Vernon Hills looks for win No. 5
This is not familiar territory for the Vernon Hills football team.
The 4-4 Cougars will be playing with their feet to the fire tonight when they host Wauconda. They need a win in order to have even an outside shot at the playoffs.
If Vernon Hills defeats Wauconda, qualifying for the playoffs with five wins and enough points is a possibility. And that’s a sharp contrast from the usual at Vernon Hills, which is the two-time defending North Suburban Prairie Division champion.
Since branching off from Libertyville High School slightly more than a decade ago, the Cougars have been to the playoffs in nine of 10 seasons that they’ve fielded full squads (including seniors).
And the year they didn’t make it might have been nothing more than a curse of the scheduling gods.
“That year, we finished 3-6 but our first four games were against teams that all made it to the quarterfinals or better, including Libertyville which won state,” Vernon Hills coach Tony Monken. “So even that wasn’t really (a bad miss).
“We’ve been able to put together some really good teams over the years. And we feel we are playing better now. We just played some good teams, five playoff teams, and we stumbled a bit earlier in the season.”
The Cougars lost four of five games, including three straight, between Weeks 2 and 6. The losses were to St. Francis, Antioch, Lakes and Grant.
The latter three teams could finish as tri-champions of the North Suburban Prairie Division.
“Sometimes you get dealt a hand you don’t expect,” Monken said. “But we just have to have fun, relax and play the way we know we can. We need to get that fifth win and see what happens. If things go right and teams that should lose do lose, we’ll be in the playoffs.”
(Glas) half full: Antioch was hoping to run the table this season and put together its second undefeated regular season since 2008.
But Grant shattered that dream last week by handing Antioch a 22-14 loss. The Sequoits, who turned the ball over five times in the Grant game, are now 7-1 heading into tonight’s regular season finale against North Chicago.
“You kind of felt like you had to talk the guys off the ledge after the (Grant) game,” said Antioch coach Brian Glashagel, known as “Coach Glas” to his players. “They were pretty upset, pretty solemn.
“But as coaches, we’re trying to see the good in (the loss). You know, our guys were feeling pretty good about themselves, pretty invincible before the Grant game, and you can’t have too much of that or else you start losing focus.
“I told them that if losing a game during the regular season helps us in the playoffs, if it helps us be a more focused playoff team, then I’ll say thank you to Grant and thank God a loss happened then and not in the playoffs.”
Bad loss: There are good losses, and there are bad losses.
Antioch coach Brian Glashagel says his team’s loss to Grant last week could be a good loss if it refocuses everyone before the playoffs.
Meanwhile, the loss of starting offensive and defensive lineman Lee Shannon is a bad loss no matter which way you slice it.
The senior captain got hit on the back side of his knee in the Grant game and could have a torn anterior cruciate ligament. In the least, he has a compromised MCL.
“He’s going to be out the next couple of weeks and that really hurts,” Glashagel said. “We are losing an all-conference, all-area lineman. And we’re losing a lot of leadership.”
But Antioch’s bad loss isn’t all bad news.
The good news is that the Sequoits have a very capable replacement for Shannon in junior lineman Justin Seyter.
“It’s not like we’re going to have to go to the bottom of the well, not at all,” Glashagel said. “Justin was competing for a starting spot on the line at the beginning of the year and then he got injured and that pushed him back a bit. But now he’s back and he’s been rotating in anyway. He’s been doing really well and should slide in fine.”
(Almost) Winning formula: When updates of Wauconda’s game against Stevenson were posted online last week, there were probably plenty of double-takes.
The Bulldogs were up on Stevenson 12-0 midway through the fourth quarter. But Stevenson scored 2 touchdowns over a three-minute span to escape with a 13-12 victory.
Still, it was an impressive showing for the 2-6 Bulldogs. So just how did they almost knock off the defending North Suburban Lake Division champs?
Wauconda coach Dave Mills gives big-time credit to the offensive line, which includes Christian Huff, Will Danner, Mike Augustine, Jack Weber, Anthony Mowry and David Lowe.
“We were able to run a lot of clock because we established our run game probably better than we have all season,” Mills said. “That was the first game we had our five starters in the game at the same time. We’ve had some injuries and we’ve had to move some people around this year, so we hadn’t had that (cohesiveness) before.”
Short but stout: It’s been a quick climb up for Lakes.
Just six years ago, the Eagles were playing their first season of varsity football with seniors. Lakes had just split from sister school Antioch and was ready to fly on its own.
The Eagles wound up soaring that year. They made the playoffs and finished with a 6-4 record.
Now, Lakes is about to earn its fourth playoff berth. That’s four playoff appearances in six years.
With a win tonight over Round Lake, the 6-2 Eagles, led by the relentless running of Direll Clark and Ashton Norwood, are also in position to claim no worse than a share of the North Suburban Prairie Division title. It would be the first division title in program history.
The Eagles have finished second twice.
“Sometimes you don’t really get the chance to step back and take it all in, but what we’ve been able to do in such a short amount of time has really been amazing,” Lakes coach Luke Mertens said. “I mean, I was named the head coach here at age 29 and was starting from scratch. We had nothing: no helmets, no football logo, no tradition, no pride and definitely no idea of what it takes to win at this level.
“I’m not sure how many people in our community understand just how ahead of the game we are as a relatively new program. But it’s definitely something to be proud of.”
The end is near: The playoffs are often thought of as a new beginning, a new season.
But even though his team will likely make the playoffs, Libertyville head coach Randy Kuceyeski also must prepare himself for the fact that he is getting very close to the end … of his career, and of his time along the sidelines at Libertyville’s football stadium.
Kuceyeski, who is retiring at the end of the school year after 18 years at the helm, could be coaching in his last home game ever tonight, depending on what the Wildcats draw and how they fare in the playoffs.
Libertyville (5-3) hosts Lake Forest in the regular-season finale for both teams. Win or lose, the Wildcats are expected to make the playoffs on points. They currently boast the third-most playoff points (43) in Class 7A.
“I’m getting pretty sentimental about it all,” Kuceyeski said. “When I come off that field (at the end of the game tonight), it will be emotional. I’m just hoping it won’t be my last game there.”
Finishing with family: Take out the sentimentality of coaching in his final season, and it’s still been an emotional season for Libertyville head coach Randy Kuceyeski.
Kuceyeski, who is retiring at the end of the season after 18 years as head coach, has been fighting cancer since last spring. His most aggressive treatments, which have included multiple hospital stays, have occurred during the football season.
To help him through what might be his most emotional moment yet — his final regular season home game at Libertyville, which will be played tonight against Lake Forest — Kuceyeski has brought in backup.
More than 25 of his family members, some from as far away as Ohio, Indianapolis and St. Louis, will be in the stadium to cheer him on from the stands.
“It will be nice to have so many people there for my last game,” Kuceyeski said. “That means a lot.”
Kuceyeski will be able to enjoy his company in comfort.
For now, he is done with his taxing cancer treatments, which included radiation and chemotherapy that took a harsh toll on his voice since the cancer originated in his mouth.
“My voice is sounding better and I’m feeling a lot better, too,” Kuceyeski said. “On Nov. 4, I’ll have a CAT scan to see how everything is going and if it looks good, I’ll be in recovery.”
Phoning it in: Thank goodness for technology.
While the IHSA announces its playoff pairings on Saturday night, Libertyville coach Randy Kuceyeski won’t be glued to his television like he usually is.
He’ll be at the Northwestern-Penn State night game, keeping track of the playoff pairings on his phone.
Kuceyeski’s son John, a defender on the Wildcats’ 2004 Class 7A state championship team, is an assistant coach at Northwestern.
“His title is ‘offensive quality control,’ and he handles scouting reports and things like that for the offense,” Kuceyeski said of his son. “He’ll be there for two more years while he goes through grad school and then he’ll be looking for a coaching job.”
Falling in line: Before this season, Libertyville had missed the playoffs three of the previous four years.
When the Wildcats lost three of four games earlier in the season, it looked like they might again be on the outside looking in.
But slowly and surely, Libertyville (5-3) made improvements in one key area that allowed for a rebound as well as a likely a berth into the playoffs.
“It’s been our offensive line,” Libertyville coach Randy Kuceyeski said. “Every single one of those guys is an underclassman. And we put in a new zone blocking scheme this year that we’ve never done before. It took awhile for them to grasp that concept and it took awhile for them to get some experience and come together (as a unit).”
But now, Brandon Stanfel, Nick Carlino, Matt Dziedzic, Shaun McCracken and Ryan Martin, are working like a well-oiled machine.
“Our main accomplishment this year is that those guys have gotten better each week,” Kuceyeski said. “We’re running the ball well and we’re protecting our quarterback really well. These guys are working really well as a unit.”
Connor Simpson has certainly benefited from the Wildcats’ improved offensive line.
The sophomore running back, who was brought up to fill in for injured senior Brian Swift, rushed for 115 yards on 23 carries last week against Warren.
Swift injured his ankle against Stevenson in Week 5 and missed two games. He is expected to return to action this week against Lake Forest.