For more: Follow us on Snapchat (search news-gazette) The high school football season is back as 34 of the area’s 35 teams kick off their season tonight. Read up about all of them here in our special section
For more: Follow us on Snapchat (search news-gazette)
The high school football season is back as 34 of the area’s 35 teams kick off their season tonight.
Read up about all of them here in our special section
We’ll have coverage of all the games in Saturday’s News-Gazette, but this online scoreboard will update all night long as scores start rolling in from games throughout the state.
In Champaign, Champaign Central plays Peoria Richwoods at Tommy Stewart Field in a Big 12 opener.
Read about Central’s quest to have a true home field
Centennial travels north to take on perennial power Bradley-Bourbonnais in a nonconference game, while Urbana hosts Normal Community in a Big 12 game in the first game with Ordell Walker in charge of the Tigers.
The area’s other Big 12 team, Danville, travels to Kankakee, where Marcus Forrest will make his debut in charge of the Vikings.
A new conference begins play tonight as well, with the 10-team Illini Prairie (five schools from the old Okaw and five schools from the old Corn Belt) kicking off as each team will play a nine-game conference schedule in the regular season.
Monticello finished 12-1 last season and advanced to the Class 3A state semifinals, the only area team to make it that far in the postseason. The Sages begin Illini Prairie Conference play at Olympia at 7 tonight.
Two rivals, who have played before as members of the Sanagamon Valley Conference and Okaw Valley Conference, meet in St. Joseph tonight in their Illini Prairie Conference debuts with St. Thomas More at St. Joseph-Ogden.
Unity, The N-G’s preseason top team, hosts Illinois Valley Central at Hicks Field in Tolono, while Rantoul travels to play at Prairie Central in the other area Illini Prairie game.