Raider Football Preparing for Caravan Challenge

D.J. Pruitt, a jack of all trades for the Bolingbrook High School football team, believes the Raiders finally are playing as a unified front.

"It feels like we're a team," the junior wideout/quarterback said after the Raiders clinched a playoff spot. "I can honestly say that for the first time this season we feel like a team. We've finally pulled it together."

And the timing could not be better.

Bolingbrook (5-4) took the back door into the IHSA playoff picture with a 54-27 victory over Lincoln-Way Central, putting to bed a three-game losing streak and finishing a season full of concerns and questions with an exclamation point.

The Raiders open their playoff run at 4 p.m. Friday at Gately Stadium in Chicago, where they will square off against the Mount Carmel Caravan.

Mount Carmel (7-2) enters the postseason as the champion of the Chicago Catholic (Blue) Conference and riding a season-ending three-game winning streak. The Caravan, with an offense that's averaging 37.3 points per game this season, has won seven of its last eight contests.

The Raiders enter the postseason under completely different circumstances. They were 4-1 after a 32-20 victory against Joliet West on Sept. 25, and clinching a playoff berth seemed inevitable. That was before the team hit the skids and lost three consecutive games — to Homewood-Flossmoor, Lincoln-Way East and Sandburg — by a combined score of 87-20.

The losing streak coincided with Bolingbrook being without starting quarterback Aaron Bailey, whose play in his return in the Sandburg game was largely ineffective. Bailey rediscovered the magic in the season finale with five carries for 65 yards, highlighted by a 37-yard touchdown run.

Defensive lineman Anthony Sharp, who came up with a 34-yard interception return for a touchdown in the season finale, said the team was happy to be in the playoffs and looked forward to embracing whatever challenges presented themselves.

"We're going to have to step it up. Everybody is going to have to come as a team. We're going to play a good team and give them a run for their money," Sharp said.

Topping Mount Carmel will be no easy task. As prolific as the Caravan's offense has been this season, its defense could be even better.

Mount Carmel's opponents have averaged only 16.5 points per game this season, with the last three opponents combining to score a grand total of 14 points. In five of the team's seven wins, the Mount Carmel defense limited opponents to eight points or less.

A potent offense plus a punishing defense has added up for the Caravan, whose average margin of victory is a whopping 30.5 points per game.

Nevertheless, Bolingbrook head coach John Ivlow said he's glad his team's season still has another chapter to be written.

"Football is a fun game and a fun sport," Ivlow said. "There are hundreds of teams packing up right now, and we're not one of them."