Kahoks to meet Boilers in opening round of football playoffs
By Mark Jurgena
For the first time in Collinsville High School history, the Kahoks have qualified for the IHSA football playoffs in two consecutive seasons.
The Kahoks will play in Class 7A and will host Bradley (Bourbonnais) tomorrow night at 6 p.m.
CHS enters the contest with an 8-1 mark while the Boilermakers went 5-4 on the season.
Despite just getting into one of the final at-large spots in the playoffs, the Boilers actually won their conference with a 4-0 mark. However, the IHSA mandates that a school play in a conference of six schools to receive an automatic berth into the playoffs. Their conference only has five schools.
Bourbonnais won the Southwest Suburban (Red) Conference and faced a total of six teams that qualified for the football playoffs.
Last week they fell to Frankfort (Lincoln Way East) 28-21 in overtime at home. LWE was the No. 2 ranked team in Illinois in Class 8A after week 8.
History
This is the fifth playoff appearance for Collinsville. They hosted Geneva in the Class 7A playoffs last season and fell to the Vikings 28-21. CHS is 0-4 in the playoffs.
This is the 20th time in the playoffs for Bradley-Bourbonnais but their first since 2016. During that season they beat Libertyville in their Class 7A playoff opener 42-17 then fell to Plainfield (North) in round two 49-20.
The Boilers are 9-19 in the playoffs.
Scouting Bourbonnais
The Boilers run a multiple-spread offense and will look to get the ball to their best athlete senior Neal May.
May has 36 catches on the season for 551 yards and six TD. Last week he had a TD reception and a punt return for a TD.
They will be quarterbacked by the coach’s son Ethan Kohl. He has thrown for 1,408 yards on the season with 13 TD and three interceptions.
Collinsville
Collinsville is expected to have running back Jerry Richardson back in the lineup after missing week nine with an injury. They also could get quarterback Ethan Bagwell back as well.
Richardson has rushed for 840 yards on 104 attempts this season. He has nine TD’s on the ground and has an average of 8.1 yards per rush. He has also caught 22 passes this year for 334 yards and three TD’s. That’s an average of 15.2 yards per catch.
Bagwell, who missed the season finale against Centralia, is 78-149 on the season for 1,006 yards, with nine TD passes and four interceptions. He has also rushed 101 times for 523 yards and eight TD.
KJ Thorps-Watt is also set to return after leaving the Mt. Zion game in week seven. The state qualifier in the high jump has caught four balls this season for 86 yards and a TD.
Mondray Crume who also missed the Centralia contest will return with his 15 solo tackles, four tackles for loss, and two sacks.
Kolby Anderson served as the QB last week for Collinsville. He has seen multiple roles on offense for CHS this season. He has 354 yards on the ground and nine TDs in 54 attempts. He has caught nine passes for 113 yards and a TD.
He also has 20 solo tackles and 40 assists defensively for the year and has three interceptions as well.
Darren Pennell leads the Kahoks in pass receptions with 27 for 339 yards and two TD. He also has four picks and a fumble recovery on defense.
Upcoming Schedule
The winner of tomorrow’s contest will face the winner of Chicago (Brother Rice) (5-4) and Algonquin (Jacobs) (8-1) next weekend.
