Plano and Sandwich have sparred on the gridiron longer than anyone from either side can remember.
The schools sparked their feud in 1897, with Sandwich taking a 28-0 victory. Nearly 130 years later, they’re preparing the hit pause on one of the oldest high school football rivalries in Illinois.
The Reapers and Indians will meet Friday in Sandwich for the 115th edition of the iconic War on 34 rivalry. It will also be the last, at least for a while.
Sandwich voted in the spring to leave the Kishwaukee River Conference for the Illinois Central Eight starting next school year. With the ICE expected to be a closed, 10-team league, 2027 will be the first year the rivals don’t play each other in football in a season both have fielded varsity teams since 1939, according to records maintained by ReaperNation.com.
“It’s tough to break up the rivalry streak that we’ve had,” Sandwich coach Jason VanPelt said. “It’s one of the longest-running rivalries in Illinois, so that’s not an easy decision by anybody. But our administration and school board felt like we were making the right decision for us.”
The Indians eeked out a 32-30 win in last year’s meeting, powered by a sensational rushing performance of 359 yards and five touchdowns.
The Reapers, who have struggled to stop the run amid an 0-2 start, are looking to right their past wrongs.
“Our team knows where we’re at,” Plano coach Kyle Tutt said. “We are looking much more at the little, fine details than just the big pieces, and I think we’ve been able to put the big pieces together. Now we’re looking at those real fine details to put us on the right side of the board.”
Though Sandwich has a win that Plano lacks in the young season, numbers like that hardly matter in a rivalry like this.
“You can always throw out the record when you play these games,” VanPelt said. “It’s going to be about who gets momentum and who can respond well when things don’t go your way, because they won’t all go your way.”
Though the game is played between the lines, its significance to those within the neighboring towns goes back generations and beyond the boundaries on the football field.
“It’s really special,” Tutt said. “People come up, and they either have grandchildren or great-grandchildren or have played back in the day, and they’re excited to support their town and the community. Being able to be a part of that is a big part of why high school football coaching is such a great experience.”
There’s no telling when, or if, Plano and Sandwich will meet again. But if this is last clash for the foreseeable future, there won’t be any shortage of energy for it.
“Our guys will be fired up; they’ll be fired up; the fans will be fired up, so it should be a great atmosphere,” VanPelt said. “We’re really looking forward to it.”
Oswego defense licking its wounds after back-to-back gashings
Oswego has hit the ground running this fall. The Panthers are off to a 2-0 start thanks to a pair of brilliant offensive performances that each produced 44 points, the latest being a barnburner at Geneva.
Quarterback Drew Kleinhans passed for three touchdowns — all to tight end Ryan Wynn — and ran for another, while star running back Ammar Banire’s 52-yard TD in the fourth quarter iced a 44-42 victory.
“That was a bit nerve-wracking for my ticker,” Oswego coach Brian Cooney said. “One of the top games that I’ll remember, whether you come out on top or not.”
But in neither of the first two games did the Oswego defense come out unscathed.
Neuqua Valley’s Will Kalish racked up 174 receiving yards and three touchdowns against the Panthers in Week 1, and Geneva‘s Benett Konkey dished out an even harsher punishment last week. On a night when the Wildcats had six touchdowns, the Illinois commit scored four of them as he caught 10 passes for 213 yards.
“We were out of position,” Cooney said. “Our communication wasn’t the best across the board, and that would include myself with the kids, so I take ownership of that as well.”
With Oswego starting SPC West play this week against 2-0 Plainfield North, issues like that will need to be addressed, and fast.
Cooney said the Panthers are going back to basics in practice this week: communication, finishing plays and understanding leverage and support.
“We have told our kids numerous times — not necessarily this year — but we try not to play video game football where everyone’s just out there running around,” Cooney said. “We try to have our eyes and hips in a certain place, and I think we’ve just gotten away from that for some reason, so we’re back to the drawing board on that this week.”
Still, this is an unusual spot for Oswego, a program long reputed for its defensive prowess. But as long as the offense stays hot, Cooney is confident the other pieces will fall into place.
“Some good things are going to happen if we can continue to maintain the success on offense and continue to improve on special teams and then get the defense right,” Cooney said.
Carter Meindel is fearless. Oswego East wants to manage that, carefully
There are mental traits teams look for in their starting quarterback: leadership, confidence and competitiveness, just to name a few.
But there’s another important one, and Oswego East coach Tyson LeBlanc has already noticed it in sophomore Carter Meindel.
“He’s fearless,” LeBlanc said.
LeBlanc also said Meindel probably gets that from his days playing defensive line in middle school. Now he’s two games into his second season playing one of the most important positions in sports — his first at the varsity level. And that fearlessness didn’t take long to reveal itself.
In the third quarter of his varsity debut in Week 1 at Joliet West, Meindel stood tall against incoming pressure and delivered a 34-yard touchdown strike, moments before a defensive lineman slammed him into the turf.
Of course, the quarterback was back on his feet seconds later.
“We knew we were going to get that from him,” LeBlanc said. “That’s the type of kid he is. He’s a kid that’s going to stand in there and throw the ball and take hits.”
Plays like that are also the scary part of having a sophomore under center, according to LeBlanc. The Wolves need to make sure the 5-foot-10, 145-pound Meindel can hold up the rest of the regular season playing against larger players in a physical league, not to mention a potential playoff run.
But they also don’t want him to lose that edge.
“We’re trying to manage that and then help him be smart,” LeBlanc said. “But you obviously don’t want to take that piece away from a kid, because that’s who he is and that’s how he plays. He plays tough for an undersized guy.”