Prairie Central is exactly the kind of team that can cause serious problems for a favored team in the playoffs.
The Hawks have won six-straight games and avenged a blowout loss to a conference rival Mahomet-Seymour in the opening round of the playoffs last week.
Bishop McNamara quarterback Channing Dolliger looks for an open receiver during the second half of Mac's game against Lake Forest Academy.
On top of that, Prairie Central coach Brian Hassett is no stranger in what to expect from Bishop McNamara, his second-round opponent. Hassett is a former Fightin’ Irish player and assistant coach.
Add to the equation that the Hawks are finally healthy.
“They’ve been beaten up all year,” Bishop McNamara coach Rich Zinanni said. “And they are doing a great job with what they have.”
Prairie Central (7-3) and the Fightin’ Irish (8-2) square off at 1 p.m. Saturday at Bishop McNamara’s Memorial Field. The winner goes to the Class 4A quarterfinals .
The two squads had one common opponent — Central Catholic, of Bloomington. Prairie Central lost to the Saints 24-12 in Week 2. Bishop McNamara rolled the Saints 42-14 in the opening round of the postseason last week.
But that Prairie Central team in Week 2 is not the same as the one that lines up for the Hawks now. Numerous players were sidelined by injury at that time. Now the Hawks are finally back at full strength with the results to show for it.
“We had a tough schedule to start the season,” Hassett said. “And now that we’ve gotten everybody back we’re playing very good football, and we’ve got some dynamic people that can make some plays for us.”
The most important player in that group is junior quarterback Addison Bounds, who is an effective passer but does most the damage with his feet. He is the team’s leading rusher and has scored 16 touchdowns.
“He’s the real deal,” Zinanni said of Bounds. “We haven’t really seen a quarterback like him that can do everything well, all season.”
Favored target Ian Briscoe is back from injury.
“His numbers obviously don’t reflect what he gives them,” Zinanni said. “We know that; we have to make sure our kids know that, too.”
Despite a four-touchdown victory in the opening round, Zinanni is well aware that his Irish have a lot of clean-up work to do if they hope to stay alive in the postseason. McNamara’s comfortable win last week was sullied by a six-turnover performance.
“That was disappointing that we lacked concentration in the second quarter of that game,” Zinanni said. “Channing Dolliger only had four interceptions all season, which was something we were pretty proud of, but he doubled that in one afternoon. Some of those were tipped balls, but we’ve still got to clean that up.”
The two teams have only met once: Hassett’s Prairie Central club toppled Bishop McNamara 17-14 in the opening round of the 2004 playoffs.
