Burlington Central: September 2008 Archives

Who said teams can't handle a quarterback carousel halfway through the year?

First St. Charles North's Sean McGushin started taking a majority of the snaps from fellow senior Nick Neari in Week 3. Then Larkin and Burlington Central followed suit last week.

Here are the Courier News High School Football Week 5 preview capsules. Don't forget to check out Erik Jacobsen's look ahead to Saturday's Game of the Week between Bartlett and St. Charles North. Sports Editor R.J. Gerber also examines how Hampshire and Burlington Central might fare in the Big Northern Conference East Division, which begins play tonight.

We're halfway through the high school football season, and things are really starting to heat up. For a video preview of Week 5, click here.

There's no doubt the area's biggest game will take place Saturday when St. Charles North travels to play Bartlett. While the Hawks will likely have plenty of support from their boisterous student section, Bartlett coach Tom Meaney might not have the support of his own family.

Elsewhere in the area, the future will be on display when a pair of talented sophomore quarterbacks square off out west. Also, three area teams might be able to pull off season-defining upsets this week.

It's hard to believe we've already reached Week 4 of the high school football season. Time flies when you're having fun.

As we near the season's halfway point, there is plenty to keep an eye on this weekend. Big Northern Conference and Fox Valley Conference teams will be making their final tuneups before beginning league play next week. Meanwhile, three area teams will try to stay unbeaten and five area teams will be in search of their first wins.

Those teams looking to improve to 4-0 are Bartlett, Genoa-Kingston and Huntley. I think all three teams should be able to accomplish the feat. The Red Raiders might face the toughest test of the group in their game at Jacobs, but if these three squads continue the level of play they've displayed so far this year, they'll be tough for anyone to knock off.

Burlington Central, Hampshire, Elgin, South Elgin and Streamwood will all be looking to rebound from 0-3 starts. The Storm and Maroons play each other, so somebody will likely come away a winner. This looks like a pretty even match up, though, so I don't want to rule out the possibility of a tie.

Outside of the Elgin/South Elgin winner, Hampshire is the only other team in the bunch I expect to break through for a victory. The Whip-Purs traditionally haven't had much success against Byron, but I think a return home could help coach Dan Cavanaugh's club overcome three narrow losses and get on track.

Simply put, Central and Streamwood face stern challenges in their games against Oregon and St. Charles East, respectively. The first win of the season will have to wait until another week for these two local teams.

CONTINUED COVERAGE
For more insight into Week 4 of the season, check our weekly preview show Courier Prep Football Weekly. In depth game previews can be found in Friday's Courier News print edition and on our Courier sports web site. Check back throughout the weekend for scores, video highlights and game coverage. We'll also provide more analysis here on the All-Around E-Town blog as my fellow staff writers and I break down the weekend's action.

Lastly, feel free to join the conversation. Your comments on our stories and blog entries are always welcome and will only help bolster the discussion. If we miss something or if you have something to add, jump right in.

I STAND CORRECTED
Before I go, I want to clear up an error I reported on several occasions in last week's sports section. I erroneously reported that Dundee-Crown's current two-game win streak marked its first back-to-back victories since the 2002 season. It turns out that the Chargers won their final game of the 2004 season and first game of the 2005 campaign, so the 2002 win streak was merely the last time the school won two in a row in the same year.

I apologize for the error. I had our staff fact checkers make sure that I got the information right this week, and you can rest assured that D-C is going for its first three-game win streak since the 2000 season when it hosts winless Grayslake Central tonight.

Hampshire and Burlington Central are two area teams that are unaccustomed to losing. But after tough defeats on Friday, both are now 0-3 to start the year and looking at uphill battles to make the playoffs.

The Whip-Purs in particular know that it takes six wins to guarantee a postseason berth. They were left on the outside looking in last year with a 5-4 record. Both the Whips and the Rockets now must run the table, or sustain only one more loss to keep playing after Week 9.

The Whip-Purs are winless after Week 3 for the first time since 2002 after an 11-8 double-overtime loss to Oregon. Hampshire should be happy to have played so well against a team that's heavily favored to win the Big Northern Conference West Division.

But the schedule doesn't get a lot easier. The Whips still have to host strong Byron and Harvard teams while making road trips to Central and Richmond-Burton.

The Rockets, who fell 17-9 at Byron on Friday, are even farther removed from such a poor start. The last time Central began a season 0-3 was in 1993, and that team was on its way to an 0-9 record.

Central will have a better finish than that team '93 team, but like Hampshire has at least four tough ones left on the schedule. At least the Rockets get Oregon, Hampshire and Harvard at home. They've also got a long drive to Richmond ahead.

While 0-3 teams don't often have dreams of the playoffs, the Rockets and Whip-Purs can't be considered out of it because they can legitimately compete with and beat every team left on their scheds.

But it would be hard.

And while I'm entertaining postseason ideas, I'm sure Central coach Aaron Wichman and Hampshire coach Dan Cavanaugh aren't. Not because they don't think their teams can rally, but because both would probably say they're concentrating on just one game at a time.