ROCHELLE — The Hubs varsity football team closed out the regular season with back-to-back victories, and Rochelle will be looking to kick off its postseason run with a win when the boys host Chicago (Agricultural Science) in the first round of the IHSA Class 4A Playoffs this Friday.

Rochelle (6-3, 3-1 NIB-12 West) earned the No. 8 seed on the upper side of the Class 4A bracket after taking down both LaSalle-Peru and Sycamore over the past two weeks to earn an automatic playoff berth. The Hubs will take their home field against No. 9 seed Agricultural Science (6-3, 5-1 Great Lakes), which enters Friday’s contest on a five-game winning streak.

“It’s great to get the No. 8 seed,” Rochelle head coach Kevin Crandall said. “It gives us a chance to play at home… I know the kids are looking forward to it and it looks like it will be a good night to play.”

While Rochelle and Chicago (Agricultural Science) are located nearly 90 miles apart, the two teams will likely spend the rest of this week getting closely acquainted with one another. The Hubs and Cyclones have one common opponent this season: Chicago (Corliss), which fell 50-0 to Rochelle in Week 1 and lost 14-0 to Agricultural Science in Week 3.

“They have some big, physical-looking kids and they have a lot of speed in the backfield,” Crandall said. “Their quarterback throws the ball well and they have a couple of fast receivers. We can’t show up, not play well and expect to win. We’ve talked to the kids about the roll we’re on, and we want to keep our momentum going this week.”

After suffering a 41-6 loss to Sterling on Oct. 6, Rochelle has accumulated 793 yards of offense over its last two games including 403 yards in a 43-21 victory over Sycamore, when senior Alex Harvey rushed for 73 yards and one touchdown on 11 carries to cross the 1,000-yard mark this season. Senior Ehren Metzger led the Hubs with 166 rushing yards and two scores, while junior Brandon Johnson carried the ball 11 times for a season-high 100 yards.

“We’re blocking much better than we were at the beginning of the year,” Crandall said. “Especially our backs. We’re doing a good job of getting to our assignments at the second level and that’s really helped.”

Agricultural Science defeated Chicago (Harper) in the final week of regular season play to clinch its first automatic playoff bid in program history. The Cyclones are led by senior Jelani Montgomery and junior Savone Taylor, who combined for three touchdowns in the team’s win over Carver on Oct. 16. Junior Tony Stafford headlines Agricultural Science’s receiving corps, and quarterback Elijah Jones will be under center for the Cyclones.

“We just want to play well overall and have our eyes in the right place,” Crandall said. “We need to read our keys and play fast. We’ve played well defensively over the past couple of weeks and hopefully we’ll continue that on Friday.”

A victory on Friday would advance Rochelle to the second round against either No. 1 seed Johnsburg or No. 16 seed Chicago (Urban Prep-Englewood). The Hubs could also lock down Crandall’s 200^th career win as a varsity head coach.

“When you start, you have goals and things you’ll probably never achieve,” Crandall said. “That was one of them, so it’d be nice to cross that one off the list before I’m done.”