October 23, 2024
Shaw Local
Illinois High School Football NewsPhoto GalleriesSubscribeAnalysisFeaturesPodcastNewsletterPhoto Store

Friday Night Drive Week 3 Power Rankings: Quality wins lead to another rankings shuffle

Lockport, Geneva, Morgan Park and Lake Zurich crack the Top 25

By Steve Soucie
Lincoln-Way East's DJ Richardson (7) reacts after scoring a touchdown against Batavia during a football game at Batavia High School on Friday, Sep 1, 2023.

Lincoln-Way East's DJ Richardson (7) reacts after scoring a touchdown against Batavia during a football game at Batavia High School on Friday. Lincoln-Way East protected its No. 3 position in the Friday Night Drive Power Rankings with a narrow win. (Sean King for Shaw Local News Network)

It was a week where there were plenty of opportunities to make a rankings push as multiple ranked teams locked horns with one another.

Some made a move of substantial nature but the top three remained the same: Mount Carmel (No. 1), Loyola (No. 2) and Lincoln-Way East (No. 3).

Then the movement began.

East St. Louis made a very interesting argument for movement upward. Despite a loss to Mount Carmel in Week 1, the Flyers got about as big of a bounce-back win as they could have hoped for by edging out St. Frances Academy out of Baltimore. St. Frances was ranked No. 20 in the most recent MaxPreps national poll. In the end, the Flyers climbed one spot to No. 4.

Then became the argument of what to do with a team that took an extremely narrow high-quality loss. Batavia fell when it failed to convert a two-point conversion in the waning seconds of the game that would have given it a win over Lincoln-Way East. Despite dropping to the .500 mark on the season, only a three slot downshift seemed fair and the Bulldogs slot in at No. 7.

The biggest jump was made by Marist. The Redhawks dropped a one-point decision in Week 1 to Glenbard West, but bounced back by earning a win over Brother Rice.

There were four newcomers to the power rankings. Lockport (No. 16), Geneva (No. 17), Morgan Park (No. 21) and Lake Zurich (No. 25) are those newcomers.

Here are the Friday Night Drive Power Rankings: