One third of the regular season is in the books.

And while some might still consider that the first chapter, we are indeed moving quickly toward the middle of the respective book.

Although there’s still a long way to go, this point of the season is an excellent marker to consider where teams are in respect to the first goal of the regular season.

108 teams have little or nothing to complain about as they have a clean ledger with no losses.

That’s a slightly higher number than in the past few seasons, and it could speak to what might end up being something to really keep an eye on over the next few weeks.

If the stark comparison of both teams at the top of the win curve and the bottom of the curve steal, even a little bit, from the middle of the pack that’s a sign that we could be pointing to more four-win qualifiers at the end of the regular season.

It might be too early to tell if that’s the end result, but it isn’t too early to tell that there are several teams trying to change the typical regular season picture in their favor.

There are of course multiple teams that seem as if getting through the first few weeks is their birthright, but there are a lot of others that are mild to heavy surprises.

Let’s take a look at a few:

Romeoville: The Spartans seemed to be moving in a positive direction last season, just missing the playoffs with a 4-5 record. Romeoville seems to be determined to not leave it to chance this time around. With Friday’s win over Plainfield Central, Romeoville is off to a 3-0 start for the first time since 1995. That team reached the Class 6A, then the largest classification, semifinal round.

Oak Lawn Community: The Spartans went winless last season and have gone a collective 2-25 over the last three years. Not only do they not seem concerned about past history, but the dominating nature (they’ve outscored opponents 127-33 to date) of their first three wins seems to portend that Oak Lawn might be ready for more.

Zion-Benton: The Zee-Bees are the only remaining undefeated team in the North Suburban Conference. Admittedly, that looks a little odd for a school that has finished 1-8 in each of the last three years.

Woodstock: Woodstock hasn’t had a winning season since 2009, which was also the school’s last playoff appearance. The Blue Streaks do face a pair of fellow 3-0 teams over the next two weeks in Marengo and Richmond-Burton, but that’s a tomorrow problem.

Plainfield East: The Bengals have been flexing an offensive muscle they haven’t shown in years in the first three games, scoring exactly 55 points in each of those three victories. They’ve also allowed just eight points. Plainfield East is out of the box at 3-0 for the first time in 2014 and hope to continue making progress to potential winning the school’s first playoff game in its history.

Other side of the coin

96 schools remain winless on the season and there’s some heavy hitters on that list.

Joliet Catholic, Marist, Edwardsville, Naperville Central, Breese Mater Dei and LeRoy are just a few of the schools that now face an immense climb if they hope to claim one of the spots in the 256-team playoff field of which many of these schools are consistent participants.

Good days to be with the Lincoln-Way’s

All three of the schools in the Lincoln-Way school district are off to 3-0 starts. All three also have found a place in the top 20 of the Friday Night Drive power rankings after those strong starts with Lincoln-Way East at No. 2 and Lincoln-Way Central and Lincoln-Way West back-to-back at No. 19 and No. 20.

A Week 4 matchup looms between Lincoln-Way Central and Lincoln-Way West that might be one of the most impactful meetings between the two schools.

But the three Lincoln-Way schools almost never all meet on the field in the same season, something that will almost certainly change next year.

The Southwest Valley Conference, which was a merging of the former DuPage Valley and SouthWest Suburban Conferences, will not continue in 2026.

At least for the nine former SouthWest Suburban Conference schools they will play the other eight schools in the former league as well as one nonconference game.

Perhaps some sort of Lincoln-Way Cup will be on the line?

It certainly looks like the way the programs are trending it will be a competitive series.

Record book

• Richmond-Burton’s Joe Larsen intercepted four passes in the Rockets win 49-14 win over Johnsburg.

Shockingly, that only ties Larsen for ninth place for interceptions in an individual game, according to IHSA.com

Larsen would have needed two more picks to enter into a three-way tie with the current record holders with six: Derek Warner of Rantoul (1973) and Chad Thoma of Bloomington Central Catholic (1991).

• Despite getting only a half of activity in a runaway victory over Neuqua Valley, Lincoln-Way East quarterback Jonas Williams still managed to add four touchdown passes to his career total.

Those scores gave him 120 touchdown passes in his varsity career moving him into sole possession of third place on the career list trailing only the co-record holders Jordan Roberts of Aurora Christian (2005-08) and Tyler Hutchinson of Greenville (2012-14) who each threw 127.