Get ready for Week 4 with our game previews from around Will County and the Joliet area.

Gallery

Wilmington visited Coal City on Friday night in the Illinois Central Eight opener for both rivals.

Wildcats, Coalers battle to final minute

Morris Herald-News sports editor Rob Oesterle has live coverage from Friday night’s Wilmington vs. Coal City football game here

Week 3 is an intriguing slate with a mixed bag of conference openers, crossover matchups and some stellar nonconference games.

Week 2 provides a number of interesting matchups before most teams enter their conference slates.

Defenses dominate as only one TD is scored in rivalry game

Coal City vs. Wilmington. Manteno vs. Peotone. The Illinois Central Eight provides some exciting rivalries and is home to some annual postseason contenders.

Although most of the foundations of area high school football schedules remained pretty much the same, some interesting wrinkles were revealed in some of the nonconference portions of team's schedules.