After an intriguing first three weeks of the high school football season, only one team is still undefeated going into Apollo Conference play: Charleston High School.
The Trojans (3-0) are currently two wins away from being a playoff eligible football team for the second consecutive season, but senior wide receiver and defensive end Chase Clough says the team is aiming for much more than just playoff eligibility.
"We want to be 5-0 in conference play and 9-0 on the season," Clough said.
The Trojans will open conference play on Friday against the defending champion, the Mahomet-Seymour Bulldogs (1-2). Head coach Brian Halsey says beating the Bulldogs is crucial for the Trojan's hopes of becoming a conference champion.
"If you want to oust the leader, you go to their house and you take it," Halsey said. "We haven't played well against that school in the past. It's a big school, and they've kind of been the bully for a little bit in the Apollo [Conference]."
Charleston is 0-9 against Mahomet-Seymour all time, with the series dating back to the team's first meeting in 2000. The Bulldogs have outscored the Trojans 369-104 in that timespan.
The remaining five Apollo Conference schools know that playing the Bulldogs comes with the caveat that Mahomet-Seymour High School is disproportionately bigger than the rest of the schools in the conference.
The Bulldogs play in the 5A bracket of the Illinois High School Association football playoffs, and the remaining five teams play in the 4A backet. The bracket a team is placed in is determined by the size of the school after the 256 playoff teams are determined.
Mahomet-Seymour being located just to the west of Champaign means that they get to pull from a bigger pool of students, which is an advantage over their fellow Apollo Conference members who must deal with significantly lower enrollment.
Halsey says the size difference doesn't create an inferiority complex for the Trojans.
Mahomet-Seymour last year defeated Charleston 49-21 at Trojan Hill. The rest of the conference mustered just 13 points against the Bulldogs.
"It's kind of been David and Goliath in terms of athletes and so forth," Halsey said. "We felt we had the athletes last year to take them on."
Mahomet-Seymour is dealing with a huge loss offensively. The 6 foot 5 inches, 215-pound senior wide receiver Trey Peters is out with a non-contact knee injury he suffered in the team's 21-13 loss to Sycamore last week.
Peters this season has racked up 573 yards on 22 receptions in just the first three games of the season. He was averaging just over 26 yards per catch and 191 yards per game. Of the 10 passing touchdowns from the Bulldogs, Peters has seven of them.
"He is what makes them go," Halsey said. "He is a tremendous leader, and I feel so bad for that young man."
Despite the huge loss, Halsey says the Trojans still need to execute and play well because of the amount of talent the rest of the Mahomet-Seymour team has.
"Right now, our kids are playing with a high level of confidence," Halsey said. "[They are] playing well as a team, so we'll see if it's a psyche thing or if they've overcome it. We'll know by 9-9:30 tomorrow night."