Princeton High School has won seven conference football championships in school history — five in the old North Central Illinois Conference (NCIC) and two in the Three Rivers.

But the Tigers have never repeated as conference champions, a feat they would like to tackle Friday night at Prophetstown.

PHS stands 5-0 atop the league with only the 2-6 Panthers standing in their way to back-to-back championships in the Three Rivers Mississippi.

“That would mean everything to us, not only would we meet our goal coming into the season, but we would also make history at Princeton High School,” junior running back Ronde Worrels said.

This would be the Tigers’ third Three Rivers Mississippi Conference championship in five years, having also won in 2015 and 2108.

Princeton put up NCIC banners in 1943, 1949, 1955, 1984 and 1986.

I-L-L-I-N-I meets R-O-N-D-E

Worrels was a sideline guest for the University of Illinois Saturday in Champaign and got to witness the Illini’s 24-23 upset win over No. 6 Wisconsin with a last-second field goal up close.

Worrels was on a recruiting visit and said it was crazy and exciting to witness the wild finish.

He has made visits to Wisconsin and Western Michigan as well.

VanHyfte Receives offer

On another recruiting trip, Annawan-Wethersfield senior Drake VanHyfte witnessed Iowa’s 26-20 win over Purdue and during his game-day visit, he said the Iowa coaching staff extended him an offer to become a Hawkeye.

Playoff picture

Five teams from the Three Rivers Conference have already punched their playoff ticket with six or more wins heading into Week 9, while three more have become eligible but need to win to qualify.

Here’s a rundown:

Who’s in: Morrison (8-0), Sterling (8-0), Princeton (7-1), Newman (7-1), Hall (6-2). All are favored to win season finales, which would enhance their playoff seeding.

Shaw Media’s Friday Night Drive has Princeton projected with a No. 1 seed in 3A and Hall at No. 8 in 3A with a potential second-round showdown should both win. Visit the FND page to see more.

Who’s on the bubble: Kewanee (5-3), L-P (5-3), Orion (5-3), Fulton (5-3), Dixon (5-3) — all can clinch playoff berths with wins this week. Losers will have to see if the strength of their schedules (opponents’ wins) will be enough to carry them through.

Who’s out (locally): Amboy-La-Moille (1-7), Bureau Valley (0-8), Geneseo (3-5), St. Bede (1-7). Maple Leafs are out of the playoffs for the second straight year for the first time school history, just the fifth time ever (also ’84, ’95, ’11).

Friday Night Drive will have a special livestream at 7 p.m. Thursday. Steve Soucie and Kyle Nabors will be taking questions live as they build playoff brackets ahead of Week 9’s games. No subscription necessary.

Quite the catch

Senior newcomer Wyatt Davis has proven to be quite the catch for Princeton this year at wide receiver. With 120 yards on six catches last week, he set a new school record for single-season receiving yards with 764. Garrett Youngren had 757 yards in 2008.

Davis is also on target to break Youngren’s all-time record of 841 yards in just one season.

Teammate Ronde Worrels has gone over 3,000 career rushing yards with 1,062 this year and is taking aim on Cory Scott’s all-time school record of 3,230 set from 1999-00. He’s passed up Pete Roth (2,720), Nathan Norman (2,720) and Braden Norman (2,436) earlier this season.

Ryan’s hope

Former Princeton head coach Joe Ryan became just the second coach in school history at Sycamore to win 100 games. Ryan stands 101-66 over 16 years (since 2004) at Sycamore.

In two years, Ryan could catch Pete Johnson, who went 115-22-5 in 17 seasons from 1951-67 at Sycamore.

Ryan is the winningest head coach in school history (44-43) at Princeton and longest tenured (eight years, 1995-2003).