Scouting Chicago Raby at Vernon Hills

Chicago Raby (0-1) at Vernon Hills (1-0)

When: 7:30 p.m., today

Last week: Raby lost to Plainfield South, 50-6; Vernon Hills def. Niles West, 45-0.

Outlook: In recent years, Vernon Hills' Week 2 opponent has been South Elgin, which opened its doors in 2005. As a newer and smaller school, South Elgin was the perfect opponent for Vernon Hills, a Class 5A school that is one of the smallest in Lake County. But as South Elgin has continued to grow, the football matchup against Vernon Hills started to make less sense. Needing a new Week 2 opponent, that's how Vernon Hills picked up Chicago Raby. "We thought the matchup with South Elgin would have been fine on the varsity level," Vernon Hills coach Tony Monken said. "But it was the underlevels where it really wasn't working anymore. South Elgin has grown and has 120 kids on their freshman team and we had 40 kids out for freshman football this year. It was hard to justify that situation on our end. South Elgin just got too big too fast and we felt we needed to look somewhere else."-Monken found out Raby was looking for games and the papers were drawn up. Two years ago, Raby went 9-0. Last year, Raby was 8-2 and Monken says he was impressed with the Raiders' showing against Morris in the playoffs. "They gave Morris a great game," said Monken, who watched the game on film. "They had a bad snap that really cost them, otherwise, I think they could have beaten Morris."-Monken says Raby is a no-huddle, shotgun spread team with one of the top quarterbacks in the Public League in Daniel Cleveland-Vernon Hills showed a little bit of everything in its decisive Week 1 victory over Niles West. DaVaris Daniels scored on a run (7 yards) and a pass (43 yards), as did Ohio State-bound Evan Spencer (25-yard run), (60-yard pass). Starting quarterback Steve Nelson guided the potent attack and scored his own rushing touchdown (10 yards), but the Cougars also got a lift from backup quarterback Chris Argianas, who throw both touchdown passes and also scored on a 1-yard run. "Our energy and our motors were fantastic," Monken said. "And defensively, we really came ready to play. I was very pleased for a Week 1 effort."