First and 256

Well, the first weekend of the football playoffs is in the books and the field has been cut to 128. Here are a few of the highlights from what happened...

Congratulations to former Hoffman Estates star and Huntley coach Marty Manning ... oh, wait, that wasn't basketball on Friday night. It certainly was amazing - Huntley beating Batavia 70-63 in a Class 6A first-round game that easily, I mean easily, smashed the state playoff scoring record for a game by 27 points.
When I heard the game was tied at 63-63 I couldn't believe it. When I talked to reporter Brian Schaumburg on the phone to use some info (there was no shortage of that) for my Friday night WBBM radio report he sounded exhausted. Even on WBBM after I was done, sports guy Marc Grote was still raving about the game on the air.
Four players scored 4 touchdowns - including the amazing Jordan Neukirch with the game-winner for Huntley with 40 seconds left. Just imagine if this game had gone to OT with these teams trying to stop each other on four plays from the 10 - it still might be going with scores above the century mark.

On the other hand, the year of the offense in the Mid-Suburban West suddenly turned to defense and was a rousing success in the first round. Fremd (7 of its 24 points on defense against rival Palatine), Barrington (21 points) and Schaumburg (20) didn't need to light up the scoreboard to win and make it just the third time in league history three teams from one division advanced to the second round. The others were in the East in 2002 (Buffalo Grove, Prospect and Hersey) and in the old North in 1994 (Palatine, Buffalo Grove and Wheeling).

The biggest shocker was 5-4 Schaumburg putting together its best defensive effort of the year at the perfect time to pull the upset at Glenbrook South. The Saxons have plenty of firepower but if they get stops to go with it, they could be playing awhile longer. During the year, when construction delays and a mishap on its field turf project resulted in only one home game in Week 8, coach Mark Stilling told his team they could do something about it if they wanted to play more at home. Their reward comes at 7 p.m. Saturday when they host Warren, which has operated under the radar up in Lake County but has lost only to Maine South, in the second round.

Conversely, the MSL East went 0-for-3 in the first round. Meadows and Prospect have bright futures with senior QBs Jimmy Garoppolo and Miles Osei. Making the playoffs two years in a row should make Wheeling no longer a feel-good story but a story about a good program. The Wildcats will have some big holes to fill in QB Matt Holmes, who had an outstanding finish to his career with 5 TD passes to give Carmel fits, WR James Kurtz, DB Mike Barton and hard-hitting and versatile Mike Zimmer.

And surely it seems odd to see only one DuPage Valley Conference team still around in the second round in defending 8A state champion Naperville North. The only other time that's happened since the mid-80s was in 2005. Included this year was Downers North's stunning and controversial 8-7 win over Wheaton South.

Maine South wasn't messing around after Stevenson took an early lead - Charlie Goro and Co. wound up dropping 63 points on the Patriots.

On to round two.