Four Downs: St. Rita silences the doubters, Robbie Gould's instant impact and a Fox Valley showdown

St. Rita is one of the area’s consistently excellent high school football programs. Still, it wasn’t difficult to leave the Mustangs out of the preseason Super 25.

They didn’t have any big stars or a large number of starters returning. New coach Martin Hopkins was 5-5 in his first season in charge last year. There were no negatives around the team, it just didn’t have any of the usual features of a preseason Super 25 team.

Well, look at St. Rita now. The Mustangs have beaten Brother Rice, St. Francis and Sandburg this season. Their only loss was to Mount Carmel.

Senior running back Nick Herman had 23 carries for 116 yards and two TDs in Week 4 against St. Francis. Linebacker Justin Buckner took three direct snaps in a Wildcat formation and scored two TDs for the Mustangs.

Hopkins opened up the playbook against St. Francis, which scored 35 points in a win at Loyola in Week 3.

“The offensive coaches have had [Buckner in the Wildcat ready] for a little while,” Hopkins said. “And after seeing what he did, I said we might need to call that a little bit more.”

St. Rita hosts Notre Dame (2-2) in Week 5 and then has a major test in Week 6 when No. 3 Nazareth travels to the South Side.

Robbie Gould effect

It is starting to appear that all the hype around former Bears kicker Robbie Gould taking over at Rolling Meadows was not misguided.

The Mustangs beat Maine West 38-7 in Week 4, ending a 14-game regular season winning streak for the Warriors.

Gould’s squad lost Week 1 at Pekin but has now won three consecutive games. Rolling Meadows was just 2-7 last season.

Better than their record

Brother Rice (1-3) dropped out of the rankings last week and Maine South (1-3) fell out this week, but both teams are likely among the area’s 30 best.

The Crusaders beat Phillips Week 1 and have struggled against a wrecking ball schedule since, losing to Marist. St. Rita and Loyola. They were very competitive in all three games.

The Hawks are 1-3 against the toughest schedule in the area, losing to Lincoln-Way East, Hersey and Barrington and beating Warren.

There’s been a major change at quarterback for Maine South. Highly-recruited sophomore Jameson Purcell is now starting ahead of Constantine Coines, who threw for more than 2,500 yards last season and had 37 total TDs.

Purcell held scholarship offers from 17 colleges, including Auburn, Miami and Florida, before he had even played a high school game. The 6-2, 181-pounder threw for 400 yards and 4 TDs in the loss to Barrington.

Fox Valley showdown

Prairie Ridge vs. Cary-Grove is always one of the biggest games of the season. The conference rivals are perennial state championship contenders. Both teams run the triple option, so the games are generally very fast.

Friday’s showdown at Prairie Ridge could be one of the best meetings between the teams in the past few seasons. Both teams are unbeaten. Prairie Ridge has won 18 consecutive conference games, but Cary-Grove is expected to have a slight edge this season.

Quarterback Luke Vanderwiel has stepped in and become a force for the Wolves. He had 24 carries for 238 yards and three TDs in Prairie Ridge’s win at Huntley in Week 4.

Contributing: Mike Clark