Ryan Myers is already a towering presence on Batavia’s offensive line.

At 6-foot-5 and 285 pounds, the Princeton commit has been an anchor for one of the biggest offensive line units in the state of Illinois.

But heading into Week 9 against Wheaton Warrenville South with a chance to clinch a DuKane Conference title, Myers was asked to do something he’d only done once or twice his freshman year.

Play defense.

“It was honestly a pretty crazy sequence,” Myers said. “The coaches pulled the offensive linemen aside the Monday before and told us they wanted to try us out on the defensive line. They wanted to see what we could do heading into the playoffs, especially with some of our guys on the line being banged up.

“They just kind of threw us into the fire to see if we would either sink or swim. Some of us sank and some of us swam.”

Myers got to show how much he swam in the Week 9 matchup against the Tigers. Not only did he help pave the way to nearly 400 yards of offense, but he also helped lead a defensive line that held a rush-heavy South team to under 100 yards on the ground.

And for his first game as a two-way line player, it was a natural feel for Myers.

“I pick up on stuff quite quick, so I had a general understanding of the playbook and the defensive coaches felt confident to play me there,” Myers said. “I can get off of the ball pretty well, and I’m much bigger than some of the other guys out there, so I thought I could use that and my knowledge as an offensive lineman to my advantage.”

Myers ended up making two solo tackles in the contest, as well as picking up a quarterback hurry in his first varsity game on defense. And despite playing in more snaps than he usually does, the senior ended up realizing that he could use the extra playing time to his advantage, especially with the cold weather hitting.

“It honestly kept me fresh, and I felt great throughout the game,” Myers said. “Their (WW South’s) offensive game plan has been to make the offense go cold. But playing on defense gave me the energy to keep going and stay warm. And honestly it’s a credit to the conditioning from our coaches so that we can have that as a tool.”

The Bulldogs have had a tendency to pull out surprises for the playoffs for the past couple of years. From sophomore surprises in Brett Berggren and most recently Michael Vander Luitgaren, to putting linebacker Tyler Jansey in at running back during their run to the Class 7A state title game in 2022.

But will this be the only surprise that the Bulldogs will pull out for a shot at their third Class 7A state title game in four years?

“Not to spoil too much, but this is definitely one of them that the coaches would like to try,” Myers said. “We’ve got a lot of talent on our roster that there should be some more if we make a deep enough playoff run that people definitely will not be expecting.”

St. Charles North back atop the DuKane Conference too

Batavia wasn’t the only team that secured a DuKane Conference title with a Week 9 victory.

Needing a win over Lake Park to grab a share of the title, St. Charles North did just that, walking out of Roselle with a 35-16 victory for its third conference title in four seasons, the second-most titles in the conference behind only Batavia.

The North Stars were led by quarterback JT Padron, who had three passing touchdowns and a rushing touchdown to help them to a 35-0 lead by the time the game reached the fourth quarter.

“It feels great, a night we won’t forget,” Padron said.

The North Stars finished the season with the best overall record in the conference, finishing their regular season with an 8-1 record while claiming the No. 3 seed in the Class 7A bracket for the second consecutive season.

The North Stars will open postseason play at home against No. 30 United Township.

Kaneland knocks out the reigning Class 1A champions

It’s not every day that a team gets a chance to end the season of a defending state champion.

But with a 4-4 Belleville Althoff, the reigning Class 1A champions, coming up to Maple Park needing a win to make it back to the playoffs, Kaneland found itself having the perfect opportunity to do just that.

And especially after making a 4½ hour drive down to Belleville just to suffer a 14-10 loss to the Crusaders a season ago, it was even more motivation to go out and hand them a loss.

“We were really upset about last year going down there and basically getting our butts whooped,” linebacker Jake Buckley said. “So we knew we had to respond. We had two really bad weeks, one for a loss, and one for a victory that nearly didn’t happen so we needed a very good win and this really set the tone for our playoff run.”

That motivation was more than enough for the Knights, who were led by a six-touchdown night from quarterback Jalen Carter to pick up a 55-28 victory to end the regular season.

“Almost everything worked good tonight,” said running back Carter Grabowski, who finished with 238 rushing yards in the contest. “The running game looked good. The passing game, the screens worked really well. The trick play at the end was something we worked on at practice. We set it up all game.”

Geneva bows out with a bang

The Vikings headed into their Week 9 matchup against St. Charles East already knowing their fate.

With a 21-20 loss to Wheaton North in Week 8 moving them to 3-5 on the season, Geneva was all but a lock to miss out on the playoffs for the first time since 2019.

But just because there were no playoffs didn’t mean that Geneva didn’t want to show what could be in store for the Vikings next season. And the junior QB-WR duo of Ben Peterson and Bennett Konkey showed it.

The two juniors connected for four touchdowns, while Peterson rushed for another to end the Vikings’ season with a 45-20 victory over their Tri-Cities rivals.

“Tonight was about pride,” said Konkey, who finished the season with 739 receiving yards and nine touchdowns in his junior campaign. “This season didn’t go the way we wanted, but we knew we had to end it with a win. We easily could’ve hung our heads, but instead, we made sure to end at the right way.”