Down the stretch they come

Just think, three weeks and three days from now we'll be breakin' down playoff matchups. Don't know about you, but Sly's ready for Halloween already! Patience, Sly ... plenty of fun to be had still in the regular season.

As for this Friday, most of the hottest action seems to involve the St. Charles squads.

Sly's thinking St. Charles East is going to pretty much guarantree it'll be one of those teams scramblin' for playoff videotape with a win against Bartlett on Friday. This is a win the Saints badly want. Otherwise, there'll be pressure galore the final couple weeks of the season to pick up win #5. Not to mention, the Saints are in position to win a UEC championship, and a slip-up against underachievin' Bartlett could spell doom.

North-Neuqua could be a sizzler. Neuqua Valley is going to throw the sink at the Stars, coming in with a 2-4 record. A big win against the Wildcats could return some of that swagger North had early that has flickered a little bit the next couple weeks. Just seeing who's going to suit up for North will be interesting in its own right!

Geneva better be careful with Rochelle. The Hubs can control clock and would love, love, love to put a scare, or more, into the Vikings in their final trip to Burgess. We'll see if the big homecoming win and rivalry games coming up with Kaneland and Batavia makes Geneva ripe for an upset.

It'll be fun to see who else joins the playoff party. Some of the other schools of local interest, like Marmion, Aurora Christian and St. Francis, look to be in pretty good shape to join the Tri-Cities (minus Batavia) and Kaneland crew.