Nov. 06--The lower seed (the one with the higher number) won three of the 16 first-round Class 7A games, and if you go by the Sometimes-Weekly Picks Blog, none were upsets.
That's right, we had No. 31 Niles North over No. 2 Young and No. 23 Bradley-Bourbonnais over No. 10 Glenbrook North, and even the high school football fans in Chicago's trendy Lincoln Park neighborhood had No. 20 Simeon over No. 13 Lincoln Park, but who's bragging.
Young and Bradley were seasoned by better conferences than their first-round opponents, although it's hard to point to that as the difference in Bradley's 60-59 overtime victory.
Anyway, the Blog went a respectable 13-3 in Class 7A and 14-2 in Class 8A, nailing No. 30 Waubonsie Valley's victory at No. 3 Edwardsville and calling a one-point game but picking the wrong winner in No. 22 Warren's 42-41 overtime victory over No. 11 Curie.
We'll start Round 2 with 8A's picks.
No. 16 Stevenson at No. 1 Loyola: I assumed Stevenson's defense would improve after getting torched by Homewood-Flossmoor and Libertyville in September, because it's a huge school with a lot of good athletes and a proven coaching staff, and it was reasonable to give the Patriots the benefit of the doubt. It's now-or-never time, and Conant put up 35 points on them in the first round. Loyola 34-17.
No. 9 New Trier at No. 8 Homewood-Flossmoor: New Trier is 19-3 in its last 22 games, same as H-F. The Trevians may have played their best game of the season in last week's 30-3 victory over Lyons. If H-F lacks a sense of urgency, as Vikings coach Craig Buzea said they did in the Week 9 loss to Bolingbrook, it will be in for a battle. We hopped on the New Trier bandwagon early last season, but we're not sure this is a good matchup. H-F 44-21.
No. 13 Palatine at No. 4 Oak Park: Oak Park recorded a 26-17 first-round victory over Fremd, which beat Palatine 49-19 in Week 6. Oak Park was not at its best last week, but if those scores mean the Huskies should win this by 39, I'll take Palatine and the points. Oak Park 31-20.
No. 12 South Elgin at No. 5 Brother Rice: We're not saying that scores against common opponents are meaningless. South Elgin beat Bartlett 27-19 in Week 4. Brother Rice had a 49-0 halftime lead on Bartlett last week. The Storm had a first-round offensive explosion as well, beating Evanston 62-10 in a performance that earned South Elgin the No. 20 spot in Tribune Top 20. But as the Bartlett guy in my family learned last week, there's a big difference between the Upstate Eight Valley and the Catholic Blue. This score is his call. Brother Rice 51-38.
No. 15 Oswego at No. 2 Huntley: How much has Huntley grown? The Red Raiders have doubled their A's. Huntley was a 4A school when it earned its only second-round win in 2001, the first year of class expansion. Anyone still doubting the legitimacy of Huntley's undefeated regular season had to be impressed with its 49-7 dismantling of Minooka in the first round. Oswego won its ninth straight first-round game, but in that time the Panthers are 2-6 the following week. Huntley 34-22.
No. 7 Barrington at No. 23 Marist: Maybe the most interesting of the 8A games, a couple of solid programs located nowhere near one another with no commonalities to compare. Each features a prolific quarterback, and even though Marist played its best defensive game of the season in last week's 17-14 victory over Notre Dame, it's hard to imagine any fewer than 70 points if the weather cooperates. Marist played one of the toughest schedules in the state, with three of its four losses coming to Mount Carmel, Joliet Catholic and Nazareth. The Mid-Suburban League gets a bit of a bad rap sometimes, but it does not provide that kind of competition. Marist 41-35.
No. 30 Waubonsie Valley at No. 19 Neuqua Valley: I was there when they played in the regular season, and to be frank, I wasn't that impressed. But that was then, and programs that win consistently do so because they keep getting better. They both beat teams with better seeds last week, which wasn't a surprise, because the new DuPage Valley Conference is pretty much guaranteed to improve the teams it doesn't break. These teams know each other so well that we give the edge to the one that has more versatility when Plans A and B are inevitably shut down. Neuqua 20-16.
No. 6 Naperville Central at No. 22 Warren: Both survived scares last week, with Naperville Central outlasting Bolingbrook 14-7 and Warren beating Curie in overtime. In Naperville Central's case, it was a bit of unfortunate first-round draw, because Bolingbrook was not your average 5-4 team. As for Curie, the Condors are a really good CPS team and they gave Simeon a battle in the regular season. Naperville Central is pretty loaded, though. Naperville Central 31-13.
Mike Helfgot is a freelance reporter for the Chicago Tribune.
