Boylan And Harlem Both Finish Football Season Ranked Top 10

The pandemic might have prevented these teams from finding out exactly how good they were on the field, they made the most of their opportunities. 

Boylan's season was unfortunately cut short because of a COVID suspension. The halt to their season happened only a few days before their highly anticipated matchup against Harlem two weeks ago.

The shortened season didn't hurt the Titans too much in the state rankings. They finished the season ranked 8th in Class 7A.

The Huskies had one of their most successful seasons in school history under brand new head coach Bob Moynihan. Coach Moynihan was just recently honored by the Chicago Bears as their Illinois High School "Coach of the Week." In honor of Coach Moynihan, the Bears will donate $2,000 to Harlem's athletic department.

It was the second honor the Huskies received from the Bears. Their star senior QB, James Cooper Jr. received their "Player of the Week" honors from Halas Hall just a few weeks prior. Cooper ended his career with the Huskies setting multiple school records and will go down as one of the best Husky football player ever.

Harlem finished the season ranked 4th in the 7A poll only behind, Chicago Mt. Carmel, St. Charles North, and Wheaton North, 3 perennial powerhouses. Harlem had the biggest jump of any team in 7A. The cancellation against Boylan may have helped Harlem jump so far in the rankings. When the Boylan game was cancelled, Harlem rescheduled against suburban Prairie Ridge, who also finished the season ranked in 6A. A thrilling come from behind win showed voters in the suburbs, who historically tend to forget about teams outside of their area, that this Harlem team was for real.

Both Harlem and Boylan look to reload for next season which will be coming around a lot sooner than a normal offseason. Both teams look ready to continue NIC-10 dominance.