After 7 weeks, conference championship races are starting to take shape.

Factoring in head-to-head situations, Sterling can win the Western Big 6 Conference title in Week 8 with a win over United Township. If so, the Golden Warriors would be the first local team since Polo in 1991 to win a conference title in their first year in a league.

Eastland-Pearl City can win the NUIC South if they beat AFC and Forreston, Forreston beats Aquin, and West Carroll beats Aquin; if Aquin beats West Carroll in that situation, there would be a three-way tie at the top along with Aquin and Forreston.

In the Big Northern, Genoa-Kingston and Stillman Valley are 7-0 and play each other in Week 9. Byron, at 6-1, plays Genoa in Week 8, but cannot win outright.

Three locals still are in contention in the TRAC Rock: Morrison leads at 4-0 over Fulton (4-1) and Newman (3-1). The winner of the Fulton-Newman Week 9 game can win conference only if Morrison drops its last two games.

Here are some more numbers of note from Week 7, when locals went 7-8:

20

There were 12 games played pitting area teams, and 10 of them had margins of victory in the 20s.

The average margin of victory in the 12 games was 26.33. When taking out the highest margin, Polo’s 44-0 victory over Lake Forest Academy, and the smallest margin, Bureau Valley’s 36-20 loss to Rockridge, the truncated mean is 25.6 points for an average margin.

46

Not often does Forreston play on the wrong end of a running clock situation, but Lena-Winslow put them in that position in a 46-14 loss.

The 46 points allowed by the Cardinals is the most they’ve given up in 5 years. Eastland-Pearl City scored 54 on them en route to the 2014 Class 2A championship.

52.5

That’s how many points Polo has averaged in six contested games this season on the 8-man circuit.   The Marcos, who earned a forfeit win in Week 2, have scored 315 points so far.

To compare, when Polo finished the regular season 9-0 in 2015, they scored 311 points in their first six games.

56

River Ridge also joined the 8-man ranks with Polo this year, and has put together so far its best season in 56 years.

The Wildcats improved to 6-1 with a 52-34 win over Danville Schlarman.   As the Hanover Red Devils, they went 8-0 and were champions of the Wisconsin-based Blackhawk Conference in 1963.

Hanover only reached six wins twice before that: in 1960 (6-2-1) and 1950 when they went 6-0 playing 6-man football.

275

Morrison’s streak of 275 consecutive minutes without allowing a touchdown is the longest in Illinois.

The Mustangs, who shut out Erie-Prophetstown 28-0, have allowed just 22 points this season – fourth-best in Illinois behind Gurnee Warren (21), Fairfield (11) and South Elgin (seven).

1,105

That’s how many yards Sterling amassed in back-to-back games against Rock Island and Moline in the last 2 weeks.

In Week 6, the Golden Warriors put up 546 yards against the Rocks, which was fifth-best in program history. The new No. 5 belongs to the Moline game in which Sterling tallied 559 in a 53-26 home win.

It’s the first time Sterling has gained more than 500 yards in consecutive games.