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Prep Confidential

The waiting begins

Posted by: Marcus Jackson

Saturday, October 20, 2007 12:11 AM

For Champaign Central, Danville, Watseka, Gibson City-Melvin Sibley, Villa Grove and Monticello, the waiting begins. All teams sit at 5-4 and have enough wins to qualify for the playoffs, but will the five wins be enough? You can be sure the coaches from each school will be glued to his computer Saturday night when the pairing are released on IHSA.org.

- How about that Central-Centennial game? It was billed all week as a can't miss and boy did it live up to the hype. If it weren't for a missed field goal by Centennial as time expired, we might be talking about an overtime thriller.
- Congratulations to Westville's Caleb Pratt. On Friday the senior running back becaome the state's all-time career rushing leader and the state's career leader in touchdowns scored. He ran for 324 yards in a win against Georgetown-Ridge Farm to give him . His 7,400 rushing yards moved him ahead of former Unity star Henry Deters and his 115 touchdowns is five better than former Morris standout John Dergo, Now a wrestler for the Fighting Illini.
- You can tell it's been 15 years since Cerro Gordo has won a conference title. The players smoked coach Paul Workman in the back of the head while dousing him with Gatorade. Maybe if the Broncos get on a roll in the playoffs they'll get it right the next time around.
- Apparently St. Joseph-Ogden had a little bit saved up after getting an unexpected day off last week. The Spartans rolled over Paxton-Buckley-Loda 68-0! If they're not the favorites to win the 3A title, I'd love to see the team that's going to stop them.
- Two weeks ago the folks in Tuscola welcomed Loren tate and Jim Turpin to the press box to take in the Warriors' game against Maroa-Forsyth. No disrespect to the two Champaign legends, but Friday night's guest may have caused a little more of a stir in Tuscola. Michigan coach Lloyd Carr was in attendance to check out his future quarterback, John Wienke. The left-handed signal caller put on a show for Carr, throwing for four touchdowns in the Warriors' 42-0 romp of Argenta-Oreana. Wienke may have been outdone by teammate Austen Schultz. The senior had a career night, racking up 295 yards on just 16 carries.
- Unity coach Scott Hamilton has been telling anyone who will listen to watch out for his Rockets at the end of the season and it looks like the coach knew what he was talking about. The Rockets have rolled off three straight after starting the season 3-3. The Rockets are young and very fast and might cause someone some major headaches early in the postseason.
- Be sure to grab Saturday's News-Gazette for complete coverage of Friday night's action. And check us out on Sunday. We'll have the brackets from all eight classes as well as some thoughts about each. And we'll check in with the folks in Tuscola to see how a state championship has affected the town and if the Warriors can make it two in a row.

MJ