Huge games in Week 2
High school football fans in the Joliet area can thank their lucky stars Gustav decided to leave its mark a day ahead of tonight's full schedule.
Imagine how much fun it would have been sitting in the bleachers the way the weather was Thursday. Or, just ask one of the hearty, soaked souls who watched the University of St. Francis' opener against Valparaiso on Thursday night at Memorial Stadium.
The thing about weather is, it can be a great equalizer. Even though we are supposed to be finished with the rain by early today, you have to wonder whether field conditions will be less than ideal in some instances. And if that is the case, will it favor one side or the other?
For example, Wheaton Warrenville South visits Joliet Catholic Academy at Memorial Stadium, a day after USF and Valparaiso slipped and sloshed around on the wet playing surface. Perhaps it will be a slow track tonight.
Regardless, JCA knows it needs to get its offense untracked if it hopes to compete with Wheaton Warrenville, which for years has been among the state's best programs. The Hilltoppers were limited to 132 total yards in last week's loss at Carmel of Mundelein, and that won't cut it.
Then again, no less an authority than Gordie Gillespie said long ago that a good team makes its biggest improvement between Week 1 and 2. So stay tuned.
Joliet Township plays at Plainfield South in another of tonight's major local attractions. South's running game may not suffer even if the track is slow. But JT's short passing game? You would think it will be more adversely affected.
But the thing to remember about the Steelmen is they were right with Richards last week before dropping a 28-21 decision. They have not enjoyed much success lately, but that will be forgotten if they get things headed in the right direction tonight.
Let's see, in addition to Lincoln-Way North and East matching up, we have Lockport hosting Thornton tonight, plus Plainfield Central visiting Neuqua Valley, Providence Catholic entertaining Fenwick, Plainfield North hosting St. Viator, Lincoln-Way Central welcoming Andrew, Romeoville entertaining Evergreen Park, Bolingbrook at Eisenhower, Lemont home to Sterling and Morris visiting Driscoll. Then on Saturday, Minooka hosts Highland Park.
We cannot expect our team to win all those games, yet in each case, there is reason to believe the outcome could go our way. For a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the forthcoming playoff push, each of our teams sure could use a "W".
Thursday's rain won't make a difference if FieldTurf is involved. But on natural surfaces, it may matter, for better or worse. We will hear it said more than once tonight at the stadium: "Wouldn't it be nice if this place had FieldTurf?"
e-mail: dgoss@scn1.com
