With two games remaining and a 3-4 record, Neuqua Valley knows it must run the table or face playoff extinction. That would end a six-year run of postseason appearances.
If the scenario sounds familiar, that's because the Wildcats faced the same deal last season.
"My shoulder blades have so many calluses from being against the wall they've kind of built up," Neuqua coach Bryan Wells said. "We just have to go out and win next week."
The Wildcats have UEC opponents Streamwood and St. Charles North remaining. Considering the Sabres (1-5 entering Week 7), haven't had more than one win in a season since 2003, the Wildcats should have no trouble getting back to .500.
Then comes the matchup with the North Stars, who are probably still smarting from the 45-0 beatdown Neuqua gave them last year. It seems a given that the North Stars are hoping to extract some revenge in Naperville.
Wells has broken the schedule into seven one-week seasons for his players, which he'll certainly continue to do the rest of the way. That's to keep the Wildcats focused on the game in front of it without looking to the following week or back to the previous game.
It will be tough putting the emotional 31-28 loss to Bartlett in the rear-view mirror. But the Wildcats will have to if they hope to be playing on Halloween (which is the night of the first playoff games in case that wasn't obvious).
Do you take nominations for player of the week? How about Conner Yearian 9/153 3td.
Neuqua Mom,
You make a great point about Yearian, who had a fantastic game against Bartlett. Ultimately we decided to go with Alex Lincoln because of his school-record 344 passing yards. I later learned that Yearian's total was only six yards shy of breaking the single-game receiving record, which was set by Josh Schaffer just a week earlier.
But I also feel that for a receiver to have a big night, he needs a quarterback to throw him the ball. Thus, the choice to opt for Lincoln over Yearian in this week's poll.
As for reader nominations, feel free to send them to either me (platour@scn1.com) or to Patrick Mooney (pmooney@scn1.com).
Unfortunately, at this time we aren't able to utilize a write-in option for our online poll, so we can only go with four players per week.
I hope this clarifies how we make our decisions on the poll.
Thanks for reading,
Paul