The Maroa-Forsyth Trojans, Rochester Rockets, Williamsville Bullets and Sacred Heart Griffin Cyclones headline a group of central Illinois football programs going for a state championship this weekend in Champaign.
The site shifts back to Memorial Stadium after a year in DeKalb at Northern Illinois.
In his 15th season, coach by Josh Jostes and the 10-3 Trojans will look for their third state title under his tutelage.
Jack Hockaday leads a high powered offense for Maroa-Forsyth that accumulated over 5300 total yards of offense this season. Hockaday accounted for 52 of the Trojans 72 offensive touchdowns and accounted for 68% of the Trojan offensive output (3681 total yards).
The lack of size up front for Maroa-Forsyth is nuetralized by a quick strike but powerful run game that racked up just short of 3400 yards.
On top of that, the Trojans don't turn the football over. In 738 offensive plays run, the offense turned the ball over just 22 times.
Maroa-Forsyth will take on Eastland Pearl City, who's a perfect 13-0 on the season.
Up front, the Wolves are big. The offensive line averages out at 6-feet and 224 pounds and the defensive line averages at 5-foot-11 and 245 pounds. Their linebackers average 6-foot-2 and 200 pounds.
The Wolves are enjoying their longest stretch of success, having never made it past the second round of the playoffs before this season, however, under 8th year head coach Randy Asche, the Wolves have had consecutive double-digit win seasons (10 and 13 respectively).
Until week two of the playoffs, Eastland Pearl City had not played a game within two touchdowns and have scored over 40 points in three of their four playoff games.
Eastland Pearl City and Maroa-Forsyth meet at 1 pm today from Memorial Stadium.
Other state championship games Friday include...
Class 3A: Wilmington (13-0) vs. Williamsville (13-0) 4:00 pm
Class 4A: Chicago Phillips (12-1) vs. Rochester (11-2) 7:00 pm
Saturday state championship games include...
Class 5A: Lombard Montini (10-3) vs. Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin (13-0) 10:00 am
