Alex Kube played in some memorable football venues during his career as a linebacker at Northern Illinois University.

Kube fondly recalls playing his first college game at Soldier Field, the home of the Bears, against Iowa. Then, there were the Huskies’ trips to Tennessee’s Neyland Stadium to play the Volunteers and a jaunt north to Camp Randall Stadium to take on Wisconsin.

Yet the games that stand out the most were in less luxurious stadiums, before crowds much smaller, but no less enthusiastic.

“I got to play in a lot of big games, but by far, those [C-G vs. South] games were the most memorable games I got to play in,” says Kube, a 2006 Cary-Grove graduate. “By far. Not even close. Don’t get me wrong, all that [in college] was special, but it’s not the same. Everybody who’s watching you [in high school], you know who they are for the most part. It makes it more special and more meaningful because you have more relationships with people who are watching you.”

Cary-Grove vs. Crystal Lake South does not have the long, storied tradition of many football rivalries, rife with tales of bad blood and shenanigans. However, the two McHenry County neighbors, both members of High School District 155, have compensated for any lack of quantity with the highest level of quality over the past decade.

C-G (8-0 overall, 4-0 Fox Valley Conference Valley Division) visits South (4-4, 3-1) at 7:15 p.m. Friday at Ken Bruhn Field. C-G is the top-rated team in The Associated Press Class 7A poll, while the Gators are playing to reach the postseason.

From 2005 through 2012, the winner of C-G vs. South won the Fox Valley Conference or FVC Valley Division championship. South shared the title with Prairie Ridge in 2011. Since 2004, C-G leads the series 8-5, although two of South’s wins knocked the Trojans out of the playoffs.

The games usually drew the biggest crowds seen in the McHenry County area all season, often estimated at more than 4,000 fans.

“They brought the best out of you,” says Kube, a running back and safety for the Trojans. “If you didn’t play your best football, you were losing that game. They forced you to play as good as you possibly could.”

South’s players shared the sentiment toward their district rivals.

“It was in our heads since we were freshmen that they were a powerhouse ball school just like we were,” says former Gators fullback Derek Mortensen, a 2009 South graduate. “They’re fast, they’re strong, they were two great schools going at each other. We never played in a game that was similar to what that game would be, those were the expectations in all of our minds at least.”

Reborn in 2004

C-G was started in the 1961-62 school year when Crystal Lake Community High School was becoming too large. South became an off-shoot of Crystal Lake Community (renamed Crystal Lake Central) in the 1978-79 school year.

While the teams played one another through the years in the FVC, and shared the title with McHenry as tri-champs in 1993, their older battles were nothing like what ensued after 2004.

C-G did not play South in the 2004 regular season, but the teams met in the Class 7A playoff quarterfinals that season. South was eager for a shot at the FVC champs.

“They didn’t feel like we won conference because we didn’t have to play the second-best team,” says Kube, co-owner and trainer at Elite 7 in Barrington. “They had the right mindset. That’s another reason we were so competitive.”

But C-G rolled the Gators in that game, 34-0, then defeated Chicago Morgan Park in the semifinals and advanced to the state championship game, where it lost to Libertyville, 13-3.

Trojans offensive lineman Ray Anderson says, “We imposed our will on them,” which had double meaning – fullback Will Yocius made it a rough night for South’s defense.

The next year, South exacted revenge with a 20-14 playoff win over C-G in the Class 6A quarterfinals.

“There was nothing more exciting than ‘South Week,’ ” says Bill Yocius, the father of Will and Mike, a freshman in 2004. “The stands were jam-packed. All of us had to get here at 3:30 [on a

Friday] and get those blankets down [to reserve seats]. The conference championship came down to who was going to win

the South-Cary game. That was the rivalry.”

‘Classy rivalry’

Former C-G coach Bruce Kay and former South coach Jim Stuglis also worked as their schools’ athletic directors, so they were often in contact and attended intra-district meetings together.

“There was a level of mutual respect between the players and coaches for each other and their abilities to compete and play football,” Kay says. “It was a classy rivalry. I think that came from how Jim and I both approached each other. That had a lot to do with it.”

Both wanted, in the worst way, to beat the other. But incidences of dirty play were almost nonexistent.

“Both sides are very respectful of each other, there’s no animosity or anything,” South coach Chuck Ahsmann says. “We’ve known each other well for a long time. They coach their kids to play the right way. It’s going to be hard-fought, but no cheap shots.”

C-G fans took umbrage when South’s student section stormed Al Bohrer Field after the 2005 playoff victory and stuck their flag into the turf. It was a sore spot that was mentioned, frequently, on message boards for years.

“I don’t remember the flag part,” Kay says. “But that does help stir the pot a little more.”

After the flag incident, the Trojans won the next four games by wide margins, including an unexpected 54-0 thrashing in 2007.

Game of the year

The two games in 2005 ignited the rivalry between C-G and South better than anything else. The Trojans won on their home field, 28-20, with South at C-G’s 1-yard line as time expired.

Later, also at C-G, the Gators won, 20-14, to earn a trip to the Class 6A semifinals.

Former Gators lineman Jon Niemic, now the head coach at Sioux City (Iowa) North, played in those games, and, like Kube, has vivid memories.

“I missed a block on that play, I remember that,” Niemic says of the first 2005 meeting. “I remember the atmosphere was unbelievable. The biggest thing I remember is the atmosphere [of those games]. You have several thousand people at the games, and leading up to the game there was so much community involvement. When you get to the game, then it’s football. The atmosphere was really cool.”

The 2005 playoff game left a lasting impression on Eric Chandler, an eighth-grader that year who watched the Trojans intently. Two years later, Chandler was a sophomore fullback playing in the area’s biggest games.

“I was a sophomore the first time I played against them, and we blew them out [54-0],” Chandler says. “I remember after that game thinking, ‘That’s not the norm.’ I was rudely awakened the next year.”

C-G won the 2008 regular-season game and the FVC Valley Division title, but South stunned the Trojans, 14-7, in overtime of their Class 6A playoff quarterfinal game.

“It’s a huge win any time you beat them,” Ahsmann says. “It’s tough to beat anybody twice a year, especially when the playing field’s pretty even. We got a couple wins, those were big. The talent on both sides makes it interesting.”

South’s last victory in the series came in 2011 when wide receiver-defensive back Brad Walovitch kicked a 51-yard field goal with six seconds remaining to celebrate his 18th birthday. Walovitch had missed badly from a shorter distance a few minutes earlier, but Ahsmann gave him another shot and he nailed it.

C-G was the Class 6A state runner-up in 2012 and is ranked No. 1 in The Associated Press Class 7A poll this season. The Gators have not been quite at C-G’s level, but kept the last two games respectable (17-3 and 21-14 losses). The Trojans will be in the playoffs for the 11th consecutive season; South’s playoff string of 12 straight years ended last season.

When they meet in the regular-season finale Friday at South’s Ken Bruhn Field, C-G likely will be playing for a No. 1 seed in Class 6A or 7A. South will be playing just to get into the playoffs.

“Rivalries occur when somebody beats you,” Kay says. “That’s what it gets down to, whoever beats you is the challenge.”