Like it or not, D-C deserves this

Dundee-Crown football coach Mike Davis always tells it to me straight.

"Awww, jeez, don't write about us. That's the kiss of death!" he told me on the phone last Saturday when I said I wanted to stop by practice this week.

Davis eventually caved and gave me the practice times anyway. He knows his kids deserve a little bit of ink (and cyberspace) after they won their second straight game last Friday to improve to 2-1.

It's the first time the Chargers have put together back-to-back wins since they won the 2004 season finale and the 2005 opener.

I knew where Davis was coming from, though. He doesn't want his players getting big heads or feeling satisfied after enjoying a modicum of success, particularly when their victories came against Streamwood and Grayslake North, programs that went a combined 2-16 last year and remain winless in 2008.

But wins are wins in the unforgiving world of high school football, and Dundee-Crown will take them. It's not the players' fault a scheduling quirk pitted them the last two weeks against a pair of programs that have similarly struggled to find the win column recently. The Chargers still had to go out and win those games on the field, and they did their job.

For Dundee-Crown's football program, which won a single game each of the last two seasons, a bit of schedule relief was just the break the 2008 team needed to find its sea legs.

"It just gives us the opportunity to face teams that are the same caliber as us, somebody we can be competitive against," senior quarterback Logan Kissack said. "That way we can see when stuff works against a team close to our skill level. Then we can make adjustments and, against teams like Cary-Grove and Crystal Lake South, we'll know our timing is there. As long as we do what we know works, we can do pretty well."

The players are getting used to winning after years of being on the losing end. Heads are held higher this week. Classmates are beginning to take notice. Teachers have made positive comments in class. Practices have been livelier.

"It feels good. It boosts our confidence," senior Ian Salvatini said of winning two in a row. "The team is in high spirits. We're singing on the bus after games, that kind of thing. It's fun. We come out to win. When we do that it's just a good time."

It's important to keep D-C's modest winning streak in perspective. I'm not about to tell you the Chargers have improved enough in one year to suddenly challenge for the Valley Division title in the Fox Valley Conference because I don't believe that's the case. They were blown out 49-7 in Week 1 by powerful Geneva, currently ranked No. 3 in the state in Class 7A, and will face matchup problems against Valley teams like Cary-Grove and Crystal Lake South once divisional play begins. But D-C doesn't have to beat those teams to reach achieve its main goal of making the playoffs.

The Chargers have 2 wins in the bag already and have a golden opportunity to move to 3-1 this week if they can beat winless Grayslake Central at the D-C Bowl.

All teams in the Fox Valley Conference play two nonconference games, followed by two crossover games against teams from the other division of the conference. Last year in crossover play, D-C drew a strong Prairie Ridge playoff team and Crystal Lake Central, which went 5-4.

Due to the rotating FVC crossover schedule this year's opponents happened to be Grayslake North and Grayslake Central, which combined to win 1 game in 2007. If the Chargers can upend Grayslake Central on Friday to win their third straight for the first time since 2000 (when they beat Grayslake, Cary-Grove and Crystal Lake Central), playoff talk won't seem unrealistic.

A win over Grayslake Central, which played well in losses to Antioch and Grant, could give the Chargers enough confidence and momentum to win 2 of their 5 Valley Division games and make the state playoffs. Dundee-Crown hasn't qualified for the postseason since 1994.

"I think that whole confidence thing is a big factor," senior lineman Victor Domich said. "As long as our team is confident and feeling good, we can compete with anyone, I think confidence is huge in this sport."

You can bet Woodstock won't be taking the Chargers for granted if the Blue Streaks have to come to Carpentersville next week and play the Chargers on a three-game roll on D-C's homecoming.

Another factor in D-C's favor? It will play 4 of its next 5 games on home turf. Besides Grayslake Central and Woodstock (2-1), the Chargers will host McHenry (1-2) in Week 7 and Cary-Grove (3-0) in Week 8. The only road games remaining are trips to Crystal Lake South (2-1) in Week 6 and a District 300 showdown with Jacobs (1-2) in the regular-season finale.

If the Chargers win this week and knock off, say, a Woodstock or a McHenry along the way, the season finale against rival Jacobs could be all that separates Dundee-Crown from its first playoff berth in 14 years. That would be a huge event for the school and a big shot in the arm for a group of D-C football players determined to change the perception that the playoffs are unnattainable at Dundee-Crown.

The rest of this season is devoted to getting at least 3 more wins.

"I think we have the opportunity if our team keeps working hard," Kissack said. "On any given day anything can happen. Hopefully, we'll just keep it rolling and get some momentum going that will carry us the rest of the year."

Unless, of course, some newspaper guy gives them the kiss of death.