Keys to a Carmel win? There's only one

Carmel coach Andy Bitto prepares for Geneva's rushing attack.
(Joe Shuman/For the News-Sun)

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You don't need to write a book to cover everything it will take for Carmel High's football team to beat Geneva on Saturday in the IHSA Class 7A playoffs.

In fact, it won't even take a short story to get the message across.

More like three words:

Stop Michael Ratay. There you have it.

Carmel High's chances of beating unbeaten Geneva on Saturday in the quarterfinals of the IHSA Class 7A playoffs come down to those three words.

If Carmel can contain Ratay, the Corsairs will win. If Carmel can't, then the Corsairs will wind up as Geneva's 12th victim of the season.

It's that simple.

Ratay is a 5-foot-10 senior running back with great speed and strength. He's run wild this year against Western Sun Conference competition, putting up numbers that would guarantee him Offensive Player of the Year honors wherever he played.

Consider these 11-game stats ... all Geneva wins, of course:

* He's carried the ball 251 times for 2,412 yards and 38 touchdowns.

* His "average" game running the ball is 23 carries for 219 yards and 3 touchdowns. That's his AVERAGE game.

* In a game this year against rival Batavia, he ran with the ball 18 times for 353 yards and 6 touchdowns.

If he gets half that against Carmel on Saturday, our side is in trouble.

That's the bad news.

The good news is that the strength of Carmel's team is its ability to stop the run.

The other bit of good news is that you never know just how strong the Western Sun Conference is when compared to the East Suburban Catholic Conference -- a league Carmel pretty much ruled this fall.

If you're looking for comparative scores -- a Kevin Bacon-like degrees of separation kind of thing -- try this:

* Geneva beat Rolling Meadows by 20

* Rolling Meadows beat Buffalo Grove by 5

* Buffalo Grove beat Mundelein by 12

* Mundelein lost to Libertyville by 41

* Carmel beat Libertyville by 7

Got it ... and more importantly, have you got what it all means?

Think of it like this:

* Carmel beat Libertyville by 7 and Libertyville beat Mundelein by 41, so Carmel would be Mundelein by 48.

* Buffalo Grove beat Mundelein by 12 and Carmel would beat Mundelein by 48, so Carmel would beat Buffalo Grove by 36.

* Rolling Meadows beat Buffalo Grove by 5 and Carmel would beat Buffalo Grove by 36, so Carmel would beat Rolling Meadows by 31.

* Geneva beat Rolling Meadows by 20 and Carmel would beat Rolling Meadows by 31, so Carmel will beat Geneva by 11.

Nothing to it.

See you in the semifinals.

PREP FOOTBALL PLAYOFF PAIRINGS

QUARTERFINALS

Class 6A

• Grant (8-3) at Lemont (11-0), Sat., 6 p.m.

• Antioch (11-0) at Glenbard South (9-2), Sat., 3 p.m.

• Rock Island (11-0) at Providence Catholic (7-4), Sat., 2 p.m.

• Bloomington (10-1) at Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin (10-1), Sat., 1 p.m.

Class 7A

• Carmel (10-1) at Geneva (11-0), Sat., 1:30 p.m.

• Cary-Grove (11-0) at Crystal Lake South (9-2), Sat., 1 p.m.

• Glenbard West (11-0) at Downers Grove North (7-4), today, 7:30 p.m.

• St. Rita (10-1) at East St. Louis (10-1), Sat., 3 p.m.

Class 8A

• Bartlett (11-0) at Schaumburg (7-4), Sat. 5 p.m.

• Maine South (11-0) at Barrington (9-2), Sat., 6 p.m.

• Hinsdale Central (9-2) at Brother Rice (9-2), Sat., 7 p.m.

• Marist (9-2) at Chicago Mt. Carmel (9-2), today, 7 p.m.

GENEVA VIKINGS

11-0 Regular Season

• def. Dundee- Crown 49-7

• def. St. Charles East 34-7

• def. Yorkville 41-6

• def. Glenbard South 14-7

• def. Sycamore 45-21

• def. DeKalb 48-6

• def. Rochelle 35-14

• def. Kaneland 42-7

• def. Batavia 47-14

IHSA Class 7A Playoffs

• Round of 32 -- def. Rolling Meadows 27-7

• Round of 16 -- def. Hononegah 46-28 IHSA CLASS 7A PLAYOFFS: Carmel (10-1) at Geneva (11-0), saturday, 1:30 p.m.