Chester, Lawrenceville to clash Saturday
<span>The Lawrenceville Indians will make the three-hour bus trip south to face Chester on Saturday at W.O. Smith Field in the first round of the Class 2A playoffs.</span>
<span>"Chester's a really good football team," said Lawrenceville coach Greg Wood. "When your two losses are to 9-0 teams, that says a lot.</span>
<span>"They've got some real good athletes. We see more of a spread-type look most of the time, so this will be a different look for us."</span>
<span>The Indians (7-2) finished third in the Little Illini Conference this year, falling to conference champion Newton (9-0) in Week 3 and Marshall (8-1) last week to end the regular season.</span>
<span>"We're a run-oriented team and from an offensive standpoint, I'm old-school," Wood said. "If you can run the ball on offense and stop the run on defense, you're going to win most games."</span>
<span>Lawrenceville's main threats out of the backfield are Logan McGuire and Kenny Waller. Combined, they have more than 1,200 rushing yards.</span>
<span>"We've got three or four kids who can go to the house any time they can touch the ball," Wood said. "Defensively, I run a 5-3 and make sure we stop the run and slow (the game) down and force teams to be one-dimensional."</span>
<span>Chester coach Jeremy Blechle gave his impression of Lawrenceville after seeing the Indians on film.</span>
<span>"They have a lot of team speed," he said. "The backs are fast. They're not as big as the last two teams we've faced and they don't do too many things with their offense.</span>
<span>"I think they're equal to us. I think it will be a big game for us."</span>
<span>Lawrenceville is in the playoffs for the fourth straight year after an eight-year drought. The Indians had gone 0-5 in the postseason until getting their first playoff victory last year against Nokomis.</span>
<span>"We've been in the playoffs four out of the five years I have been here," Wood said. "Last year, we were finally able to break through in the first round."</span>
<span>The teams have a recent shared opponent in Tuscola, who beat Chester in the Elite Eight at Smith Field last November after defeating Lawrenceville.</span>
<span>The Warriors, ranked No. 1 by The Associated Press in Class 2A for most of the season, dropped to Class 1A when the postseason pairings were announced by the IHSA last Saturday.</span>
<span>"We ended up playing them in the second round and gave them a pretty good game," Wood said of his team's 28-21 loss to Tuscola.</span>
<span>Like most coaches who play Chester, Wood was asked his opinion of 6-foot-6 Chester tight end/linebacker Jordan Berner, who verballed to SIU-Carbondale several weeks ago.</span>
<span>"Big kid, great athlete and just makes plays," Wood said. "I'm not sure I'm impressed with him more from a defensive standpoint than an offensive standpoint.</span>
<span>"When you've got a big kid like that who moves like that, it creates a lot of problems."</span>
<span>Kickoff on Saturday is scheduled for 2 p.m. For more Yellow Jacket football coverage, see this week's Herald Tribune.</span>
Players to Watch:
Lawrenceville<span> - #24 Logan McGuire (RB/CB), #39 Kenny Waller (FB/CB), #81 Jake Seed (TE/DE), #15 Bryce Winningham (QB/FS).</span>
Chester<span> - #1 Jordan Berner (TE/LB), #25 Blake Eggemeyer (RB/DT), #24 Chris Lang (TB/DB), #5 Demontae Martin (WB/DB).</span>
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