By Greg Halbleib
The midpoint of the high school football season features a match-up of two of the top teams in the Big Twelve Conference.
The featured game of Week 5 of the WJBC Friday Night Extravaganza pits unbeaten Peoria at Bloomington (3-1). Host Purple Raiders coach Joe Walters likes the position his team is in.
“I told the boys that we’re really fortunate to still be in the hunt for the conference because Normal Community lost that game to Notre Dame and then Notre Dame lost to Peoria,” said Walters. “It’ll be a statement night for us or Peoria. If they win, I think they’ll probably win the conference outright, and if we do, it’s going to shake things up quite a bit. The guys are excited to still be alive in Week 5.”
Normal Community (3-1) visits Richwoods (1-3) in the northern section of Peoria. The host Knights are coming off of their first win, a 44-20 triumph over Manual, while the Ironmen bounced back with a 49-21 Chili Bowl win over Normal West. Ironmen coach Wes Temples expects a physical game.
“They have big kids and great athletes,” said Temples. “It’s one of those things that if you’re not focused on the little things you want to get done, it can get away from you.”
Normal West (1-3) faces a road challenge at unbeaten Danville. Wildcats coach Darren Hess is focusing on the basics.
“If you continue to work on the fundamentals, the rest will take care of itself,” said Hess. “Keep believing in each other and the rest will take care of itself. I think we’ve set a pretty high standard here and obviously 1-3 is not acceptable in our players’ minds and the school and community, but I think we’re still growing as a football team.”
A pair of 1-3 squads square off at Hancock Stadium as U-High hosts Prairie Central. Pioneers coach Trevor Von Bruenchenhein is emphasizing the ground game against the visiting Hawks.
“I think we’re going to have to establish the run,” said Von Bruenchenhein. “Last week we had some difficulty doing that and we’ll have to give some time to get the ball to our athletes. We haven’t been doing a great job of that over the last couple of weeks.”
Central Catholic (3-1) carries a three-game winning streak to Williamson Field in Pontiac to face the 1-3 Indians. Saints coach Mike Moews is making sure his team does not take the Indians lightly.
“We’ve been on the kids all week stressing the importance of this game for conference’s sake,” said Moews. “Pontiac sits at 1-3 right now and I know they’re hoping to get to the playoffs, so this is a very important game for them. We need to be ready to play.”
The Central Catholic-Pontiac game can be heard on WJEZ-FM 98.9 and wjez.com.
The Extravaganza will also include updates from Fieldcrest at LeRoy in a Heart of Illinois Conference tilt. The Extravaganza begins with scene-setters at 6:10 on WJBC and WJBC.com, updates every quarter hour and post-game until 11 p.m. Scores and updates can also be found on the Friday night Extravaganza Twitter feed (@WJBCHSFootball, #WJBCHSFB).
The St. Louis Cardinals open their final road series of the season at Wrigley Field against the Chicago Cubs. WJBC will have the play-by-play starting with a 12:25 pregame.
Illinois State volleyball plays its first home match in Missouri Valley Conference play as the Redbirds host Loyola. Listen live at 7 on WJBC.com.
Greg Halbleib can be reached at [email protected].
