Lake County's plot thickens with mystery matchups

Not knowing a single thing, not one morsel of telling information about your team's first round playoff opponent is a bit scary for most football coaches.

Yet, Lakes coach Luke Mertens still wasn't the most distressed person at his house Saturday night when he learned that his Eagles will be playing what he considers a mystery team in Chicago Senn next weekend in the first round of the Class 5A state playoffs.

Mertens' 6-month-old son got completely freaked when 50 big, burly football players showed up at his house to chow down on pizzas.

In anticipation of securing just the second playoff berth in school history, Mertens invited his entire team over to watch the IHSA's playoff pairings show on television.

"My son just now stopped crying," Mertens said with a laugh, long after the show had ended. "It was pretty crazy with everyone over here. We got 22 pizzas and they were gone in literally 10 minutes. I'm not kidding."

Mertens, whose 5-4 Eagles qualified on playoff points and got the No. 15 seed while Senn (8-1) was awarded a No. 2 seed, hopes his team will show that kind of hunger next week. The Eagles looked out of sorts on Friday in getting their lunch handed to them by Wauconda in a 41-12 regular season finale loss.

"Well, the main reason we lost is that Wauconda just beat us," Mertens said. "That team is a very good team, they got better every week and they peaked at the right time. Their quarterback is the real deal and they just beat us.

"But I think another factor was that, as much as we pleaded with our guys not to look ahead, they did anyway. Everyone was telling them when we won our fifth game, 'Oh, you guys are in (the playoffs). And I think we got caught thinking about that."

Mertens can't start thinking critically about Senn until he gets some film to review. But he says he was able to check out the Bulldogs' game scores from this season and make some assumptions.

"What I saw is that they gave up only 56 points this season and they had 6 shutouts. Their offense was scoring a lot of points too, like at least 40 in almost every game," Mertens said. "I'm going to assume they've got a really good defense and a high-octane offense."

Also in Class 5A, sixth seeded Vernon Hills (7-2) drew its own mystery team in No. 11 Chicago Brooks (6-3).

"We know nothing about Brooks, so I went to the IHSA Web site to see who their coach is and nothing was listed," Vernon Hills coach Tony Monken laughed. "So we had to find it on the school's Web site.

"We've been in this position before where we played a city school that we didn't know anything about. In 2001, we played Marshall. In 2002, we played Harper. We have a few connections in the city to help us get information, but not as many in the suburbs, so that makes (preparation) a little more stressful."

Speaking of stress, Monken isn't all that worried about the 42-0 spanking his team took from Lake Zurich on Friday. He doesn't see it as an indication of any significant problems.

"Listen, Lake Zurich is a very good team," Monken said. "And we were kind of in a perfect storm. We already knew we were in (the playoffs) and Lake Zurich needed to win to get a lock (with 6 wins). Once they went up 28-0, we pulled most of our starters. And (star wide receiver/quarterback/defender) DaVaris (Daniels) didn't even play. He was out sick. So we knew that particular game was going to be an uphill battle."

In Class 8A, Stevenson just missed being made king of the hill. The undefeated Patriots (9-0), who clinched the North Suburban Conference Lake Division crown by knocking off Warren Friday night, were given a No. 2 seed.

They'll take on No. 15 New Trier (5-4) in their opener.

"We've faced New Trier a couple of times in the playoffs before," said Stevenson coach Bill Mitz, whose program has made 21 straight playoffs appearances and 22 overall. "We're excited. We had a good win (over Warren) and we're ready to bring our A-game."

Speaking of Warren, the Blue Devils (7-2) also made they Class 8A field. They got the No. 6 seed and will take on No. 11 Chicago Curie (6-3).

Another mystery opponent, Curie actually shouldn't be too tough to decode.

"Our defensive line coach (Mark Mika) plays (semi-pro) football for the Chicago Thunder and the defensive coordinator for Curie also plays on that team, so they know each other," Warren coach Dave Mohapp said. "That's kind of amazing. That helped making contact and getting a phone number to call the head coach."

In Class 7A, Carmel (7-2), which earned a share of the East Suburban Catholic Conference title with its win over Nazareth on Friday, earned the No. 7 seed and will take on No. 10 Prospect (7-2).

"It's a tough draw," Carmel coach Andy Bitto said. "Prospect is a very good team, with great (playoff) experience and they've got a great quarterback. Then we could feed into Rockford Boylan and Crystal Lake South. This is one of the toughest draws we've had in a long time. But we're excited about the opportunity."

Also in Class 7A, No. 11 Lake Zurich (6-3) will take on No. 6 Rolling Meadows (7-2).

Three local teams made the playoffs last year but missed this time.

Antioch advanced to the Class 6A semifinals last fall. But the Sequoits went 5-4 this season and didn't have enough playoffs points (30) to make the cut-off, which was 38.

Meanwhile, Libertyville needed to win its final game to hit the 5-win mark. If the Wildcats had, they would have qualified on playoff points. But Mundelein knocked them off on Friday in the mud, 7-0.

Libertyville's absence from the playoffs is just its second in the last 13 years. The Wildcats also didn't make the cut in 2007.

Finally, Grant, which advanced to the Class 6A quarterfinals last year, is a miss this year at 4-5.