Forged in the Suburban Catholic Conference
The year was 2002, and the late coach Bob Cozzi addressed the media after his Immaculate Conception Knights had won the Class 3A football championship, a couple hours after Driscoll had won the 4A title.
"You are challenged week after week in the Suburban Catholic Conference - St. Edward, Aurora Central, Marmion, St. Francis, Montini, obviously Driscoll. ... So you've got to come ready to play every week."
Six years have passed, but that fact remains the same. IC and St. Francis each are a semifinal victory away from a state title berth due in part to strength of schedule - the SCC schedule.
"I'd heard the league was a very tough league," said St. Francis coach Greg Purnell, who took over the Spartans last year after coaching in Iowa and Wisconsin. "I was surprised that it was even tougher than I thought."
Immaculate Conception, for example, entered the Class 2A playoffs as a No. 15 seed with a 5-4 record. The Knights took regular-season losses to St. Francis and state quarterfinalists Driscoll and Montini, a combined 31-5. Add the Knights' nonconference loss to Class 4A semifinalist Aurora Christian, which beat Driscoll last week, and that record improves to 43-5.
Emerging healthy through that bruising schedule has helped Immaculate Conception (8-4) rout its first three playoff foes by a combined 126-36. The first-team defense has allowed 6 points.
"Each school, each program, each coach has own unique philosophy on the game, and how they feel is the best way to get a 'W,' " said IC coach Bill Schmidt. "So you see a ton of variations on offense, from the Wing-T to the spread to the power I.
"We see it all, so when we get to the playoffs we've seen teams that have tried to ram it down our throat in the run game and finesse you in the passing game, and sometimes teams that can do both. That's great, and that's why we love to be in this conference."
IC's semifinal opponent, No. 5 seed Clifton Central (10-2), will test Schmidt's theory. He said scouting reports indicate Clifton's four- and five-wide passing schemes transcend the play-action sets of most of the Knights' opponents.
"It's one thing that we struggled with at the beginning of year and throughout the year," he said, "but I think we have really started to improve these last four weeks."
In the 5A semifinals No. 7 seed Kankakee (9-3) will present a double-tight end ground game to No. 4 seed St. Francis (11-1), making its first semifinal appearance.
"We're a 3-5 (defensive) team and we run to the ball well," said Purnell, whose Spartans avenged their only loss of the season in last week's 28-14 win over Montini. St. Francis, a blend of speed, experience, strength and more speed, allows just 211.4 yards a game, 104.4 per game on the ground.
"We haven't faced many double-tight offenses," Purnell said. "The ones that did gave us a tough time, St. Edward (a 28-12 Spartans win) and Marmion (a 35-32 win). So we've got to buckle it up this week, hunker down and play some good defense against the run."