July 03, 2025
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Week 4 games to watch: Top teams get opportunities to separate themselves

By Steve Soucie
Jacobs’ Antonio Brown, right. runs out of the grasp of Crystal Lake South's Kyle Skrzypczynski during a Fox Valley Conference football game Friday, Aug. 26, 2022, between Crystal Lake South and Jacobs at Crystal Lake South High School.

Jacobs’ Antonio Brown, right, runs out of the grasp of Crystal Lake South's Kyle Skrzypczynski during a Fox Valley Conference on Aug. 26. Jacobs faces Prairie Ridge on Friday in a matchup of 3-0 teams. (Gregory Shaver - gshaver@shawmedia.com/Gregory Shaver for Shaw Media )

With a third of the season in the books, it’s getting a bit easier to define teams.

But Week 4 provides an interesting opportunity for many to separate themselves from the pack. Of the 102 remaining undefeated teams in the state, 26 of them are involved in matchups with another 3-0 squad. That, coupled with some undefeated teams which face showdowns against quality one-loss teams, and odds are that list will be whittled to less than 80 by the end of the weekend.

On top of that, there are another 142 teams that enter Week 4 at 2-1. Many of them play one another. It stands to reason that list will have several teams dropped to the .500 mark with a loss. And it’s entirely possible that we could close the weekend with less than 200 teams above the .500 mark.

This week is pivotal, for almost everyone. Some teams’ success this week will assure a very clean path to a playoff spot, while others that fall will be staring at a much rockier road.

Let’s look at a few of the Week 4 matchups of interest:

Prairie Ridge (3-0) at Jacobs (3-0), 7 p.m. Friday: Since the Fox Valley went to a closed conference it has been a league that has largely been ruled by two schools, Cary-Grove and Prairie Ridge. This Jacobs team is trying to fight its way into the conversation this year. A win over the Wolves would be a massive step toward making that case.

Joliet Catholic (3-0) at Providence (2-1), 7:30 Friday: Dubbed the Holy War by the two schools, this contest hasn’t had much cache as of late. Joliet Catholic has dominated the recent meetings, including a 42-0 victory last season. But there seems to be a little more swagger behind Providence and first-year coach Tyler Plantz. There’s reason to believe the Celtics can bridge some of the gap that has opened up between the two programs.

Normal Community West (3-0) at Richmond-Burton (3-0), 3 p.m. Saturday: Both of these squads could have easily taken a bye week as they lost opponents to program stoppages. Normal West was slated to play Urbana while Richmond-Burton was scheduled with Sandwich. Instead, the two have hooked up to form a very intriguing nonconference game. R-B is likely giving up some size here (Normal West is a 6A program and R-B is a Class 4A squad), but the Rockets have a long history of refusing to back away from challenge games.

Prospect (3-0) at Maine South (2-1), 7 p.m. Thursday: Prospect is just on the brink of being considered one of the elite programs around and has done nothing to dispel that it doesn’t belong in that conversation. A win here would likely knock that door down. Maine South, after already dropping a decision at the hands of Warren, would find itself in a strange position for the program: a .500 record this late in the season.

Grayslake Central (3-0) at Grayslake North (3-0), 7 p.m. Friday: Nothing like a little neighborhood battle to spice things up. There’s always a lot of bragging rights at stake when these two schools meet (the the Grayslake School District split into two schools in 2009). But there’s more chips on the table because for only the second time in the two programs’ histories both teams have started the season with 3-0 records. The only other time that’s happened was in 2013.

Other games of note: Downers Grove North at York, 7 p.m. Friday; O’Fallon at Edwardsville, 7 p.m. Friday; Lemont at Bremen, 6 p.m. Friday; Annawan-Wethersfield at Ottawa Marquette, 7 p.m. Friday; Wilmington at Peotone, 7 p.m. Friday; Naperville North at Neuqua Valley, 7 p.m. Friday; Shelbyville at Tuscola, 7 p.m. Friday; Carmel at St. Viator, 7 p.m. Friday; Marist at Mount Carmel, 7:30 Friday; Stillman Valley at Dixon, 7 p.m. Friday; Byron at Genoa-Kingston, 7 p.m. Friday; Camp Point Central at Brown County, 7 p.m. Friday.