December 17, 2023
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Steve Soucie’s Week 4 games to watch: Losses starting to pile up

Eight games statewide feature a pair of 3-0 teams

By Steve Soucie
Huntley’s Jacob Witt, back, celebrates with Bryce Walker (1) after a Witt touchdown against Jacobs in varsity football in Huntley Friday night.

Huntley’s Jacob Witt, back, celebrates with Bryce Walker (1) after a Witt touchdown against Jacobs in varsity football earlier this season. Huntley will hope to clear some of the log jam at the top of the Fox Valley Conference in its favor as it challenges Prairie Ridge this week. (Patrick Kunzer for Shaw Local)

One hundred teams navigated the first three weeks of the season without a loss.

That’s well within the typical range, but what isn’t so typical is that there’s so few matchups pairing 3-0 teams against one another in Week 4 to directly dwindle down that list.

There are just eight games statewide that pair 3-0 teams against one another which means the list of undefeated teams will likely only dwindle a little bit barring a whole host of teams with lesser records emerging to topple undefeated teams in Week 4.

There will certainly be a few. But why does that matter in the grand scheme of things?

It does for one reason, if more teams hold onto undefeated status, other teams are adding to the their collective loss totals. Over time that’s going to put more teams on the fence in terms of who has three, four and the dreaded five losses in the regular season.

There’s more than significant reason to believe from early season results that the fight to reach the five-win plateau is going to include a lot of teams and that list is almost certainly going to include several teams you aren’t used to being involved in that scrum.

Here’s a look at some of the top games of Week 4:

St. Rita (3-0) at Mount Carmel (3-0), 7:30 p.m. Friday: The Mount Carmel machine continues to roll along as it has kept its first three opponents at arm’s length. St. Rita has largely done the same, but likely won’t be afford the luxury of being able to rally as it did last week in a Week 3 matchup with Joliet Catholic.

Huntley (3-0) at Prairie Ridge (3-0), 7 p.m. Friday: It’s not surprising to see these two programs amongst a logjam atop the Fox Valley Conference. There likely won’t be a clear leader after this outcome either, but there will be one less team holding a share of the conference lead after its outcome.

Batavia (2-1) at St. Charles North (2-1), 7 p.m. Friday: It is one of the many spirited rivalries in the DuKane Conference and probably the most surprising thing that will come out of the game is that whoever falls will find itself at the .500 mark when it is done.

Peoria (2-1) at Normal Community (3-0), 7 p.m. Friday: Peoria has recovered nicely from a Week 1 loss to Rochester, stacking 92 points on an undermanned Urbana squad last week. There’s been no need for recovery in regards to Normal Community who has routed all three of its opponents thus far, averaging over 50 points a game along the way.

Bradley-Bourbonnais (3-0) at Lincoln-Way East (3-0), 7 p.m. Friday: Although its a battle of a pair of undefeated teams, Lincoln-Way East is still the unqualified favorite in this contest. However, in the last two meetings between the two squads both games have come right down to the wire, including last year’s 28-21 win by the Griffins that was decided in the the game’s final minutes.

Other games of note: Sandwich at Richmond-Burton; Mount Zion at Taylorville; Riverside-Brookfield at Kankakee; Lincoln-Way West at Lincoln-Way Central; Belleville East at East St. Louis; Sesser-Valier at White County; Lyons at Glenbard West; Bolingbrook at Homewood-Flossmoor; Stevenson at Warren; St. Francis at Fenwick; Benet at Montini; Niles Notre Dame at Joliet Catholic; Brother Rice at Loyola.