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The schedule says that the NAIA football playoffs start on Nov. 23.
St. Xavier quarterback Stuart Ross has a different opinion.
“It’s playoff time, now,” he said. “We gotta win out the rest of the year. We have to control what we can and win out those games.”
The Cougars put themselves in a playoff bind after losing 36-29 in overtime to St. Francis on Oct. 19 in a Mid-States Football Association Midwest Division opener at Deaton Field in Chicago.
What hurts even more than the slippery slope of trying to qualify for the postseason for the 18th-ranked Cougars (4-3, 0-1) is that they relinquished leads of 22-0 and 29-7.
Ross, a Springfield native, threw for a career-high 365 yards and two touchdowns and Ronnie Foster caught nine passes for 145 yards and two TDs. Locally, Brother Rice graduate and Evergreen Park native Jessi Plunkett scored the first touchdown in the first minute of the game with an 11-yard run.
After the 29-7 halftime advantage, the Cougars failed to score in the second half and overtime.
“They controlled the ball and had a good game plan coming out of halftime,” Ross said of St. Francis. “They did what they needed to do and we didn’t capitalize.
“It’s just a tough one.”
But the first half went a lot better against the Saints (5-1, 1-0) and it appeared the Cougars were going to improve to 26-1 in its series over USF.
“Everything was going right,” Ross said. “We were moving the ball on offense and we were stopping them on defense. Again – it’s just a tough one.”
St. Francis’ route to the playoffs is to either win the conference outright and get some help from other teams or cross its fingers for an at-large bid.
The Cougars’ next game is Oct. 26 at Olivet Nazarene (3-3, 0-1), which lost 45-40 to No. 17 Marian on Oct. 19.
Local CCL/ESCC Blue alums battle
A couple of former CCL/ESCC Blue stars had significant roles in Wisconsin’s 23-3 Big Ten Conference win over Northwestern Oct. 19 in Evanston.
Mount Carmel grad Darrion Dupree had 11 carries for 40 yards for the Badgers and caught a pass for 26 yards.
Brother Rice alum Jack Lausch is Northwestern’s starting quarterback and threw for 82 yards and ran for 44 more.
Runners gear up for postseason
Cross country regionals are on Oct. 26 and runners from the area warmed up for them during conference meets on Oct. 19.
For the boys, at the Catholic League Meet in Glenview, Brother Rice’s dynamic duo of Gavin O’Connor and Andrew Staley finished first and second with respective times of 15 minutes, 06.95 seconds and 15:33.24.
In the South Suburban Red at the Bedford Park course, Reavis’s Santiago Chavez won with a 15:34.06, followed by team champion Richards’ Santiago Carbajal’s 15:58.48 and James O’Shea’s 16:06.92. All three are sophomores.
In the East Suburban Catholic at the Northwestern Medicine Cross Country Course in Geneva, Marist’s Matt McKee took second with a 15:40.
At the SouthWest Suburban at Lockport East, Sandburg won the team championship and was led by fourth-place finisher Mateo Ramiro Garcia’s run of 15:15.60. Stagg’s Jack Krusinski took second with a 15:30.80.
In the SSC Blue girls in Bedford Park, team champ Reavis was led by Delyanna Arocho, who took first with a 19:36.41. Oak Lawn’s Molly Sheridan followed with a 20:00.04 and Argo’s Emilia Knurowska was third with a 20:08.40.
At the SWSC meet in Lockport, Sandburg’s Annika Trehan was second with an 18:26.5.
In the Chicagoland Christian Conference meet at Kankakee Community College, Chicago Christian’s Kihra Moes finished second with an 18:38.14.
In the ESCC meet in Geneva, Nazareth freshman Kathleen Hardy was third with an 18:11.60.
Hounds make moves
The Chicago Hounds rugby team, which qualified for the Major League Rugby playoffs in its second year in 2024, extended the contracts of forward Luke White, center Bryce Campbell and wing Noah Brown.
Brown joins teammates Nate Augspurger and Mark O’Keeffe on the U.S. Eagles national team.
Earlier in the month, recently named head coach Chris Latham appointed Todd Dammers as forwards coach and Noel Reed as backs coach.