Eastland-Pearl City eyeing playoff return: ‘We’re a whole different team’

LANARK – The Eastland-Pearl City Wildcatz have gone four seasons without a playoff appearance, but make no mistake, this is a competitive football team.

In a perennially tough Northwest Upstate Illini Conference, it’s never easy to win five games. The Wildcatz know that firsthand.

[ Photos: Eastland-Pearl City football readies for season ]

Considering the strength of the conference, last season’s 3-6 record probably is misleading.

EPC played well against good competition in 2022, it just wasn’t consistent enough to make the playoffs.

In Week 5, it won 40-36 against Dakota, a 7-5 team who advanced to the Class 1A quarterfinals. In Week 3, it played Class 1A state semifinalist Forreston to within two scores, but lost 34-21.

This year, the Wildcatz think they can be more consistent, and they’re hopeful they can end the playoff drought.

“I think we have a good nucleus of dudes who can put the pads on and play with just about anybody, and they’re not scared to mix it up,” EPC head coach Jared McNutt said. ”Hopefully, we can give something to our EPC community that they haven’t had in a while: a nice playoff berth. And hopefully, we can make a playoff run. We’ll see. Time will tell. We play in the toughest conference, but hopefully we can make some noise.”

EPC only returns about four starters on each side of the ball this season. Senior WR/DB Ethan Petta and senior RB/WR/DB Brady Sweitzer were first-team all-conference selections in 2022. Sophomore FB/MLB Will Birchen was the team’s leading tackler, and an honorable mention all-conference pick a season ago. Senior TE/DL Jayden Downs will be a leader on offense and defense this year, and junior Jaxson Kempel is expected to be the feature back and one of the starting outside linebackers.

With only six seniors this season, the Wildcatz will need a lot from their underclassmen.

Sweitzer feels confident they’ll be up to the task.

“We have a lot of good sophomores, a lot of good underclassmen that I think will make a good impact on the team,” he said.

Sweitzer believes the increase in participation numbers and improved team chemistry will also make a difference.

“Just the amount of guys that we’ve got now, and the team chemistry is a little bit different from last year. So that will make us a better team, I believe,” he said.

Many of EPC’s sophomore starters played extensively as freshmen. Coach McNutt hopes that previous experience will help them hit the ground running this season.

“We are going to be young, but we have a lot of guys that have experience from playing up. I think we have three or four sophomores that are going to start on both sides of the ball for us,” McNutt said. “With that being said, all of those as freshmen played varsity, so they have experience, and they played like they should be on varsity as well. So we’re very pleased with their progression.

“We only have six seniors, so we’re hoping for a lot of leadership out of them, but I think our young guys have really transitioned into the varsity game very well.”

Petta also sees an improved team from 2022. He anticipates a few sophomores making a big impact this season.

“I think we’ve got a good chance of improving. We’re a whole different team. We’ve got a lot more energy,” he said. “Draven Zier, he’s going to be a big help for us, Will Birchen – they’re both really young. Brody Voegeli as well.”

Voegeli will be one sophomore starter on the offensive and defensive lines this year. Teigan Dyson will be another.

McNutt has high expectations for the new starters, especially the sophomores.

“I think Draven Zier, he played a little bit as a freshman last year. He’s going to be a skill player for us, running the ball, catching the ball,” McNutt said. “Peyton Spears, I think Zy Haverland will [make an impact]. I also think that Brody Voegeli, Teigan Dyson up front, both of those guys are sophomores that will be starting on our offensive line, defensive line. Robert Rodriguez. We’ve got a number of guys that I’m really high on that I think are going to do really well for us.”

McNutt is especially excited about his skill players.

“I think that we have some of the best skill players in the area. It just all depends on up front, whether we can stop the run and we can run the football,” McNutt said. “I think that our skill players are probably some of the best, and we’re very deep at skill players, so we can get the ball on the edge, we can run it between the tackles. Obviously, that’s to be determined, but I think that we can do that. But I think our guys have really bought into our program, and we’re looking forward to seeing what we can do.”