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Yet another MSL foe for Glenbard West

By the end of this weekend, Glenbard West's football team might consider itself an unofficial member of the Mid-Suburban League.

For the third straight week - and for the fifth time in the last two postseasons - the Hilltoppers are faced with a playoff game against a different MSL qualifier. In Saturday's Class 8A quarterfinals, Glenbard West (11-0) gets a visit from Barrington (10-1).

"The good news is we've already played two teams that run the same kind of stuff," said Hilltoppers coach Chad Hetlet. "But it's unique in the way they use their personnel. They've all been good teams, so it'll be a challenge for us."

Barrington runs a variant of the spread offense, which is something Glenbard West saw plenty of during the regular season and in the first two rounds against Fremd and Palatine. The Broncos, who beat Fremd but lost to MSL West champion Palatine, are the last MSL team in the playoff field.

Glenbard West and Barrington have something key in common - a victory over Oak Park. While the Hilltoppers' scored their win in the West Suburban Silver, Barrington started its playoff run by beating the Huskies. Last week the Broncos handed Maine South its first loss.

After pulling away in the first two rounds against MSL opponents, Glenbard West expects a four-quarter tussle with Barrington.

"They're coming off a couple of huge wins," said Hetlet, whose program last year beat Conant in the second round of the 7A playoffs and Schaumburg in the quarterfinals.

A new leaf:

For much of the regular season, Naperville Central's defense was a turnover-creating machine. Not only were the Redhawks (9-2) forcing turnovers, they scored on seven of them in the first six weeks.

After closing the regular season by getting only two in the final three games, the machine restarted for the playoffs. The Redhawks forced a pair of fumbles in their opening-round win over Brother Rice, including Bobby McMillen's scoop-and-score for a victory-sealing touchdown. Last week they devastated Waubonsie Valley by forcing four turnovers in the game's final eight minutes.

"We noticed that we weren't getting as many turnovers, and it's hard to know why that is," said Redhawks coach Mike Stine. "It's crazy how that works. We got them in bunches and we got them from different guys."

As the Redhawks prepare for an explosive Simeon (10-1) team that just put up 55 points on Hinsdale Central, their vaunted defense again needs to play at its best. Gassing up that turnover machine sure wouldn't hurt the cause.

"It's been good for us," Stine said. "The key also is that we haven't been turning the ball over ourselves."

Talking it up:

Wheaton Warrenville South (7-4) obviously has seen tremendous improvements during a six-game winning streak with its back against the wall every week.

One subtle but major improvement hasn't been lost on Tigers coach Ron Muhitch.

"I've really tried to get this team to understand the meaning of individual accountability, and it's taken some time," he said. "These kids are accustomed to winning, and it was hard for them to know how to react when they were losing earlier in the season. Now they're working together to figure it out and problem solve."

Muhitch said he's getting tremendous in-game feedback from his players, something that allows the coaching staff to make adjustments on the fly. It wasn't always that way early in the season as the Tigers fell into a 1-4 hole.

Thanks to better communication on both sides of the ball, WW South's offensive and defensive game plans are running more efficiently compared to early in the season.

"We've been working on cleaning up the management of the game and controlling the management of the game as it's going on," Muhitch said. "We've been doing a better job the last few weeks, and the players are a big part of that."

Spread thin:

Since Montini converted to a spread offense from an option in 2007, the Broncos have compiled a record of 87-17, including this season's 8-3 mark heading into Saturday's Class 5A quarterfinal at Marian Central.

Those spread quarterbacks have included Tommy DiCristina in 2007-08, Brandon Pechloff (2009), Matt Westerkamp (2010), Mark Gorogianis and John Rhode (2011), Alex Wills (2012-13) and current quarterback Chuck Norgle.

Montini lost to Marian Central in the second round in 2007, but since then Montini is 5-0 in the playoffs against the Hurricanes. The Broncos won second-round games in 2009 and 2013 and three straight quarterfinal contests from 2010-12 in the heart of their 5A four-title streak.

Prior to 2007 Marian went 3-1 over the Broncos, Montini's sole victory coming in the 2004 Class 4A quarterfinals during its first championship season.

Split allegiances:

The announcement of the state playoff brackets posed an interesting situation for St. Francis coach Mike Fitzgerald.

Looming as a possible state quarterfinal in the northern bracket of Class 6A was No. 10 seed Hinsdale South against No. 6 St. Francis. As it has turned out, last week St. Francis (9-2) beat No. 3 seed Lakes while Hinsdale South (9-2) earned two by-the-seeds upsets of Crystal Lake Central and DeKalb to make the meeting a reality.

What's interesting about this is Fitzgerald's wife, Meghan, is a volunteer coach on Hinsdale South's badminton team.

"When the brackets came out we kind of joked about the possibility of playing each other," Mike Fitzgerald said. "But obviously reaching the quarterfinals is a tall task and would take a lot of work. But we'd talked about it."

Better still, Meghan's sister Colleen also coaches badminton under Hinsdale South hall of farmer John Charters, and she is Hinsdale South's head cheerleading coach and a math teacher at the school.

"My wife better be pulling for me," said Fitzgerald, working on a playoff beard. "And I'm sure my sister-in-law, she's probably really torn because she obviously teaches over there and knows the kids real well but she also knows me. And she's the cheerleading coach, so she has to cheer for the team."

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