Please send scores and corrections to [email protected].

Friday, January 7, 2022

BIG NORTHERN

Byron at North Boone, 7:00

Rockford Lutheran at Oregon, 7:00

Stillman Valley at Rockford Christian, 7:00

Winnebago at Dixon, 7:00

CATHOLIC – CROSSOVER

De La Salle at DePaul, 7:00

Marmion at Loyola, 7:00

Montini at Mount Carmel, 7:00

Providence-St. Mel at Leo, PPD

St. Francis de Sales at St. Laurence, 7:00

St. Ignatius at Brother Rice, 7:00

CENTRAL SUBURBAN – NORTH

Deerfield at Maine West, 7:00

Highland Park at Maine East, 7:00

Vernon Hills at Niles North, 7:00

CENTRAL SUBURBAN – SOUTH

Evanston at Maine South, 7:00

Glenbrook South at Glenbrook North, 7:30

New Trier at Niles West, PPD

CHICAGO PREP

Cristo Rey at Holy Trinity, 7:00

Ellison at Walther Christian, PPD

DU PAGE VALLEY

DeKalb at Naperville Central, PPD

Metea Valley at Naperville North, 7:00

Neuqua Valley at Waubonsie Valley, 6:00

EAST SUBURBAN CATHOLIC

Benet at Nazareth, 7:00

Carmel at Notre Dame, 7:00

Marian Catholic at Joliet Catholic, 7:00

Marian Central at St. Patrick, 7:00

Marist at St. Viator, 7:00

FOX VALLEY

Cary-Grove at Burlington Central, 7:30

Huntley at Crystal Lake South, 7:30

Jacobs at Dundee-Crown, 7:30

McHenry at Hampshire, 7:30

Prairie Ridge at Crystal Lake Central, 7:30

ILLINOIS CENTRAL EIGHT

Coal City at Reed-Custer, 6:45

Peotone at Manteno, 7:00

Streator at Herscher, 7:00

Wilmington at Lisle, 6:45

INDEPENDENT SCHOOL

Francis Parker at Northridge, 6:00

Lake Forest Acad-Blk at Latin, 1-11 PPD

North Shore at Elgin Academy, 6:00

University High at Morgan Park Academy, PPD

INTERSTATE EIGHT

Kaneland at Sycamore, 7:00

LaSalle-Peru at Ottawa, 7:00

Plano at Morris, 7:00

KISHWAUKEE RIVER

Harvard at Marengo, 7:30

Richmond-Burton at Johnsburg, 7:30

Woodstock at Woodstock North, 7:00

LAKE SHORE ATHLETIC

Wolcott at Lycee Francais, 6:00

LITTLE TEN

DePue at Hiawatha, 6:30

Hinckley-Big Rock at Somonauk, 7:00

LaMoille at Leland, 7:00

Newark at Indian Creek, 6:45

METRO SUBURBAN – BLUE

Timothy Christian at Chicago Christian, 7:30

METRO SUBURBAN – RED

Aurora Central at Ridgewood, 7:00

St. Edward at Elmwood Park, 7:00

Westmont at McNamara, 7:30

MID-SUBURBAN – EAST

Buffalo Grove at Prospect, 6:00

Hersey at Elk Grove, PPD

Wheeling at Rolling Meadows, 6:00

MID-SUBURBAN – WEST

Fremd at Conant, 1-22 PPD

Hoffman Estates at Schaumburg, 6:00

Palatine at Barrington, 6:00

NIC – 10

Belvidere at Hononegah, 7:00

Boylan at Guilford, 7:00

Freeport at Rockford East, 1-13 PPD

Harlem at Belvidere North, 7:30

NOBLE LEAGUE – BLUE

Noble Academy at Noble Street, 7:00

NORTH SUBURBAN

Lake Forest at Lake Zurich, 7:00

Libertyville at Zion-Benton, 7:00

Stevenson at Waukegan, 7:00

Warren at Mundelein, 7:00

NORTHEASTERN ATHLETIC

Mooseheart at Westminster Christian, 7:00

Schaumburg Christian at Alden-Hebron, 7:30

PUBLIC LEAGUE RED-WEST / NORTH

Lane at Farragut, PPD

Marshall at Schurz, 5:00

North Lawndale at Clark, PPD

Orr at Westinghouse, PPD

Young at Lincoln Park, PPD

PUBLIC LEAGUE WHITE-NORTH

Mather at Foreman, 5:00

Northside at Lake View, 5:00

Prosser at Taft, 7:00

Uplift at Sullivan, 5:00

PUBLIC LEAGUE WHITE-WEST

Clemente at Collins, 5:00

Crane at Legal Prep, 5:00

Payton at Austin, 5:00

Perspectives-MSA at Raby, 5:00

Wells at Jones, 6:30

PUBLIC LEAGUE BLUE-NORTH

ASPIRA-Bus&Fin at Amundsen, 5:00

Chicago Academy at Roosevelt, 5:00

Chicago Math & Science at North Grand, 5:00

Marine at Alcot, 5:00

Rickover at Disney, 5:00

PUBLIC LEAGUE BLUE-WEST

Chicago Collegiate at Spry, 5:00

Chicago Tech at Kelvyn Park, 5:00

Ogden at Douglass, 5:00

Phoenix at Little Village, 6:30

RIVER VALLEY

Beecher at Gardner-So. Wilmington, 6:45

Clifton Central at Grace Christian, 7:00

Momence at Grant Park, 7:00

St. Anne at Illinois Lutheran, 7:00

Tri-Point at Donovan, 7:00

SOUTH SUBURBAN – CROSSOVER

Argo at Thornton Fr. South, PPD

Eisenhower at Lemont, 7:00

Evergreen Park at Oak Forest, 6:30

Oak Lawn at Hillcrest, 6:30

Reavis at Thornton Fr. North, PPD

Shepard at Bremen, 6:00

SOUTHLAND

Kankakee at Bloom, 6:30

Rich at Thornwood, 6:30

SOUTHWEST PRAIRIE – CROSSOVER

Joliet Central at Yorkville, 6:30

Joliet West at Minooka, 6:30

Plainfield Central at Oswego, PPD

Plainfield East at Plainfield North, 6:30

Plainfield South at West Aurora, 6:30

Romeoville at Oswego East, 6:30

SOUTHWEST SUBURBAN – CROSSOVER

Andrew at Bolingbrook, 7:00

Bradley-Bourbonnais at Homewood-Flossmoor, 6:

Lincoln-Way Central at Sandburg, 6:00

Stagg at Lockport, 6:00

TRI-COUNTY

Dwight at Henry-Senachwine, 7:30

Lowpoint-Washburn at Seneca, 7:00

Marquette at Roanoke-Benson, 7:00

Woodland at Putnam County, 7:30

UPSTATE EIGHT

Bartlett at South Elgin, 7:00

Glenbard East at Glenbard South, 7:00

Larkin at Elgin, 7:00

Streamwood at Fenton, 7:00

West Chicago at East Aurora, PPD

WEST SUBURBAN – GOLD

Hinsdale South at Proviso East, 6:00

Morton at Leyden, 7:30

Willowbrook at Downers Grove South, 7:00

WEST SUBURBAN – SILVER

Downers Grove North at Glenbard West, 7:30

Hinsdale Central at Proviso West, 7:30

Oak Park-River Forest at Lyons, 6:30

NON CONFERENCE

Beacon at Roycemore, 5:30

Bowen at Amundsen, 6:00

Butler at Intrinsic-Belmont, 7:00

Christian Heritage at Westlake Christian, 7:00

IC Catholic at York, 7:30

Latin at Walther Christian, 7:00

Lexington at Midland, 7:00

Muchin at Intrinsic-Downtown, 6:30

Rochelle at DeKalb, 7:00

Von Steuben at Riverside-Brookfield, 7:00

MEMPHIS (TN)

Orr vs. Bartlett (TN), 7:30

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After six years with the team, defensive lineman Akiem Hicks may have played his last game with the Bears.

The team ruled Hicks out for Sunday’s season finale in Minnesota after he missed his third-straight practice with an ankle injury. The injury is the same one he suffered against the Steelers in Week 9 that kept him out for six weeks. He returned to face the Vikings in Week 15 and, after missing the Seahawks game while being on the reserve/COVID-19 list, play in the home finale Sunday. He played almost two-thirds of the Bears’ snaps against the Giants, recording two tackles.

During coach Matt Nagy’s tenure, few players were more dominant.

“He did a lot of good things as far as affecting different offenses,” Nagy said. “He creates a lot of double teams, and I thought he did a good job of doing that his whole career here.”

Hicks is in the final year of his contract. At 32, a new extension was always going to be hard to come by. Hicks missed 11 games in 2019 but only one last year. Between illness and injury — Hicks hurt his groin on the first play of the first Lions game, too — he appeared in only nine games this season.

He’s spent the year coming to terms with the fact that he was unlikely to stay in Chicago. He refused interviews throughout training camp and said in September that “I can’t see myself in another jersey.” Still, he seems to have accepted that this will be his final season. Last month, Hicks celebrated a sack at home against the Vikings by pointing to the fans at Soldier Field.

“I was pointing to the people that cheer for me, the people that love me, the people that love how I play the game… letting them know I appreciate them,” Hicks said then. “They’re always yelling my name. I wanted to show some love back.”

For the ‘Gram

In the last month, Bears outside linebacker has posted Instagram photos of his sacks against the Giants’ Mike Glennon, the Seahawks’ Russell Wilson and the Packers’ Aaron Rodgers — and has even tagged them on it in hopes they’d see.

No one’s responded yet. But Gipson said it’s all in good fun.

“I think it’s just showing my personality, man,” he said. “I like to talk trash. Get after people. Have fun. But it’s really all just jokes and games. Ya know, I would feel appreciated if somebody did that to me honestly. So I know that day’s coming some time soon. But I’m going to keep working hard to try to prevent that.”

Three questionable

Outside linebacker Robert Quinn, who will look to build on his franchise-best 18 sacks, practiced Friday with a shoulder injury and is officially listed as questionable. So is nose tackle Eddie Goldman, who has a finger injury, and cornerback Duke Shelley, who has a heel problem.

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Matt Nagy hasn’t officially been fired as head coach of the Chicago Bears but it’s expected following the team’s Week 18 game at Minnesota. While there’s some uncertainty about Ryan Pace, depending on who you ask, the Bears will be in the market for a head coach.

But who are their top targets?

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As published in the Chicago Daily News, sister publication of the Chicago Sun-Times:

Activism runs deep in the Pilsen community. Whether fighting for better schools or access to health care, residents, mostly from Mexico and other Spanish-speaking Central and South American countries, have banded together to take care of the neighborhood. In early January 1977, a rash of fire-related fatalities spurned the community to act.

On Jan. 3, 1977, leaders from the Pilsen Neighbors Community Council met with Fire commissioner Robert J. Quinn at City Hall to demand more Spanish-speaking firefighters in the area, according to a front-page Chicago Daily News article. While they talked, protestors outside picketed.

The council believed the 17 fire-related fatalities in two fires on Christmas Eve and Jan. 2 could have been prevented if firefighters spoke the language of those they were trying to save, the paper said.

On Dec. 24, 1976, 12 people died in a fire at 1811 W. 17th St., the Daily News reported. Fire officials suspected charcoal lighter fluid, likely used for an indoor barbeque, as the culprit in the fire. They suggested “education in fire safety might prevent such tragedies.”

On Jan. 2, 1977, five people — including three children — lost their lives in a fire at 1706 W. 17th St., a four-story brick building. In that fire, investigators told the paper that the owner of the building admitted to using gasoline to scrub graffiti off the hallway walls and floors. The surfaces likely absorbed some of the gasoline and helped spread the fire more rapidly.

Ruby Schiffauer, who escaped from the Jan. 2 fire, said she felt increasingly anxious in the days leading up to the incident, given the Christmas Eve fire and several other arsons in the area, the paper said. She had been getting ready for bed when the blaze broke out.

“I heard somebody scream outside my apartment,” she told a Daily News reporter. “I looked out the window and saw smoke coming out of the other (attached) buildings. I ran and grabbed my cat and went to open the door, but the lock was so hot you couldn’t hardly touch it.”

Still holding her cat, Poncho, Schiffauer dashed to her kitchen window, broke the glass and hurried down the fire escape outside, the paper reported. As she ran down, two firemen ran up to rescue others in the building. “Many got out on their own, jumping out windows or climbing down fire escapes,” the paper said.

The council’s meeting with Quinn turned out to be a successful one, and he agreed to several of their demands.

“At a news conference,” the paper reported. “Quinn said he would ask the department’s Spanish-speaking firemen if they would be willing to serve the Pilsen area. The group demanded nine Spanish-speaking firemen in Pilsen.”

He also agreed to assign a Spanish-speaking paramedic team to the Engine 23 station and announced plans to teach more firefighters Spanish so communication barriers would no longer be a problem.

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In Matt Nagy’s presumed final game as Bears coach, he’ll have the quarterback he wanted all along.

Andy Dalton will start Sunday against the Vikings since rookie Justin Fields tested positive for the coronavirus. So instead of seeing if the future of their franchise can take another meaningful step forward, the Bears will hand the game to a 34-year-old pending free agent.

Nagy shouldn’t mind too much, though, because Dalton was Plan A for him going into a season in which his job was on the line. He believed he could save himself by relying on a veteran, though one with modest success in his career, rather than riding out the inevitable stumbles of a rookie.

Ultimately, Nagy didn’t get to make that choice. Dalton’s knee injury in Week 2 opened the door for Fields and public pressure swelled to the point that there was no going back once Dalton was healthy. He has still appeared in stints, but it’s been clear most of the season that Fields was the starter.

Dalton started the season opener against the Rams after months of Nagy talking about how sharp he was and how smoothly the offense would run with him, and the Rams plastered the Bears 34-14. He attempted just two passes deeper than 10 yards, throwing incomplete on one and getting intercepted on the other, and finished 27 of 38 for 206 yards and a 72.9 passer rating.

While it’s worth noting that he hasn’t gotten more than two starts in a row at any point and that certainly makes it difficult to find a flow, nothing about the rest of Dalton’s season suggested he was going to be the answer Nagy needed.

Nick Foles will be the Bears’ backup quarterback, and they have the option of flexing Ryan Willis up from the practice squad if they want a third available.

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At last, Chicago Bears fans, the time has almost come. The Matt Nagy era is just about over in Chicago — though it lasted one year too long.

While the future of general manager Ryan Pace is still up in the air, and nobody knows whether he will stay, move to a different position, or be fired, the future is pretty clear when it comes to Nagy.

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