By: Ryan Plinske
Friday, November 21, 2008 at 6:05pm
This week’s IHSA Class 4A semi-final match-up is between the Eagles of Aurora Christian and the Rockets of Richmond-Burton. The Eagles have proven to many doubters why they deserve the number 1 seed they were given. However, the Cinderella team of this bracket lies in their opponent. Richmond-Burton Community High School is the 14th seed with a record of 5-4 coming into the playoffs. The game is Saturday November 22, 2008, at 1pm at Richmond-Burton High School.
Last year Aurora Christian lost to Plano (14-8) in the state semi-finals, but they are hoping to change that with the team they have this year. Last week, the Eagles defeated Driscoll 24-17 en route to their second consecutive trip to the IHSA state semi-finals. The Eagles are the first Aurora high school to accomplish that feat, and are trying to become the first ever team to advance to Champaign for the state title.
Aurora Christian’s high octane offense is lead by all state quarterback Jordan Roberts and all state wide-out Matt Morse. However they also feature running back Lewis Gaddis and wide-out/corner-back David Zielke. Zielke has emerged as one of Aurora Christian’s more deadly weapons on both sides of the ball. Offensively, Zielke has caught 43 passes for 523 yards and 9 touchdowns. On the other side of the ball, he has emerged as one of the top corners in the area with 6 interceptions and is one of the team’s most prolific tacklers. His numbers have proven to be one of the best compliments to Matt Morse.
The Cinderella story of this year’s 4A playoffs has been the 14th seed Richmond-Burton Rockets. They had a 5-4 record in the regular season, but 3 wins in the playoffs have brought them to 8-4 with wins over #3 seed Reed Custer (35-24), #6 seed Genoa-Kingston (48-14), and #7 seed Geneseo (21-0). The Rockets are known as mainly a running team with a dual set of backs in junior Justin Russell (104 attempts, 779 yards, and 8 touchdowns) and junior fullback Kenneth Riordan (103 attempts, 783 yards, and 13 touchdowns).
Prediction: Aurora Christian 28, Richmond-Burton 7
No comments:
Post a Comment