Scouting Oak Lawn at Hersey

Oak Lawn (5-5) at Hersey (1-8)

When: 7:30 p.m. today at Roland Goins Stadium

Last year's openers: Oak Lawn lost 20-13 to Shepard; Hersey lost 14-0 to St. Viator

Outlook: Oak Lawn scouted Hersey last year - but it didn't turn out to be too valuable since the Huskies have a new coach in Dragan Teonic. "Now we're pretty much back to square one," said fourth-year Oak Lawn coach Ron Thornburgh. "We know they play in a very good conference and it's a nice school and a nice student body. Going in blind is the scary part. We're preparing the kids for a little bit of everything because we don't know what we're going to see." Oak Lawn is coming off consecutive playoff trips but was hit hard by graduation except on the offensive line, where four starters return, including three-year starter and LB Greg Hayward (6-3, 226). That should help with what Thornburgh said will probably be a rotation of four to five running backs. Hersey hasn't won an opener since beating Lyons 31-14 in 2005. "They're a physical team and they're going to be bigger than us upfront," Teonic said.