The Illini Prairie Conference is considered one of the best small-school high school football leagues in the state of Illinois.
Meaning this year’s St. Joseph-Ogden football team is one of the best in the state. Because the Spartans won an outright Illini Prairie title last Friday night following a 54-42 home win against Bloomington Central Catholic at Dick Duval Field in St. Joseph.
The victory improved SJO to 7-0 on the season, with all seven of its wins happening against Illini Prairie teams.
“That’s always the first goal,” SJO coach Shawn Skinner said of winning the league title. “If you can win your conference, that seals your playoff berth, and then from there, you can start worrying about seeding. We’ve got that box checked off, and now we start worrying about making our seeding a little bit better each week.”
The next chance for SJO to keep its undefeated season intact happens on Friday night when it welcomes in Tinley Park Andrew (2-5) to Dick Duval Field. It is the lone nonconference game of the season for the Spartans and comes against a Class 7A school that has 2,147 students. SJO, meanwhile, is a 3A school with 460 students.
Andrew has lost its last three games against Bradley-Bourbonnais, Lincoln-Way East and Lockport. The Thunderbolts’ two wins this season happened in Week 1 with a 21-18 victory against Oak Forest and in Week 4 with a 34-6 victory against Stagg.
The decision to play Andrew, which is just for this season, came after Skinner had several conversations with coaching colleagues across the state.
“At first, I was skeptical to say the least,” Skinner said. “The more I looked into it, I realized that it could be a good fit. We anticipated needing to see this kind of offense at some point in the postseason, and I wanted to present our kids with more of a challenge with this open date. We believe playing better competition prepares us for the postseason.”
SJO clinched its 36th playoff appearance in program history back when it defeated Unity 38-23 in Week 4. The chance for the Spartans to have a first-round bye this season, a new facet of the playoffs with 48 teams in each class making the postseason, is high given their successful season so far. But finishing strong against Andrew and at Pontiac on Oct. 16 when SJO closes out its Illini Prairie slate is imperative.
“I’m not afraid to lose a game, but I don’t want to get physically beat up,” Skinner said. “I trust in Andrew’s coach and their program isn’t looking to do that, so it’s one we said would be a really good game for us, and it was able to work.”
The game with Andrew is just for this season. SJO has already filled its nonconference game for the 2027 and 2028 seasons, with the Spartans set to play Farmington in both those seasons. SJO will play at Farmington in 2027 before the Farmers visit St. Joseph during the 2028 season.
“Farmington is a traditional 2A/3A playoff contender that’s going to be a really good matchup for us,” Skinner said.
The SJO offense continued to operate at a high level during its win against BCC. Mainly led by quarterback Lane McKinney, who rushed for 237 yards on 34 carries and three touchdowns while completing 12 of 17 passes for 191 yards and three touchdowns. All told, McKinney accounted for six of the Spartans’ eight touchdowns. McKinney also had one of four interceptions by the Spartans, with Maddux Musselman making two interceptions.
“You’ve got to give Lane a ton of credit because one thing you don’t realize until you compete with him is his level of conditioning,” Skinner said. “He got stronger, and you could see it as the summer was going on. All of us were impressed, but the amount of conditioning that it takes to do that at quarterback and then turn around to play a pretty solid cornerback, that’s impressive.”
Logan Umbarger complemented McKinney by rushing for 107 yards on 20 carries and two touchdowns against the Saints, while Logan Wedig filled in admirably for his big brother, Kaden, and becoming the Spartans’ top wide receiving option. Kaden Wedig is out the rest of the regular season with a Grade 3 ankle sprain he sustained during the Spartans’ win at Monticello on Sept. 25, but Logan made seven catches for 95 yards and two touchdowns during the win against BCC. Ryder Van Meenen also chipped in with three catches for 63 yards, including a 43-yard touchdown reception as SJO led 20-7 at the end of the first quarter and 40-21 at halftime before extending its lead to 47-21 early in the fourth quarter.
“We realize we have some cats,” Skinner said. “It’s hard because they all want the football, too, but they’re doing a really good job of understanding that at the end of the day, all that matters is that we’re getting a win. Logan ran hard. Ryder ran hard. That’s a really difficult thing to prepare for. We have no fear that those guys can make some plays.”
The Spartans will need to continue that trend going on Friday night during their final home game this regular season against Andrew.
“Their offense is so multiple,” Skinner said of the Thunderbolts. “One play they are are in the flex bone ready to pound the rock, and the next play, they are in three wide receivers and can run right by you. It’s been a really good week for prep and facing an unknown opponent. I’m eager to see our kids respond to the challenge. A couple of our kids made the point it feels like a playoff game, and that’s honestly the thinking on scheduling this game. I’m glad they are able to comprehend the correlation, and hopefully we look back on this and we can say it was beneficial in November preparation.”
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