in Week 10, let alone blowing them out. Then, they come back and knock off a very good Oswego team. Bolingbrook has traditionally been the Sybil of IL HS football. You just never know what Brook team will show up.
Even though I don’t like Huntley, they surprised me by hanging tough with Marist. They’re out but they represented the FVC well.
Hard to argue with Da Brook. They truly are a big surprise.
How about Lake Zurich finishing 6-3 to then top 2 higher seeds by allowing each only 7 points?
People write off Deerfield as playing a weak schedule, but they took undefeated Rolling Meadows to overtime and their defense has only allowed 7 garbage time points in their two playoff games.
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It's nice to see Deerfield making a little run. But, unless you expected them to lose to Kenwood, how can they be a surprise?
OK, can you guys stop firing on me for asking a question? These cold temps are bringing out the anger this morning!
So maybe they have had an easy path, just nice to see some new names on the board in the playoffs.
I am not at all surprised with Lake Forest so far. I believe they will be at Deerfield this weekend also.
I, also, am glad to see Deerfield in the playoffs and doing well. But if you truly do agree that they have had an easy path so far, how can you be most surprised by them at the same time?
Stickler for details. I retract my entry of Deerfield and switch to The Brook.
I get surprised by 4 loss teams reaching the quarterfinals when they’re not from the CCL.
Also surprised by the margin of victory over Kaneland.
I felt like their losses were two quality teams. I don’t think Kaneland is as good as they’ve been in the past. I also did not expect that margin of victory though.
LF is totally different from the team that went 5-4 in the regular season. Mills was out for a good part of the season and the Junior QB didn't start until game 7, I think. The passing game and the run options were really good last week. That Uihlein kid is also really talented. He hits as hard as anyone in the state and he's very quick for his size. The whole defense has been very disruptive since Mills has been back. If Deerfield beats LF, I would say Deerfield would be the surprise team.
That is quite a snobby thing to say. Do you think the CCL is the only place where teams play tougher competition than they will see in their division or had injuries to key players that set them back? Two of those losses are LZ and Warren (the one by six flags) and the other can be chalked up to injuries to players who aren't hurt any more.
I know it's hard to believe, but football does exist outside the CCL.
Can you let us know how many teams have won a title, outside the primary private conferences, with 4 losses? I know IC and Montini, just curious what others exist in this rare instance.
The CCL is an oddity since most conferences don’t have teams that range from 4A to 8A so schools on the smaller end tend to take loses they wouldn’t if they played in a more typical conference. I think LF falls into the category since they are a much smaller 6A school playing in larger conference so their record is usually worse then it would be if they played in a 6A conference. Glenbard Nortn made it the 8A finals in 2007 with 4 losses but lost to Naperville North.
So it's less about superiority in a conference, more about make up of teams within a conference.
This makes sense.
Which was my point to the original post about a 4 win team making the quarters and not being part of the CCL. Nobody was talking about a state title until you brought it up.
Sorry you took it that way. Was not my intention. I’m not even a CCL fan. I was just making an observation on teams I found surprising. It seemed like a 4 loss team making a nice run and really thumping their second round opponent fit the bill.
The only teams to win a title with 4 losses are:
IC in 08
Montini in 09
JCA in 18
There are three teams who reached the finals with 4 losses but lost in championship game
2007-GBN in 8A-lost to NN
2013-Staunton in 2A-lost to Newman Central Catholic
2015-Marist in 8A- lost to Loyola
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Wasn't Loyola 3 losses last year?
And to the quarterfinal point, last year there were 4 quarterfinal teams with four losses and 5 the year before. Of those 9, only 3 were private (MCCHS and Provi in 17 and JCA last year). It's actually more common in the lower divisions where small teams might play big schools during the year.
You are correct, I was looking at the IHSA site, which listed them as 10-4 last year.
Edited last post to reflect the correction
I can see teams making it based on an easier path (see BR, right now), so I was just expanding on your original thought because that would be a bigger anomaly.
Wheaton Warrenville South..
They were not impressive at all when I saw them, and look at them now.. I'm rooting for them..
They were not impressive at all when I saw them, and look at them now.. I'm rooting for them..
I had Deerfield in quarterfinals. Crystal LAke South’s 5 wins were over teams with records of 3-6 3-6 3-6 2-7 and 0-9.
They gave up nearly 80 points in Week 9 so Deerfield beating them was not an upset.
Last week’s opponent was from the Chicago Public League and not named Simeon or Phillips.
So I had them in quarterfinals. Lake forest is a fascinating subject. The team plays in a 7a/8A conference with bigger-school
Powers such as Lake Zurich, Lubertyville, Stevenson and Warren so
It drops way down in class when it makes the plAyoffs and thus is a hidden threat. In addition when this season started, the Scouts (logo suggests a connection to Indians but apparently no one cares) could not pass the ball to save their soul, the QB could not run and the only semi-threat was a sophomore running back who Might develop into someone special. The faCt that the QB is now a legit running threat and passer is pretty amazing in terms of a transformation.
Useless trivia on lake forest: I believe they have made the playoffs 10 years in a row and are 9-1 in those first round games. Last time they whiffed on playoffs was senior season of star QB tommy Rees who went on to a good career qb-ing at Notre dame.
More trivia: lake forest coach Chuck spagnoli replaced Willie Sneed whose son is a stud wideout with the NFL Ravens.
2 years ago a 5-4 LF team made the quarterfinals also. Another reason not to be surprised.
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