C-G’s title defense starts at CL Central

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The waiting for the next football season seems to begin almost as soon as the final whistle blows on the last one.

The IHSA is expected to announce the 2010 prep football schedules today, but here are things to look forward to when the season kicks off Aug. 27.

Defending Class 6A champion Cary-Grove begins with a rematch of last season’s opener, when the Trojans travel to Owen Metcalf Field to face Crystal Lake Central.

C-G’s Week 2 opponent will be Lake Zurich, which played in the Fox Valley Conference for many years before leaving in 2005. The Bears reached the Class 7A semifinals last season, eliminating Crystal Lake South along the way.

That game will be played at 7:15 p.m. Sept. 3 at Al Bohrer Field.

Two of the area’s most intense rivals, C-G and South, will come Oct. 15 in Week 8 at South’s Ken Bruhn Field. Last season the Trojans defeated the Gators, 28-16, en route to a 14-0 record and state title.

Elsewhere in the FVC, Prairie Ridge, which lost the Class 6A semifinal to C-G, will start its 2010 campaign at home against Woodstock in FVC Fox Division play.

This will be the final season for Prairie Ridge in the Fox. The Wolves will move to the Valley Division in 2011-12, when Hampshire becomes the 14th member of the conference.

A crucial FVC Fox game will follow in Week 2, when Prairie Ridge travels to Central in a matchup of two division front-runners.

The Tigers, who were Fox Division co-champs last season, will have a tough early schedule. After starting with games against C-G and Prairie Ridge, Central will be on the road for the next four weeks starting with a trip to Peoria Richwoods, a Class 5A semifinalist last season.

The opposite will happen at Woodstock North, which will play its first three games at home and only play once at home the last six weeks of the season with their lone home game being Oct. 8 against crosstown rival Woodstock. The Thunder, winless last season, have lined up what should be a winnable non-conference game on the road against Hales Franciscan in Week 6.

Johnsburg, which made its first quarterfinal appearance last season in Class 4A, will travel to Grayslake Central to start the season before playing crossover games against Jacobs and Dundee-Crown and hosting Springfield Southeast.

Skyhawks coach Barry Creviston said the early part of his team’s schedule would be important, as would having fewer students to choose from for the team.

“The first third of the season will be huge,” Creviston said. “We play Grayslake Central, who I think will be there for the conference championship. It will be a tough road. We are playing 7A and 8A schools, and our enrollment is going down from 879 last year to almost 800 this year.”

The team that defeated Johnsburg, Richmond-Burton, will play its first two games at home this season before traveling to Winnebago for a Big Northern Conference crossover game in Week 3.

R-B has reached the Class 4A semifinals each of the past two seasons, and Rockets coach Pat Elder said it would be a tough grind early.

“Our schedule is pretty tough, all three [of R-B’s first three opponents] won at least a playoff game last season,” Elder said. “It will prepare us for our conference stretch. Our goal is to get back to the postseason, and that should help.”

The county’s oldest rivalry, between Harvard and Marengo, will be renewed Sept. 24 at Harvard’s Dan Horne Field. It will be the 91st meeting for the two teams.

Marian Central, which reached the second round of last year’s Class 5A playoffs, will start its season with home games against North Chicago and Benet Academy.

The middle of the Hurricanes’ schedule will feature the three other teams in the Suburban Catholic Conference’s Blue Division that made the playoffs last season, with Marmion Academy coming to Woodstock in Week 4 and Montini coming to town in Week 6 along with a trip to St. Francis in Week 7.