The Warren Blue Devils pulled off the biggest upset of the 8A IHSA Football Playoff bracket after beating Palatine on the road 31-24. This week, the Devils play at home against the 11th-seed Barrington to advance further in the playoffs. Stick around for a recap of the first playoff game and a preview of the next.

The first quarter saw both teams stuck in a defensive battle. After a couple of punts, a Palatine failed fourth down attempt, and Senior Jack Wolf threw an interception, the Blue Devils were down in the game 7-0. To start the second quarter, Jack Wolf threw a passing touchdown to Senior Tight End, Andrew Slack, who caught his first of the season. After an impressive 37-yard field goal from Jack Wolf, the Devils went into halftime with the lead 10-7. Zion Vanes-Peterson and Antonio Moore had an interception and Palatine’s 4-star Michigan commit Jaylen Williams got a concussion in the second quarter, ruling him out for the rest of the game. The Blue Devils opened the scoring in the third quarter with an Aaron Stewart one-yard rushing touchdown. After another Palatine punt, Aaron Stewart punched in a 22-yard rushing touchdown, shedding multiple tackles on his way to the endzone. Warren is now up in the game 24-7 headed into the fourth quarter. However, Palatine isn’t going to go down without a fight. In their first drive of the first quarter, Palatine marched down to the 5-yard line. They were stopped and on fourth down kicked a field goal to cut the lead. Palatine then recovered an onside kick and scored a quick touchdown, completely flipping the script as the score stood 24-17 with around four minutes left in the game. Palatine got the ball back on offense on their 25-yard line and Antonio Moore made a one-handed interception while fading out of bounds to give the ball back to the Devils. Aaron Stewart’s 17-yard rush for a touchdown ended the drive and the game was again all but over with two minutes left in the game, but once again Palatine had other plans. After the two-minute warning, the Palatine quarterback hit his receiver in stride and the ball got punched out on his way to the endzone; however, the refs didn’t see it and called it a touchdown instead of Warren ball. To see the play, check out the recap on YouTube brought to you by WTHS Scratch Paper. The score was 31-24 and with almost no time left, Palatine recovered their second onside kick and had a shot at winning the game. With seconds left in the game, Palatine threw up a prayer to the endzone and was caught… by a Warren defender. Zion Vanes-Peterson caught his second interception of the game and sealed the win for the Blue Devils. Aaron Stewart was the star of the show rushing for 212 yards on 35 carries and 3 touchdowns. Antonio Moore had two interceptions and Zion Vanes-Peterson had two himself and a fumble recovery. Junior defensive lineman, Javon Brisker, was putting pressure on Palatine the whole game ending up with 4 sacks. The Blue Devils now await Barrington at home on Friday, November 7th. Check out the preview for the game in the next paragraph.

Palatine was seeded a higher team but Barrington should be viewed just as a tough task. The Broncos destroyed South Elgin 66-13 last week in the first round of the playoffs. Their offense is very fluid and is strong in every aspect. Senior Quarterback, Nick Peipert, was 18-18 to start the game passing and ended up with 379 yards on a 91% completion rate. On the season, he passed for 2,362 yards on 71.6% completion with 22 passing touchdowns and only 4 interceptions. The receiver leading the pack is Sophomore, Austin Coles, who hauled in 40 passes for 863 yards and 6 touchdowns in the regular season. He averages over 100 receiving yards a game and is a serious threat in the passing game. Senior wideout, Ian Tepas, will also be a problem as he caught a team-leading 7 touchdown passes. The Broncos run game is also lethal. Senior Calvin Johnson ran for 1,387 yards on the ground with 27 touchdowns, three more than the Devil’s Aaron Stewart. On the defensive side of the ball, Defensive End Jack Burzynski accumulated 9 sacks during the season which is tied for 17th in all of Illinois. Finn Karam, a Defensive Back for the Broncos had 9 interceptions, giving him the lead in all of Illinois for interceptions this season. In their last game, Barrington picked off the opposition 4 times en route to victory and will look to do the same this week. 

Warren’s defense needs to be the key to winning the game. The Barrington offense averaged just south of 40 points per game on offense and has a good run-and-pass game. In three of Warren’s 4 losses, the other team has had not just one but two touchdowns of 40 or more yards. The loss against Stevenson that was not counted in this stat, Warren gave up one 40+ yard touchdown, and another 50+ yard play where Stevenson settled for a field goal in the end. The tackling in the second level has to be a focus for Warren so a big play doesn’t spring loose leaving Warren down another six points. As for the offense, Warren’s offensive line needs to create holes and gaps for Aaron Stewart to run through. This plan has been working the past three weeks as Stewart has racked up 611 rushing yards in that span including the big win over Palatine last week. Also, one of Barrington’s two losses came against Palatine who Warren topped in the first round. Palatine held Barrington’s running back to only 3.8 yards a carry and forced many incompletions. Warren will look to do the same this week. 

The Blue Devils are looking to get to the third round of the playoffs for the third year in a row, but Barrington will be no easy task. The theme for this home game is USA so come representing red, white, and blue this Friday, November 8th. Like last week, this could be our final game of the season, so don’t miss out and be there. GO BLUE DEVILS!

Check out the highlight and interview package from the Palatine game in round 1 of the IHSA playoffs