Soucie: Top matchups to watch in Week 1

The question I’ve most been asked in regards to the spring football season typically is some form of, “What are you most looking forward to?”

The short answer is everything.

The long response is that without a postseason to aim for and with no methodology needed for parsing what the playoff bracket might look like, which envelopes a large swath of my time during a “regular” season, I’m looking for marquee matchups. Those games that while they might not be actual playoff games, they have a lot of elements that could pass for one.

While I was hoping we might get a little more creative with scheduling with no teams needing to fill the requirements of playoff qualification, there certainly seems to be no lack of power-packed matchups, particularly in Week 1.

Let’s take a look at some games that have caught my eye in the first week of the season.

Bolingbrook at Lincoln-Way East, 6 p.m. Friday

This game jumped off the page immediately.

Lincoln-Way East won’t get the chance to defend its Class 8A state championship and now has set it sights on making the most of the six-game season. The Griffins certainly took some big hits from graduation, but the most telling thing when you talk to coach Rob Zvonar about the season is how excited he gets when referring to some of the players that most people haven’t even seen yet. They don’t rebuild in Frankfort, it just isn’t the way they do things. They genuinely just reload.

Bolingbrook lost a pair of Division I recruits on defense to early graduation in Malik Rainey (Cincinnati) and Justin Walters (Notre Dame). While the Raiders still have Tyler McLaurin (Michigan) in the fold, it isn’t hard to spend a few seconds wondering how dominant this defense could have been. To their credit, the Raiders aren’t wallowing in what could have been and veteran coach John Ivlow probably has more talented players waiting in the wings to make their mark.

St. Francis (Wheaton) at IC Catholic, 7:15 p.m. Friday

Wheaton St. Francis snapped IC Catholic’s winning streak with a 20-19 victory in Week 8 last season. It would be no surprise if that loss still was ruminating in the minds of many of the Knights. IC Catholic still has explosive running back Kyle Franklin, and he likely will shoulder the brunt of the offensive load. St. Francis will counter with the play of standout quarterback Tommy Rittenhouse and some transfer additions. St. Francis scored 40 or more points in all but three of its 12 games last season.

Lena-Winslow at Princeton, 7 p.m. Friday

Princeton had less than two weeks to scramble and find an opponent for Week 1 after scheduled foe Erie-Prophetstown dropped out because of numbers concerns. It didn’t look like Princeton would find an opponent as the list of schools without a confirmed Week 1 game was only 15 schools across the state. But members of the Northwest Upstate Illini Conference had bye weeks scheduled for some of their schools on either the front or back end of their schedules, prominent among them being last year’s Class 1A state champion Lena-Winslow. The defending champs lost some significant talent to graduation but still return nine starters from one of the most impressive Class 1A champions the state has ever seen. This should be a spectacular game that literally no one thought would happen two weeks ago.

Mount Carmel at Montini, 7:30 p.m. Friday

This game was up in the air because of COVID-19 concerns at Mount Carmel but appears to on track. The Caravan literally rumbled to a Class 7A state championship last year with a lineup full of juniors. Recent Illinois signee Kenenna Odeluga will lead the Mount Carmel ground game and present a challenge for Montini, but if history has taught us anything, the Broncos never back away from any test.

Sacred Heart Griffin at Kankakee, 3 p.m. Saturday

This is another game that materialized at the 11th hour. Kankakee, due to the Southland Conference’s seven-team membership, needed to find one nonconference game and was unable to do so. Sacred Heart Griffin suddenly was without a week 1 opponent when Decatur Eisenhower announced it would be unable to field a team in Week 1, thus the union was made between the two schools. Sacred Heart Griffin’s young core was rounding into form by the end of 2019 and looks poised to do big things. Kankakee is an emerging program hoping to make a statement.

Other games of note: Loyola at St. Rita, 7:30 p.m. Friday; Fieldcrest at Gibson City-Melvin Sibley, 2 p.m. Saturday; Bismarck-Henning at Maroa-Forsyth, 2 p.m. Saturday; Brother Rice at Providence, 7:30 p.m. Friday; Batavia at St. Charles East, 5:30 p.m. Friday