Willowbrook wants staying power

While many people are looking at potential future matchups in the Class 7A playoffs, Willowbrook's hoping to cash in on the present.

The Warriors, making their first football playoff appearance since 2004, face a stiff challenge in tonight's first-round game at defending 7A champion St. Rita.

Looming for the winner is a likely second-round game against No. 1 Wheaton Warrenville South, last year's 8A champion. Although anticipation of a St. Rita-WW South game is strong, Willowbrook aims to disrupt expectations by staging an upset.

"We look at it as an opportunity," said Warriors coach Mark Olson. "They have six wins, we have six wins. We'll see what happens."

Both teams arrived at 6-3 records in different ways.

St. Rita came into the season as the state's consensus No. 1 team and boasts one of the top recruits in Illinois in defensive end Darius Fleming, who verbally committed to Notre Dame.

Losses to Mt. Carmel, Loyola and Brother Rice dropped St. Rita to a No. 4 seed in the upper bracket in 7A, leading to tonight's matchup against No. 5 Willowbrook. The Warriors also endured an up-and-down regular season after opening with three straight wins.

"It's definitely been a roller-coaster ride," Olson said. "There were some games where we really shined, and then games where we hit a speed bump."

The Warriors have ridden the running tandem of Wayne Bolden and Brandon Martinez, who have combined for 1,461 rushing yards.

Balancing the offense has been the passing attack of quarterback Kevin Pohl and 6-foot-4 receiver Milton Colbert, who has 34 catches for 742 yards and 6 touchdowns.

Defensively, the linebacker-led unit anchored by Ryan Mazgay will try to slow down St. Rita and quarterback Jason Kafka.

"We're back in the playoffs, and we're excited," Olson said. "But we're not just going in to put our name on a bracket. We're going to play our hardest out there."