:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/shawmedia/OSJQVD26BZAHNJOGPYSYFDTBCQ.jpg?w=1200&resize=1200,0&ssl=1 "Mass teams from power conferences to semifinals – Shaw Local")
A tremendous amount of energy is often put into talking about the teams from the power conferences when it comes to how the teams might do in the postseason.
Based on the results of the 2024 postseason so far, it feels like these conversations were worth having.
A whopping eight CCL/ESCC teams have reached the semifinals, including three of the last four teams in Class 5A.
Three teams advanced from the SouthWest Valley, while two teams from the DuKane, Illinois Central Eight and Illini Prairie also advanced to their respective final four.
These five conferences account for more than half of the remaining teams in the postseason.
Powerhouses are powerhouses
As promised, there were more than a few exciting matchups in the quarterfinals, including:
• In Class 2A, Quincy Notre Dame scored 21 straight points and took a late touchdown lead over Maroa-Forsyth. And Maroa-Forsyth had to march around the entire pitch in four minutes to try and get them into position for a possible equalizer or game-winning score.
The Trojans engineered that drive and scored with 52 seconds to play – then made the courageous call to go for the 2-point call to secure a 22-21 win in a game that featured what many considered the two favorites to win the Class 2A title.
• That two-point decision went the opposite way in the Class 3A semifinal between Benton and Monticello.
The two teams were deadlocked heading into overtime and Monticello punched in a touchdown and successfully kicked the extra point. Benton matched the touchdown, then the Rangers elected to go for the two-point conversion, but they were stopped cold on the attempt and Monticello marched on.
• Richards already played with fire in the opening round with a 1-point win over Dunlap, but the Bulldogs decided to do it again because they narrowly defeated favorite Kankakee.
But despite all the close calls, there are several teams that made the first three rounds of the playoffs look fairly easy.
• Lincoln-Way East dominated in a win over Stevenson in the quarterfinals, the latest in a string of easy postseason victories in which it outscored its opponents 125-7.
• East St. Louis finally relented, giving up a pair of points in a quarterfinal against Glenwood, marking the first points the Flyers have allowed so far in the postseason. But of course, they also scored 58 points in the win, with 173 of them coming in the postseason.
• Belleville Althoff wasted no time securing a spot in the semifinals by jumping out to a 34-0 lead in the first quarter. Althoff hasn’t been pushed remotely so far, scoring 172 points in three games.
The newcomers
Seven of the remaining 32 teams are still looking to make their first-ever championship game with a semifinal win.
Three of the four remaining teams in Class 2A have never reached a title game. Johnston City, Farmington and Chicago Christian are playing in rarefied air for their programs, as Johnston City is the only one of the trio to even reach a semifinal.
In Class 4A, the clash between Mount Zion and Normal University will produce a finalist regardless of who wins the game, while in Class 8A, York has reached the semifinals four times without being able to take the final step to the state championship game.
Reversing it
Normally, the postseason tends to create matchups where the two paired opponents don’t have much experience with each other.
That’s simply not the case with this postseason, as there are many similarities between the remaining combatants.
The most obvious is the looming Class 8A battle between Loyola and Lincoln-Way East. These two teams have met in the last two 8A title games, both winning Loyola. But the rivalry between Ramblers and Griffins goes deeper than that.
The two teams have gone toe-to-toe in five of the last six postseason seasons, with Loyola holding a substantial lead in victories with four wins. But none of the games were decided by more than 11 points, which was Lincoln-Way East’s only win of the series in the 2017 8A title game.
In Class 1A, Belleville Althoff and Camp Point Central dueled in the quarterfinals last season and will battle it out in the semifinals this time. Althoff was considered a heavy favorite going into last year’s match, but Camp Point Central overpowered Althoff early and that win catapulted them to a title two weeks later.
The Class 7A semifinal between Mount Carmel and St. Rita reignites a longstanding rivalry between the schools that was so valuable to both that when St. Rita was removed from the CCL/ESCC Blue Division, the two still competed had to compete in a non-conference game. Mount Carmel won a Week 2 game 28-0 this season.
Cary-Grove defeated Geneva in a Class 6A quarterfinal 41-7 last season on its way to the Class 6A title. It’s certainly nice that Geneva is in a position to give the Trojans a much better fight this time around.
St. Francis surprised Nazareth in Week 9 of the regular season with a result that was overshadowed by the chaos of the final weekend of the season. Now Nazareth, looking to defend its Class 5A state title from the past two years, will try to make that result look like a fluke in a semifinal rematch.
Joliet Catholic breezed past Morris in a quarterfinal match last season, winning 41-7. And these two programs appear to be gravitating toward each other in the postseason, as this will be the 11th time the two have competed against each other in the postseason. Joliet Catholic leads the postseason series 8-2.
Tolono Unity defeated Monticello 42-28 in Week 9, as Unity continued its strong second half to start the season just 2-3. Monticello gets a chance to see if they learned anything from the first meeting.