ICE Week 8

[Wilmatucky1]

One crucial game this week. 3 glorified practices.

Playoffs
Wilmo Clinch
CC Clinch
Herscher Clinch

Manteno - barring an epic collapse against Streator in Week 9 they will be in. This week just puts icing on the cake
Peotone- Needs to win out. Neither game is a gimme. If they win 1/2 will 4 wins get them in. I think their PP may be a little low if that is the case.
Braidwood - Will 4 be enough for them. Someone said their PP may be close to high enough. Only time will tell.

Wilmington (6-1) @ Braidwood (3-4) - Braidwood has definitely improved, I cannot deny that. I don't think it matters this week as Wilmington comes out rocking and getting ready for CC. Keep the ACE Hardware trophy home. Wilmo by a lot. Cats 45 Braidwood 12

Herscher (5-2) @ Coal City (6-1) - Herscher has impressed as well. But like the aforementioned game, it won't be enough against a CC team who has put up at least 40 in every game except their loss to a tough RB. Roll Coal. CC 49 Herscher 7

Manteno (4-3) @ Peotone (3-4) - GOTW! Route 50 Rumble! Both teams need it but the Tone needs it a little more. They will be fired up at home and that will help them keep it close but I think Manteno is the better team when push comes to shove. If the game was played ten times I think we get a 5-5 split. The time that counts though will go to the Panthers. Manteno 27 Peotone 24 OT

Dixon (6-1) @ Streator (1-6) - Streator is bad. Dixon is not. Dixon will do what they want. Dixon 55 Streator 7

 

[Doctor_D]

Wilmo by a lot.
Dixon by a lot.
CC by a lot.

Manteno had a nice bounce back vs GCMS. I admit I did not think they would win that game, but they went on the road and won comfortably.

I originally thought Peotone was going to be the clear #3 in the ICE after their fairly strong showing vs Wilmo, but they’ve had some less than impressive results. The Wilmo game ended poorly for them, but they looked competitive for a good part of the first half.

If you look at head to head, it’s nearly impossible to determine a clear favorite, but since week 3 I thought ‘Tone was superior. Manteno seemed really susceptible, but then flexed their muscles vs a decent GCMS team. Massey has Peotone as 35-27 favorites. I don’t think it will be *quite* that high of a score, but both teams will put up points. I’ll take Coach Tolly’s Blue Devil squad to win at home by a score of 28-17 in the Rumble on Route 50.

 

[Carmine Evergreen]

Wilmo and CC continue to fine tune for their Week 9 showdown in Wilmo while Herscher sits atop Tier 2 in the ICE at 5-2.

Wilmington (6-1) @ Reed-Custer (3-4) - Talk about two ships passing in the night! The Cats are steaming towards another deep run in the IHSA playoffs, the Comets towards another early off-season in the weight room (assuming they lift). Wilmo 49 R-C 0

Herscher (5-2) @ Coal City (6-1) - The Coalers are an extremely good football team right now and Herscher is just hoping to stay healthy for the postseason. CC 48 - Herscher 6

Manteno (4-3) @ Peotone (3-4) - Intriguing match-up between 2 teams that have pulled a Jekyll and Hyde all season. All I know is Peotone is at home and they need to win out. The desperate Devils find a way. Peotone 20 Manteno 19.

 

[BobbyBoucher9]

Wilmington and Coal City Big
Streator gets routed.

GOTW - I tried to say how GCMS and the HOIS isnt as physical as history has shown Manteno handled them just fine. Peotone up front will provide a much tougher match up. This should be a back and forth game but I see Peotone getting that much needed win.

 

[Coalertown91]

Braidwood lost their shot at the post season last week, although this new head coach if left to be able to do his own thing can turn the Comets around. Wilmo have no issues rolling past BWood. Cats 42 Comets 6

Coalers are playing outstanding and haven't been tested in the ICE, next week will be a slobberknocker. Herscher is in so I don't see them pushing the envelope and will want to stay healthy Coalers 45 Tigers 13

Streator sucks, they will lose by 60

Tone and Manteno is interesting. Panthers literally laid down against the Cats and Coalers but whooped GCMS last week. Tone is desperate and its back is against the wall. I think the better coached team wins. Tolly and the boys get the W in the rivalry game. Tone 34 Panthers 21

 

[SouthofI80Fan]

Wilmington wins.
Coal City wins.

Peotone has to win to have a shot at playoffs and Manteno is probably in but a win will help their seed and maybe improve their draw. The question for this game is which team shows up ready to play. Manteno has a decent quality win with GCMS and Peotone's defeated opponents have a combined 1 win. Both had similar results vs. Wilmington and Coal City but Manteno was able to squeak by RC while Peotone was not. Like RC/Herscher last week, it's a true flip of the coin. This flip came up Manteno, on 1+ OTs.

 

[Doctor_D]

It will be interesting to see how R-C comes out and starts off the game, considering this is their last chance.

Will they come out inspired and put up a fight early, or do they pack it in and get an early start on hoops and wrasslin'?

 

[Coalertown91]

It will be interesting to see how R-C comes out and starts off the game, considering this is their last chance.

Will they come out inspired and put up a fight early, or do they pack it in and get an early start on hoops and wrasslin'?

I would hope that they would come out ready to go. Their defense is not bad. I just don't know if they can score on Wilmo. I think it will get ugly by start of second quarter

 

[Doctor_D]

Holy cow, that Peotone/Manteno ending was good.

Peotone scores in the 4th to go up 20-19 after being down 13-0 and 19-7.

Manteno drives, hits a huge 40ish yd TD pass to go up 25-20 with 2:50 left.

Peotone dinks and dunks down the field all the way inside the Manteno 10, but on 4th and goal, Manteno gets the QB sack to win it as the clock expires. Quite the Rumble on Rt 50.

 

[Doctor_D]

Dixon 65, Streator 0 F
Wilmington 54, Reed-Custer 6 F
Manteno 25, Peotone 20 F
Coal City was beating Herscher 56-7

 

[Carmine Evergreen]

Hard to believe Peotone is 3-5 and that's with a forfeit win from Lisle. At Herscher next week with nothing to play for.

 

[Doctor_D]

Hard to believe Peotone is 3-5 and that's with a forfeit win from Lisle. At Herscher next week with nothing to play for.

From what I saw this year out of the middle of the pack ICE jam, they gave Wilmington the best game of all of them.

Just shows how damn close they all were.

 

[CCIce10]

From what I saw this year out of the middle of the pack ICE jam, they gave Wilmington the best game of all of them.

Just shows how damn close they all were.

They defended the run fairly well against CC as well at times but just couldn't sustain that effort. I'm not sure whether they looked that bad or whether CC was just that good. It was pretty much what Peotone has always done but it just didn't get the job done this time around. I think that it might be that CC and Wilmo might just be that good this year to have out paced the conference by so much. It was a pretty good horse race for everyone else. I can see Herscher's passing attack possibly giving their first round opponent some trouble. We might not be giving these teams some of the credit they deserve. CC was a semifinalist last year and gave the winner all they wanted in the loss and the CC offense looks much better this year. I haven't yet seen Wilmo but they play the type of game that is very frustrating to opponents because they never get the ball. It might look like the middle of the conference was just cannon fodder for the top tier, but they might actually be fairly good against the rest of their respective classes. We'll see. That's why they play the games.

 

[Wilmatucky1]

But what does fairly good against their respective classes mean? Is that winning one playoff game? What if that playoff game is against a Chicago Public school?

I kind of agree with your thought on CC and Wilmo outpacing the conference. It is really hard to get a true read on how the rest of the conference actually is. However, Look at the wins that some of these teams are adding their resume. Herscher has wins over Canton, Lisle, Streator and Braidwood. The only decent team they have beaten is Manteno.

Defeated opponents wins for ICE teams

Braidwood- 4
CC- 22
Herscher- 9
Peotone- 1
Manteno- 15
Streator- 1
Wilmo- 21

 

[Doctor_D]

Nobody in the ICE this year had a really good non conference win.
A few had “good” losses, notably CC and Wilmo. R-C road loss to ElPaso-Gridley by 14 doesn’t look too bad. Outside of that, there’s not much.
Herscher was beat pretty soundly by Mac. Peotone same with Marengo.

I think the conference is okay. This group of teams has definitely had years where there seemed like a lot more overall depth, but just looking around at some other leagues, it’s not awful. Someone said before about needing a third team that was somewhere close to the level of the top 2, and I agree with that. Maybe Herscher will emerge, or the new coach at R-C will get things sorted out.

 

[Wilmatucky1]

Maybe Herscher will emerge, or the new coach at R-C will get things sorted out.

Highly doubtful it will be either of those two. Not being a dick, just saying, they may turn into the third best team in the ICE consistently, but they will both still be a step below the top for a long time I feel.

 

[Doctor_D]

Highly doubtful it will be either of those two. Not being a dick, just saying, they may turn into the third best team in the ICE consistently, but they will both still be a step below the top for a long time I feel.

You probably are right, but I’m also not sure how much it matters.
Last year, both Coal City and Wilmo made the semis in their classes, despite basically cake walking through conference play. Peotone and Manteno were the only other teams to make the playoffs and they got beat in the first round. Peotone lost to a HOIC team and Manteno got beat by a large margin.

Despite the “lack of competition” for CC and Wilmo, they did well, and I don’t think that if Herscher or Braidwood was a little bit better it would’ve made a difference for them in the semis.

 

[Doctor_D]

Just to add on…

I think the league does hurt CC a little bit with regards to SOS considering their 4A status.

On the flip side, if Wilmo goes 2A again, the level of competition (which of course, includes CC) will be a plus.

Just my random dumb *** thoughts.

 

[Olivia21?]

I heard RC has a week 9 game against a Chicago school. Only thing I can find is NFHS has a game scheduled for Saturday 12:00

 

[SmallSchoolFan]

I heard RC has a week 9 game against a Chicago school. Only thing I can find is NFHS has a game scheduled for Saturday 12:00

 

[Doctor_D]

Good for R-C if they found a game. Could also grab 5 or 6 more playoff points. Probably wouldn’t be enough to get in the dance, but good that their kids can get one more game in.

 

[Olivia21?]

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Good for R-C if they found a game. Could also grab 5 or 6 more playoff points. Probably wouldn’t be enough to get in the dance, but good that their kids can get one more game in.

Awesome they get another game.

 

[Wilmatucky1]

I heard RC has a week 9 game against a Chicago school. Only thing I can find is NFHS has a game scheduled for Saturday 12:00

Not gonna dive too deep into this since I gave my thoughts several times already, but I truly think they were hesitant to schedule a week 9 game earlier because they wanted to bank on the forfeit win as their 5th win and the clinch into the playoffs. Now that they know it doesn't matter they went out and grabbed an opponent. Just my ICE conspiracy theory.......

 

[Doctor_D]

Not gonna dive too deep into this since I gave my thoughts several times already, but I truly think they were hesitant to schedule a week 9 game earlier because they wanted to bank on the forfeit win as their 5th win and the clinch into the playoffs. Now that they know it doesn't matter they went out and grabbed an opponent. Just my ICE conspiracy theory.......

Definitely could be true. Either way, glad for them they got their kids a game.

 

[Wilmatucky1]

Definitely could be true. Either way, glad for them they got their kids a game.

I agree 100%. I feel like a team only playing 8 games in a year is the first step to kids losing interest, then we end up with another Lisle situation.

 

[3 Yards]

Not gonna dive too deep into this since I gave my thoughts several times already, but I truly think they were hesitant to schedule a week 9 game earlier because they wanted to bank on the forfeit win as their 5th win and the clinch into the playoffs. Now that they know it doesn't matter they went out and grabbed an opponent. Just my ICE conspiracy theory.......

Glad they got a game for the program and the kids.