IHSA football finishes fall season

By Mark Jurgena

Thanksgiving weekend saw snow for many of us and a postponement of the four largest classes of IHSA state championship football games.

Due to the weather, Illinois State University closed its campus for Nov. 29, which forced the IHSA to cancel the Class 5A-8A title games.

The state association ended up playing the 5A and 6A games on Dec. 2 at their original site at Hancock Stadium on the Illinois State campus in Normal.

However, the Class 7A and 8A contests were held in DeKalb at Huskie Stadium on the campus of Northern Illinois University.

The Class 1A through 4A state contests were played as scheduled on Nov. 28 and those contests were chronicled last week in the Times-Tribune.

Class 5A-6A games

East St. Louis fell to Oak Park (Fenwick Catholic) 38-28 in the Class 6A state title game. The Friars won their first state crown since 2021.

They became the second Chicago Catholic League team to win a state title on Tuesday and the third this season. Lombard (Montini Catholic) beat Rochester in the Class 4A title game on Nov. 28.

Earlier on Dec. 2, Wheaton (St. Francis) beat New Lenox (Providence Catholic) 39-35 in the Class 5A game. Both of those schools compete in the 18-team Chicago Catholic League

Class 7A-8A games

In Class 7A, Chicago (Brother Rice) beat Chicago (St. Rita) 16-0 to win the state championship. And, yes, you guessed it, both schools are CCL teams.

Finally, in Class 8A Chicago (Mt. Carmel), the dominant power in the Chicago Catholic League, won its record 16th state championship with a 20-3 win over Oswego.

So if you’re keeping score, the Catholic League had seven schools play for state championships this season. The league has a total of 18 teams.