Scouting Warren at Wauconda

Warren (1-2) at Wauconda (1-2)

When: 7:30 p.m., today

Last week: Warren lost to Stevenson, 24-7; Wauconda lost to Antioch, 48-34.

Outlook: According to Wauconda coach Dave Mills, someone associated with the North Suburban Conference recently did a study on crossover games between the big schools from the Lake Division and the smaller schools from the Prairie Division. "The Prairie teams won 15 percent of the games," Mills said. "Those aren't great odds. In football when you're playing nine games and you need five wins to make the playoffs, that can be tough to do if you're basically playing an eight-game schedule." But don't think for a minute Mills is already throwing up the white flag in his team's crossover game against Warren. "We draw motivation from the fact that (unranked) James Madison beat (No. 13) Virginia Tech last weekend, and that a team like Appalachian State beat (No. 5) Michigan (in 2007). You hold on to that Cinderella story. Can Class 5A teams beat Class 8A teams? It doesn't happen very often, but it has on occasion and we've got the guys pumped up about being the kind of team who can do that."-The Bulldogs will be a bit handicapped in their quest to pull the David vs. Goliath-style upset. Mills says that 18 of the 52 players on his roster were spending significant time in the training room this week. Three linemen - Christian Huff (knee), Zach Bulich (hand) and Colton Rodgers (concussion) - went down last week against Antioch and are questionable this week. Meanwhile, wide receiver Jacob Moran is out for the season with a broken collarbone. "Warren is fast and strong upfront and we'll need our linemen to be solid and right now we're three linemen down," Mills said. "Offensively, Warren's not going to give us a lot of running room, so we'll have to use our pass to set up our run. We usually throw about 20 times a game but that might have to go up to 40 against Warren. Defensively, we're going to have to commit eight guys to stop the run. We'll have to stunt and move around more and use our quickness to disrupt their game." - Wauconda quarterback Brian Kent put up big numbers last week against Antioch, rushing for 102 yards while completing 16-of-24 passes for 264 yards. He's put up big numbers in each of the Bulldogs' three games. His main targets were Jake Ziolkowski and Brandon Dorsey. - Warren's offense was stymied last week by a Stevenson defense that picked off 3 passes and gave up just 215 total yards. Even gritty Warren fullback Tom Lindal was held to just 74 yards.