A quick glance at the 16 teams that have advanced to the IHSA’s state championship weekend and one might have the overwhelming urge to say, “Haven’t we done this before?”

The answer is pretty clearly, yes we have.

Consider this:

• The 16 teams that made the final games have collectively made 115 previous title game appearances.
• Six teams that made title games are making at least their 10th title game appearance: Mount Carmel (22), East St. Louis (17), Providence (15), Maroa-Forsyth (12), Montini (11) and Rochester (10).
• Just one team, Brown County, is making its first-ever appearance in a state championship game.

And the overwhelming theme of last year’s state finals is certainly going to overwhelm it again this season.

The CCL/ESCC Conference has placed seven teams in state finals weekend, making up nearly half of the playoff field from a conference that has 24 teams (4.8% of playoff-eligible schools).

CCL/ESCC teams went 7-2 in state semifinals games, with just one of the losses coming to a non-CCL/ESCC team (St. Laurence’s lost to East St. Louis), with the other Nazareth falling victim to another league school Fenwick.

Last season, seven private schools won state titles, albeit two of them were not from the CCL/ESCC (Chicago Christian and Belleville Althoff), which contributed to several adjustments to enrollment policies most notably the mutliplier waiver.

Those policies seemed to play a big part in the fact that private schools won’t be winning titles at 1A through 3A as there are no private school entries in any of those final games.

The other five games, however, could all find CCL/ESCC champions and the Class 5A and Class 7A finals are guaranteed to have winners from that league as both entrants in those finals are from the CCL/ESCC.

It could be safely argued that those adjustments didn’t go far enough in regards to enrollment, but four of the seven schools that qualified for finals contests are playing at higher classifications that they would have been had the adjustments not been made to the policies, a fifth, St. Rita is voluntarily playing up two classes.

But those who continue to push for a separate postseason from public and private schools certainly won’t find any reason to speak more softly based on the setup of this weekend’s finals.

Sweating it out

While many of the games in the semifinal round lacked significant drama, there were a few games that came right down to the wire.

Brown County didn’t secure its first-ever state title game appearance until the waning seconds of its semifinal game with Calhoun.

The Hornets stopped a two-point conversion with just 15 seconds remaining to secure a 14-13 victory. It also allowed Brown County to complete a rather unique feat. Brown County lost two games during the regular season, but was able to avenge both losses with playoff wins.

Almost the exact 2-point conversion situation played out within the Fenwick and Nazareth contest.

The two teams went into overtime tied at 21, Fenwick scored to take a touchdown lead in the overtime and Nazareth countered the touchdown but elected to go for 2-points and the win and were stopped on the attempt.

Oswego and Lockport were embroiled in a defensive standoff where both teams were only able to scratch out one touchdown apiece until just over a minute remaining but a 42-yard field goal made the difference for Oswego to head back to the finals for the first time since 2003.

But perhaps the craziest postseason journey continues to be conducted by Rochester. A week removed from toppling long-time rival Sacred Heart Griffin in overtime, the Rockets found themselves embroiled once again in an overtime matchup against Breese Central.

The same overtime scenario played out in this game then the aforementioned two games with Breese Central scoring a touchdown, Rochester answering the touchdown but then electing to go for the 2-point conversion, but unlike the other two games the Rockets converted and are on to their 10th title game.

“I’m aging at a fast pace,” Rochester coach Derek Leonard quipped when reached via text postgame.

It has been a breeze

There was a lot of discussion on Saturday as to whose semifinal victory was more impressive and some argument can be made for a number of teams.

But pound for pound it is hard to overlook the effort of Wilmington in not only its semifinal win over El-Paso Gridley, but its postseason run in general.

Wilmington has outscored its four playoff opponents 202-15 and has rushed for a whopping 1,750 yards in those four postseason wins.

The run game has been so dominant that Wilmington hasn’t felt the need to attempt a single pass in any of those games.