Here we go again
Oak Park, Oaks Christian to face off in CIF-SS football playoffs for the fourth time in five years
By Stephen Dorman sdorman@theacorn.com

It had to end this way. It almost always does.

For the eighth time since 2003, and the fourth occasion in the playoffs during the same span, the Oak Park (9-3) and Oaks Christian (9-3) football teams will meet on the gridiron, this time in a CIFSouthern Section Northwest Division semifinal showdown Friday night at 7:30 at OCHS.

"When we saw the draw, we figured this is how things might go," Oak Park head coach Dick Billingsley said. "We're not surprised at all by this."

The last time the teams met, on Oct. 19 at Oaks Christian, Oak Park pulled off a thrilling 25-20 victory.

In that matchup, the Eagles were led by their multidimensional senior, Kyle Shorten, who scored a pair of touchdowns in addition to knocking down the Lions' final pass attempt on a fourth-and-goal play from the OPHS 5-yard line.

Oaks Christian's Bill Redell, the head coach who's led the Lions to 19 consecutive playoff wins and four straight section championships, said it's often tougher for the team that won the first meeting to bounce back and repeat the performance later in the year.

"The team that has an advantage is the team that got beat," Redell said. "It's not going to be a question of anyone taking the other team lightly, just two good teams getting after one another."

Billingsley said his squads have been in this position many times- facing the same team twice in a season- and will not be intimidated by the task at hand.

"There's a mystique about it," Billingsley said, "but we'll just approach it knowing we beat them once, and we have to go into it with the same attitude again. We have to be able to execute. It's that simple. We can't worry about all the other things."

Although Redell wouldn't call the loss to Oak Park a wakeup call- it was his team's third defeat of the season in seven games at that point- the Lions have responded well with five wins in a row by a combined score of 245-48.

Last weekend at home, OCHS pounded Serra, the Northwest Division's No. 2 seed, 44-7. Serra had lost only once all season before losing to the Lions.

"We replaced 21 of 22 starters, and it took us some time to get things going," Redell said.

"If you take out (wide receiver) Chris Owusu, who missed six games with an injury, we pretty much replaced everyone, with the exception of Chris Potter going from wide receiver to quarterback.

"It took awhile for us to gel, both offensively and defensively, but now we're really gelling on each side of the ball."

Owusu missed the first game against Oak Park and the Lions' passing attack suffered by only gaining 79 total yards. Now healthy, Owusu adds a needed speed dimension on the outside for OCHS.

Oak Park is also going to have to find a way to slow down Malcolm Jones and the Oaks Christian rushing attack. In the teams' initial meeting, Jones ran for 204 of the Lions' 314 yards on the ground.

"We need to stop the run and force them to throw to get them in thirddownandlong situations," Billingsley said.

Despite winning four of five contests since beating Oaks Christian, including postseason victories against St. Joseph and Harvard-Westlake, Billingsley said the Eagles haven't been able to put together the same allaround performance since that amazing night.

"We played about as well as we could against Oaks, except defensively where we gave up a lot of yards on the ground," Billingsley said. "Offensively we played very, very well. We've got to get back to playing a complete game again. That's really big for us."

In a winorgohome situation, everything is magnified and every player must step up, even the ones who don't typically grab the headlines.

"It's not always the stars that win the game," Billingsley said. "It's all the little plays, when added together, that make a win or a loss."

Redell said playing Oak Park never gets old, no matter who comes away victorious.

"It means a lot because of the rivalry," Redell said. "The Oak Park fans, players and coaches have a lot class. I thought they handled their win with a lot of character and said all the right things.

"It's a very healthy rivalry that keeps getting better all the time."