Power Rankings, Week 2: The Best Team in the Area Plays Eight-Man Football
Two weeks in, one team has separated itself — and it does not play eleven-man football.
These rank all seven Galesburg-area programs together, across four different competitive structures. Last week’s position in parentheses.
1. West Central (2-0) — up 2
Eighty points in two games. Has not trailed in either. Finished a storm-suspended opener 32-12, then went to Farmer City and won 48-20.
Jason Kirby is in his 11th season at West Central and 28th overall, and right now he has the most convincing team in this coverage area. That it plays eight-man football in the I8FA rather than under the IHSA is exactly why almost nobody around here has noticed.
2. Galesburg (1-1) — up 4
The biggest move on the board, and it is about a number more than a result.
Galesburg scored 47 points on Friday. Last season the Silver Streaks scored 166 across nine games. They put up 28 percent of a full season’s offense in one night.
Limestone went 0-9 last year, so temper it. But this is a program that went 0-4 at home in 2025, winning at home by 34 in the week its rebuild got written about. Conference play at United Township — who just won 69-6 — will tell us what it was worth.
3. Knoxville (1-1) — up 4
Marty Turner has his first win, 23-18 over a Rushville-Industry team that went 7-3 last season. Five points, against a program with a winning record, a week after losing by 28.
From seventh to third. That is what beating a decent team does when everyone around you is losing.
4. Abingdon-Avon (1-1) — down 3
Do not read the drop as a verdict. A-Town beat a playoff team by 29, then lost by eight at Annawan-Wethersfield — who went 11-1 and reached the state semifinals last season.
Beat a good team, lose narrowly to a very good one. Through two weeks that is the most credible body of work of any eleven-man team here. They fall only because West Central and Galesburg gave us more.
5. ROWVA/Williamsfield (1-1) — down 3
Fifty-four points against a winless team; eight against a real one. Elmwood/Brimfield returned a backfield and has a coach in his 28th season, and the Cougars managed a single score.
The truth is between the two performances. Illini West, 2-0, visits next — a third data point that should settle it.
6. United (0-2) — down 1
The most frustrating team in the area to rank.
Kellen Boone has thrown for 697 yards in two games and added 146 rushing on Friday. United led Illini West 18-8 in the third quarter. United has also allowed 74 points in two weeks and lost both.
Best individual player in the coverage area. No wins. Both of those will stay true until the defense changes.
7. Monmouth-Roseville (0-2) — down 3
Sixty-two total yards of offense.
That is what the area’s best team of 2025 — 10-2, Class 3A quarterfinalists — produced against Rockridge in a 56-8 loss. Cullen Schwigen accounted for six touchdowns; Thomas Sowards ran for 211 yards. The Titans’ only points came on a kickoff return.
Jeremy Adolphson said in July that he was replacing “some really, really good guys” and that it would be a different defense. It is. Mercer County, which just lost 49-14 to Princeton, is next, and Monmouth-Roseville badly needs it.
Biggest riser
Galesburg and Knoxville, both up four. First wins do that.
Biggest faller
Monmouth-Roseville, down three, from first in the preseason to last. Nobody has fallen further in two weeks.
Playoff watch
48 qualifiers per class, so roughly four or five wins from nine gets you in.
- In good shape: West Central (2-0)
- On track: Galesburg, Knoxville, Abingdon-Avon, ROWVA/Williamsfield — all 1-1, all needing three or four from seven
- Need a run: United and Monmouth-Roseville. Two losses from nine games is not fatal under the new format, but neither can afford a third.
Pairings are announced Saturday, October 17.
Disagree?
Galesburg at two after beating an 0-9 team is the call most likely to be wrong. Tell us — [email protected]. We publish the good arguments.
Rankings are our judgment, not a formula. Scores and stats via WRMJ, WMOI, Shaw Local, SI, FOX and MaxPreps. Full Week 2 recap →
