What we learned in Week 2: Surprise teams already starting to emerge

I was of the opinion that this IHSA football season might lead to more craziness in week-to-week results than normal heading into the season.

So far, the numbers have not matched that theory.

160 teams got through the first two weeks of the season without a loss, up nine teams from last year’s total of 151 through two weeks.

And while that is slightly speaking to a little more uniformity, what it didn’t address was that while there are 160 schools on the list of unbeatens, it did not foretell the fact that there’s an extensive list of teams on that list of 2-0 teams that would be classified as a major surprise by their presence.

Here’s a few of the bigger surprises:

Fremd: Although it doesn’t seem that far removed from Fremd’s 2019 Mid-Suburban West Conference championship, the Vikings have gone a combined 5-22 over the last three seasons. Fremd thus has been one of the more visible surprises to start the season with comfortable wins over Lake Zurich, a playoff semifinalist last year, and Buffalo Grove to start the season.

Fenton: The Bison haven’t made a playoff field since 2013 and have gone winless in two of the last three fully contested seasons. It’s possible that the newly aligned Upstate Eight Conference might give them a few more chances to add to the win column.

DePaul Prep: Since the rechristening of the school name (it was formerly known as Gordon Tech) in 2014 the program has had just one winning season. The remaining CCL/ESCC schedule does them no favors but a 2-0 start does give them a leg up.

East Peoria: The Raiders program has averaged less than two wins per season over the last 10 campaigns, so seeing them at 2-0 out of the gates is a bit of a surprise. It will be interesting to see if the hot start can be sustained in a rigorous Mid-Illini conference schedule.

Schaumburg: Yet another Mid-Suburban team making waves. The Saxon haven’t finished a season above the .500 mark since 2013 and it appears after a strong start the Mid-Suburban Conference isn’t going to have any weeks off in league play.

Maine East: The Blue Demons haven’t started 2-0 since 2013.

Harvard: The Hornets snapped a 20-game winning streak with their Week 1 victory over Lisle, then showed the confidence boost helped a lot as they fended off Reed-Custer for a narrow Week 2 win.

The night of the kicker

A number of games came right down to the wire on Friday night in Week 2.

* Minooka’s Sean Sample booted a 27-yard field goal as time expired to give the Indians a 16-14 victory over Neuqua Valley as Minooka moves to 2-0 on the season.

• Naperville Central’s Gavin Ellison, who had missed an earlier field goal and plunked the upright on an earlier point after attempt, connected on a 25-yard field goal with 1:25 left in the contest to secure an exciting 24-21 win over Naperville North.

• Plainfield South’s Leo Gamino booted a 36-yard field goal as time expired against DeKalb to lift the Cougars to the 17-14 victory. Gamino also provided the margin of victory for Plainfield South in Week 1, and the only scoring of the game, with a field goal in a 3-0 win over Yorkville.

• In a battle of two smaller schools in Class 3A, St. Joseph Ogden’s Charlie Schmitz booted a game-winner as time expired as they toppled long-time rival Tolono Unity 24-21.

CCL/ESCC still dominating, but in a different way

Considering what usually happens in the CCL/ESCC, it isn’t all that surprising to note that half of the league’s 24-team membership group got through the first two weeks of the regular season without a loss.

It is, however, a little surprising, where those 12 undefeated teams come from amongst the member group.

The CCL/ESCC Blue is widely recognized as the state’s most superior conference, but it has no teams that survived the first week unscathed. It’s the only division among the six in the CCL/ESCC that doesn’t have a single undefeated team. The Red Division was also 4-4 collectively through the first two weeks, but still has one undefeated team in Marmion.

The Green, White and Purple division are setting the pace with three undefeated teams in each of those groupings.

Other conferences that continue to do major damage in the nonconference schedule are the DuKane (collectively 13-3) and the Interstate 8 (10-2).

On the other side of the coin, the Upstate Eight West is off to a rough start. West Aurora is 2-0, but none of the other six teams in the division have managed to record a victory as of yet.