More from The Times area’s sidelines in Week 5:

Brezdyn Simons seizes role as FCW’s QB1

As the offseason shifted to the preseason, Flanagan-Cornell/Woodland football coach Todd Reed suggested his Falcons, after graduating three-year starting QB Seth Jones, might need to employ a rotation at the quarterback position in 2025.

As the season has played out, however, junior Brezdyn Simons has solidified his role as FCW’s QB1.

That included taking all 51 offensive snaps at Woodland’s Wood Shed in the Falcons’ 46-22 win over Ridgewood in Week 5 to lift the team to 3-2 in the Illinois 8-Man Football Association standings. Simons attempted only one pass officially – though he was 3-for-3 on three successful 2-point conversion passes, connecting with Riley Wallace, Grant Wissen and Jack Flahaut – but ran the Falcons’ run-heavy attack adroitly.

In addition to his own 12 carries for 60 yards and two touchdowns, Simons handed off to Logan Ruddy 21 times for 206 yards and two TDs as well as Leelynd Durbin 17 times for 69 yards and two more scores.

“Brezdyn is a true leader,” Reed said of his quarterback, who’s averaging 21.6 yards per over 14 completions and has rushed for 175 yards with a 3.4-per-carry average. “You don’t get special players like him that often. He’s so unselfish ... and just a great general for us on the offensive side of the ball.”

Not just on the offensive side of the ball. Simons’ hard-nosed, physical approach to the game also has him as a starter on the Falcons defense ... on the defensive line, no less.

“He’s one of the first quarterbacks I’ve had who plays both sides of the ball,” Reed said. “I hate doing that with my quarterback, but he’s so good at the five-technique/defensive end that I have to have him on the field both sides.”

Chicagoland Prairie playoff picture

Through five weeks of football, the haze is beginning to scatter and a picture is emerging of the four Chicagoland Prairie Conference teams’ paths to the postseason.

At 5-0, Seneca is almost certainly already in the field of 256. A nonconference schedule that looked to be a bear coming into the season hasn’t really played out that way, though, as the current combined record of Seneca’s six noncon opponents sits at just 7-22. That surprising lack of playoff points means the Fighting Irish might need a sixth win to assure themselves of a playoff berth and probably eight wins to secure a first-round home playoff game.

With convincing wins over both Dwight and St. Bede, Marquette (3-2) has emerged as not only a contender to dethrone Seneca as Chicagoland Prairie champion in their showdown this Friday in Ottawa, but a potential problem for the Class 1A field. The Crusaders have to make it to Week 10 first, however, and it’ll be no cakewalk getting the likely two wins needed against a remaining schedule that includes Seneca (5-0), Elmwood-Brimfield (3-2), Knoxville (3-2) and old Big Rivers Conference rival Morrison (0-5).

Dwight (2-3) was an early-season darling thanks to its 2-0 start and projected drop to the 1A field after making the 2A quarterfinals a year ago. Three consecutive losses, though, have the Trojans needing at least two but probably three wins to make it to Week 10. Dwight’s remaining schedule includes a litany of teams in similar situations as the Trojans – St. Bede (2-3), Walther Christian (2-3), Warrensburg-Latham (3-2) and Oregon (3-2).

Speaking of St. Bede (2-3), the Bruins will need to upset either Dwight or Seneca over the next two weeks of conference play to keep reasonable hope alive heading into Week 8 and 9 matchups with Peoria Notre Dame (3-2) and St. Teresa (1-4).

Streator hoping final drive carries over momentum

The Bulldogs were forced to punt on four of their seven drives in Friday’s loss at Peotone. They moved the ball effectively on the other three, but two ended in a turnover and loss on downs deep inside Blue Devils territory.

The final drive — 11-plays (all runs), 55 yards — of the night produced a touchdown. The march included Leodies Jordan rushing five times for 22 yards, Sam LeRette two times for 12, Lavontae Horton twice for 6 and LA Moton once for 6. LeRette finished things off dashing in from the 9.

“We were just too inconsistent,” said Streator head coach Jay Slone, his squad 1-4 and hosting Herscher (3-2) in Week 6. “You can’t take three steps forward and then two steps back, that’s not going to cut it. It’s a learning curve we are still trying to overcome. We had positives, and I liked how we kept fighting until the very end, but we need to find a way to put four full quarters together.”

Week 5 scoreboard

Sycamore 35, Ottawa 7

Peotone 42, Streator 7

Marquette 42, St. Bede 7

Seneca 50, Dwight 17

Deek-Mack 56, Fieldcrest 24

Sandwich 48, Harvard 7

Rochelle 40, La Salle-Peru 7

Morris 42, Kaneland 21

8-man: FCW 46, Ridgewood co-op 22