Next up is what may be the game of the year as the Knights travel to Spring Valley to take on the Hall Red Devils. Spring valley Hall is jock school that prides itself in excellence in virtually all sports. But their football program in the 90's has been phenomenal.

The History

Hall has made the football playoffs every year since 1990 except 1992. They have won the State Championship in 1995, finished second 1996, went to the Semi-finals in 1991 and made it to the quarterfinals in 1993 and 1994. Only once in the last seven years has the Red Devils not been one of the top 8 teams in Class 3A. All under the direction of Coach Gary Vicini.

But that was then and this is now, so let's take a look at Spring valley Hall in 1998.

The Season

After beating Monmouth (a team with only two wins all season) 26-0, Hall lost to Pontiac 41-7, Ottawa 35-34, and then in week 4 to Rochelle 33-6!

That made them 1-3 to start the season, with little hope to make it to playoffs. This was quite a surprise since earlier in the year they were ranked number 5th in 3A. But they had a reason for their slow start. They had 6 players suspended for those first four games!

In the Pontiac the score was 7-7 a halftime, but turnovers killed Spring Valley in the second half as Pontiac pulled away. Rochelle who is in the final four in Class 4A is speed team like Kaneland and gave the slower Red Devils a hard time. Ottawa who finished 6-4 was just a high scoring shocker.

Hall then went on to just barely win their next three games to move above .500 at 4-3. They just sneaked by Kewanee 21-20 (another 6-4 team), managed to took care of Mendota 20-6 (3-6), and nipped Princeton 41-32 (5-4).

The Princeton win was huge. Princeton was on a four game winning streak and leading the conference at the time. But, the slim margin of victory over Princeton was interesting considering Princeton also had played Herscher and Herscher totally dominated them winning 35-12. And everyone knows what Kaneland did to Herscher.

Once over .500 the Red Devils started playing some mean football smashing Rock Falls (2-7) 55-6 and cleaning up on Bloomington Central (4-5) 41-10 to wrap the regular season and just make the playoffs through the back door.

In their last four regular season games they had outscored their opponents 157-54, a stat that followed them into the playoffs.

Once into the playoffs the Devils have turned into a force. They wailed on Peotone (8-2) to the tune of 47-6 and easily handled Montini (7-4) 42-28 at home.

However, last week they ran into undefeated Byron who like Rochelle and Kaneland is built on speed and quickness. Byron had problems with Hall's size but Hall had problems with the Tigers slipperiness and speed. As a result the game was tied going into the final quarter.

But with Byron superstar Sean Considine on the bench with an ankle injury, Hall was able to drive for the winning touchdown with ten minutes to play. They added an insurance TD five minutes later, thanks to D.J. Glynn's break away run and it was lights out.

Hall has outscored their opponents 43-0 in the 4th quarter of the last two games. All but one of their sacks have come in the final quarter during that same period. The team is averaging 43 points a game over the last six games while giving up only 13.

So like Evergreen Park last week the Knights will take on a team that has a eight game winning streak.

The Team

Hall is led by tailback (#40) D.J. Glynn (1585 yards, 23 touchdowns) who is faster than fast. He is complemented by (#33) Nathan "Psycho Road Dog" Chandler (100 yards per game average) who will pound the ball up the middle. Senior (#36) Jason "SOMO" Samolinski fills out the backfield with yet another ground attack option.

Glynn had 4 touchdowns in each of the last two games including 243 yards against Byron. Chandler had 4 TDs against Peotone. Chandler got the starting nod midway through the year when T.C. Rirdon went down with an injury.

"Kaneland will see a lot of fireworks on Saturday," says Samolinski. "I am not one bit scared of the Knights. I know the Hogs will lead me Psycho (Nate Chandler) and greaser (D.J. Glynn) through the holes."

But Glynn is the key. He is not your regular back in that he is 6' 4" and about 193 pounds. He ran a 10.39 hundred last year, had a 4.4 forty and jumped 6' 8". He has good hands out of the slot and has the experience, along with Shawn Burkman, of being a three year starter and played on a state championship team in 1995. He will pose his share of problems for Coach Rich Kearney and pals especially when he runs sweeps or off tackle. When he does, Kaneland fans better hold their breath.

The quarterback is (#9) senior Bernie Larson who also became a starter mid-season and the devils haven't lost since. Larson doesn't get the opportunity to throw the ball much, so if Kaneland gets out to a quick lead the Devils may have a hard time catching up through the air.

They run out of the wing-T among other formations and they hate to punt. The Red Devils are notorious for going on fourth down, they even went on a fourth and four with the ball on their 36 against Pontiac.

As a team there are really no big secrets as to what Hall does. Run, Run, Run, Play Action Pass, and then Run some more. They have good size and their game is definitely ball control.

When the Devils do pass, look for #88 (Matt Stank) to be Larsen's favorite target. That's when he isn't looking for Glynn coming out of the backfield.

The Line

Any educated Hall fan will fan will say that, "As the offensive and defensive lines goes, so goes the Devils." The stating lineman average 253 pounds.

If and when the Devils score and fireworks go off, don't miss a unique Hall ritual on the field.

Watch the offensive linemen after they score a touchdown. They will rip up parts of the endzone turf and carry it back to the offensive Line coach Steve Smith and lay it at his feet as an offering.

He stands waiting for all of them and points at each of them as they come off the field giving them the cue to throw down their turf and show the part they played in the drive.

Smith the offensive line coach wears gray "camo" pants and a jacket with three football players on it: one carrying a sword, one carrying a shield, and one carrying a battle ax. He gives his linemen (THE HOG SOLDIERS) military dog tags to wear called "the hog tags".

Smith is Red Devil Football!

The Hog soldiers

• LT #73 Kyle Phelps 5-10 255
• LG #79 Lee Hansen 6-2 285
• C #56 Dan Prokup 6-5 235
• RG #72 Ray Ferrari 5-8 245
• RT #75 Shawn Burkman 6-0 275

Kinda Big!

The Defense

The defensive line borrows from the offensive line with Phelps, Ferrari and Burkman playing the guard positions. The center, Prokup moves to the outside of the defensive line, at end. The end on the other side is #64 Ryan Diaz (6-0 207) who stays fresh as he only plays "D".

Behind the line #88 WO Matt Stank plays outside linebacker along with #36 RB Samolinski who sees relief from sophomore #22 Brad Foster. The middle is plugged up nicely by #50 Joe Brandner, #49 Jessie Derber with periodic relief from #62 Scott Doucette. These guys are active in pursuing the ball and are at their best on rushing situations.

The defensive backfield is made up of speedy Mr. Glynn on one side and #28 Nick Sherman on the other. The deep safety spot is usually handled by #35 Adam Meyer when he isn't relieved by Samolinski who moves in from his OLB spot.

It's your typical defense. Big, slow lineman, mobile linebackers and quick defensive backs. Since the defense is set up to stop the run, expect to see lots of blitzes Saturday as a way to apply pressure to Delaney.

Special Teams

With each punt and kickoff the Red Devils are a threat (especially with #40 back there). Contrary to the Knights who have their share of problems just fielding punts or onsides kicks. All-conference lineman Shawn Burkman does the place kicking for Hall and is capable of hitting a field goal from 40 yards out. Another advantage over the Knights.

With Billy McKeown's physical problems of late, the Knights kicking game is a question going into Saturday's game, giving the Red Devils a clear advantage on special teams.

The Skinny

This one is really quite easy to analyze. If the Knights can stack-up the middle and still contain #40, there will be limited fireworks going off at Nesti Stadium. Period.

If not, and the hogs start making some holes allowing the Devil's to run their grind it out offense, the Knights will have to make adjustments. They would need to pull in their defense to close down the run, creating a whole new set of problems. The problems would consist of more room outside for D.J. to run and would set it up for Kanland's pursuing defense to bite on Larsen's play action passes.

Clearly the Devils will want to control the ball and eat up as much of the clock as possible, because the best defense against Kaneland's offense is to keep them off the field.

Kaneland's passing game will be huge problem for the Red Devils. It is something they haven't seen much of. Their exposure to an air show like Kaneland's has been limited to just three teams - Pontiac. Montini and Bloomington CC. And only Pontiac may be considered in the same class as the Knights.

Therefore, the Knights passing game should be sending chills down the back's of Hall fans everywhere. Plus, the Hall pass defense has more holes in it than the Elburn Community Center roof. And if quarterback Eric Delaney gets time to throw, the Red Devils could start falling behind early.

If Hall should fall behind the Knights, it would force a change in the game plan. The Red Devil's would most likely be forced to turn to the passing game to catch up and that could be disastrous, especially against the pick-off happy Knights.

So if you get up Saturday and it's a nice sunny day with just a slight brease, Kaneland fans should be dancin' in the streets. But if it's rainy and windy, then the Red Devil has done his job again.

The Wildcard: Special Teams.