Scouting Notre Dame at Carmel

Notre Dame (5-2, 2-2) at Carmel Catholic (7-0, 5-0)

When: 7:30 p.m., today

Last week: Notre Dame def. Glenbard South, 42-15; Carmel Catholic def. Marian Catholic, 24-0.

Skinny: The playoffs are already part of Carmel's future this season. But don't expect the Corsairs to phone it in these next two weeks. Not only are they flirting with an undefeated regular season, they've also got the opportunity to earn an outright East Suburban Catholic Conference championship as well as a higher playoff seed and a favorable first-round pairing. “Last year, we finished 7-2 and drew Prospect right away and that was a tough matchup to start with, Carmel coach Andy Bitto said. “You're always striving to get to 9-0 because the bracket is much softer early on. So that's a goal of ours. We also want to win the conference outright.…A win against Notre Dame would give Carmel sole possession of the ESCC title. A loss could mean that the Corsairs would have to share it with Joliet Catholic, which has just one conference loss thus far, to Carmel. If the Corsairs defeat Notre Dame, they would secure their fourth conference title in school history. They also won in 2002, 2003 and 2009…Notre Dame is no slouch, though. The Dons have won three of their last four games, with the only loss in that stretch coming in overtime (21-20) to Marian Catholic. The Notre Dame offense can put points on the board in a hurry and averages 29 points a game, third most in the ESCC behind Joliet Catholic (40 ppg) and Carmel (38.1 ppg)…But Carmel's defense happens to be the best in the ESCC. The Corsairs have allowed only 78 points all season, or 11.1 points per game. “And one of those touchdowns came on a blocked punt and two others came when we turned the ball over on offense and the other team had less than 10 yards to go for a touchdown, Bitto said. “If you take those away, our defense would be giving up less than 10 points a game. They've had 3 shutouts already (St. Viator, Benet, Marian Catholic). We've been really happy with our defense this season. They've been pretty awesome.