Week 4: Five high school football games to watch

We've got a much smaller slate of Friday night games in Week 4.

Most of the north suburbs played Thursday night because of the Rosh Hashanah holiday, but there's still plenty of great matchups to pay attention to Friday, including a pair in the DuPage Valley Conference.

Neuqua Valley (1-2) at Naperville North (2-1)

With DVC play kicking off Friday, we'll start with the Wildcats, who have been on a roll lately in the conference. This year's squad has been struggling to score with 17 points in 3 games, but the group of Oswego, Minooka and Lincoln-Way East certainly qualifies as a challenging nonconference slate. Linebacker Easton Taylor and lineman Nick Williamson are players to watch on defense.

Naperville North's only loss is to Loyola, and the Huskies rebounded from that to pull out a 51-49 thriller at Bolingbrook last week on Tyler Duewel's 20-yard field goal on the game's final play. Tailback Cole Arl carried the ball 31 times for 314 yards and 3 touchdowns in the win.

Naperville Central (2-1) at Waubonsie Valley (2-1)

Both teams are coming off tough losses - the Redhawks in overtime to Lockport, and the Warriors by 2 points to Homewood-Flossmoor.

The Warriors lost this matchup by 28 a year ago, and Friday gives them a chance to see how far they've come with experience up front and talented skill players Luke Elsea, Tyler Threat and Chrisjan Simmons. But it's not going to be easy against Naperville Central's elite defense and fundamentally sound squad.

Batavia (2-1) at St. Charles North (2-1)

Our only matchup between Top 10 teams in the Daily Herald Top 20, No. 9 St. Charles North doesn't get much time to bounce back from last week's loss to Wheaton North with the third-ranked Bulldogs coming to town.

This game has been a star of the DuKane Conference lately - just look at the scores. Last year the North Stars pulled out a 32-31 thriller in Week 9 to win the conference championship; that one followed 36-29, 21-19, 27-26 and 27-24 games the previous four years that all came down to the final minute - and all went Batavia's way.

The Bulldogs, whose loss this year came to Lincoln-Way East when a 2-point conversion in the final seconds came up short, feature quarterback Ryan Boe and a dynamite defense.

Huntley (3-0) at Prairie Ridge (3-0)

It's always good the later you get in the season with matchups with zeros in both loss columns, and that's what we have here Friday with first place in the Fox Valley Conference on the line.

Prairie Ridge is coming off a runner-up finish in Class 6A last year to East St. Louis, and the Wolves are ranked No. 1 this week in the state's Class 5A poll.

Huntley cracked the 8A poll this week at No. 9. Red Raiders QB Braylon Bower completed all 11 of his passes last week for 136 yards and 2 touchdowns in a 40-21 win over Jacobs.

Carmel (3-0) at Marmion (2-1)

These teams kick off CCL/ESCC play in the Purple Division. Both are playing well; if not for a last-second touchdown by Maine West to beat the Cadets 14-13 in Week 1, we'd have another battle of unbeatens. The Corsairs, coached by Jason McKie and coming off a 7-win season, have outscored their opponents 90-24; the Cadets have outscored theirs 95-28.

For much more on these matchups and the rest of the area action, visit football.dailyherald.com.