Key football playoff takeaways: How much does class size matter? Does NIC-10 need balance?
The NIC-10 is gone from the playoffs. Two area teams remain. The same two that have been the last two standing so often in recent years, Class 3A power Byron and 1A superpower Lena-Winslow. We will learn more about those two teams in the next two weeks. This is what we learned from Saturday's games:
You still have to run to win
The most powerful small-school teams, like Le-Win and Byron, basically don’t have to pass at all. The Panthers and Tigers have trampled rivals with one running play after another for years. Normally, that doesn’t work in the five largest classes, although Crystal Lake Prairie Ridge made it all the way to the 6A title game last year with its quarterback running on almost every play — before it lost by 50 points to East St. Louis. But you have to run as well as pass. That’s what caught up to Hononegah and Boylan this year.
Hononegah’s Cole Warren and Boylan’s Connor Dennis were easily the league’s top two passers. They combined to throw for 3,854 yards and 44 touchdowns against only nine interceptions. But Hononegah lost in the third round when it ran 13 times for 23 yards and Boylan lost in the second round, in part, because it couldn’t run it into the end zone after getting a first-and-goal at the 2.
More: Final 2023 NIC-10 football stats: Some of all-time best in rushing, receiving and passing
“They shut down our running game,” Hononegah coach Brian Zimmerman said of his team’s 55-14 loss to Batavia. “It didn’t help that Grayson Motter (two yards on three carries) was injured — he hurt his other shoulder — but they shut us down.”
How much does size matter?
Former Dakota coach Jerry Lano was disappointed when Dakota, normally a Class 1A school, entered the playoffs as one of the state’s smallest 2A schools in 2005 and 2007. But Dakota won its first two state titles those years. And when Dakota went back to 1A in 2008 and 2009, it went 1-2 in the playoffs after going 18-0 during the regular season.
On the other hand, Eastland/Pearl City often had a shorter playoff run than fellow NUIC powers Dakota, Forreston and Lena-Winslow before winning an undefeated 2A title in 2014. Since then, it’s probably been easier to win in 2A than to get past perennial state champ Le-Win in 1A. And Boylan, long a 6A and 7A team, hasn’t gone any further since dropping down to 5A and 4A. In today’s playoffs, it seems more about where you play in each class — and avoiding the one or two super teams in each division — than it is about moving up or down one class.
A perfect test of how much class size matters comes Saturday, when Byron (12-0) plays at Lombard Montini (9-3). Montini has beaten both 4A semifinalist Burbank St. Laurence and 5A semifinalist LaGrange Park Nazareth.
More: How Belvidere North almost upset No. 1 seed Lake Zurich in Class 6A football playoffs
More classes equal more chances
When Boylan loses 35-7 at home in the second round — to a team that then lost the next week — and Hononegah gets blown out 55-14 at home in the third round, it’s hard to feel too positive about the NIC-10. But the league did go a respectable 5-5 in the playoffs. And Belvidere North came within five points and six minutes of reaching the state semifinals for the first time, losing 14-10 at No. 1 seed Lake Zurich.
To put that in perspective, if the Blue Thunder had scored on their last drive, which reached inside the Lake Zurich 30, they would have been the second NIC-10 team other than Boylan to reach the state semifinals in 29 years, joining the 2005 Belvidere team quarterbacked by Western Illinois Hall of Famer Matt Barr.
Class 7A is a minefield. But with Boylan in 4A, Belvidere North (and sometimes Harlem) in 6A, the NIC-10 has more chances to make a run. North almost made it this year. It’s more possible now than it has been for much of the last 29 years.
Belvidere North may be the team to beat next year
Hononegah returns only eight starters next year. Belvidere North returns 13, including four sophomores on defense in Erick Roman, Ben Bucher, AJ Tauscher and Noah Rooney. Explosive halfback/cornerback Nico Bertolino will be hard to replace, but 1,000-yard fullback Trent Dinsmore was only a junior this year and Roman and Bucher, who have been on varsity since they were freshmen, have run well in their rare opportunities. So has Rooney. The Blue Thunder almost reached the state semifinals for the first time this year, losing 14-10 to No. 1 seed Lake Zurich. They could have a chance again next year.
“We were right there,” coach Jeff Beck said. “We played a lot of young kids this year and they didn’t back down one inch. We didn’t have their size, but we matched and exceeded their physicality.”
Does the NIC-10 need more balance?
Hononegah’s only competitive game in the conference was its 24-21 win over Boylan. And even that was only up for grabs because Rasheed Johnson caught a pair of 60-yard TD passes for Boylan.
“For the NIC-10 to have a run in the postseason, our level of competition might have to get better,” Hononegah coach Brian Zimmerman said. “Week-in and week-out, those schools that are making it to state, their level of competition is at such a high level. I don’t think it helps playing games where we take our starters out after two quarters.”
The NIC-10 has been a lopsided conference for most of the last 25 years. In its heyday from the 1960s to the early 1990s, it was filled with good teams. East and Freeport might have been the two best teams in the state in 1973. In 1985, East and Hononegah finished in a three-way tie for third with three losses each only to see East win state in the Class 5A playoffs and Hononegah finish second in 4A in the old six-class system.
“The NIC-10 used to be your Jefferson, your Guilford, your East, your Auburn — those were some of the toughest games you played back in the 1980s,” Zimmerman said. “The consistency just isn’t there anymore. It’s great when we have seasons where we can play better competition.”
Boylan fans used to claim the same thing. Yet in Boylan’s two title seasons, the Titans' only regular-season game closer than 28 points in 2011 was a 41-27 win over Harlem and only game closer than 34 points in 2010 was 28-22 over Belvidere. Byron and Lena-Winslow have not played a remotely close game this year. They are still favored to win. Competition is good, but it’s not necessary. Is LaGrange Park Nazareth in the state semifinals because it played such a tough schedule, going 4-5 during the regular season including an 0-4 start against teams that are 40-8? Or is it in the state semis because it is somehow playing an easier schedule in the playoffs than during the regular season?
Contact: mtrowbridge@rrstar.com, @matttrowbridge or 815-987-1383. Matt Trowbridge has covered sports for the Rockford Register Star for over 30 years, after previous stints in North Dakota, Delaware, Vermont and Iowa City.
This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Football takeaways: NIC-10 had decent playoff run, but lacks balance
