Chris Parks, Jim Field, Matt Mullenix, and Doug Leonard take a look at 8 area high school football games each week. We try to provide some insight into the match-ups while competing for top prognosticator and the Whosman Trophy.

Last Week:

Matt Mullenix 4-4
Chris Parks 4-4
Doug Leonard 4-4
Jim Field 4-4

Overall Standings:

Matt Mullenix 26-14
Chris Parks 26-14
Doug Leonard 25-15
Jim Field 24-16

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CHICAGO (AP) — The Chicago Cubs are closing in on the NL Central championship and have their sights set on another deep playoff run.

It sure would help if Kyle Hendricks keeps pitching like this. They’ll take a few more big home runs from Kris Bryant, too.

Hendricks went eight innings in another strong start, Bryant connected and the Cubs moved closer to the division title while dealing another hit to St. Louis’ playoff hopes, beating the Cardinals 8-4 on Friday.

“This is what you look for,” Hendricks said. “These are the games you want to play in, games that have meaning like this. That’s why we play the game. Hopefully, we’ve got a lot of these left.”

The Cubs came into the final weekend of the regular season with a franchise-record fourth straight trip to the postseason assured and their third division title in a row in sight. They remained one game ahead of Milwaukee, which beat Detroit 6-5 on Friday night.

The Cubs can clinch the NL Central on Saturday — and home-field advantage throughout the NL playoffs — with a win and a Brewers loss.

St. Louis matched a season high with its fourth straight loss, after being swept by Milwaukee this week. The Cardinals trail Los Angeles by two games for the second NL wild card after the Dodgers won 3-1 in San Francisco late Friday night.

With two games remaining, one more St. Louis loss or Los Angeles win would eliminate the Cardinals from postseason contention.

UP NEXT

Cardinals: RHP Miles Mikolas (17-4, 2.94 ERA) looks to win his fifth straight start, after holding San Francisco to two runs and two hits in seven innings on Sunday.

Cubs: LHP Cole Hamels (4-2, 2.47) tries to shake off back-to-back losses after going 4-0 in his first nine starts for Chicago following a trade from Texas. He homered against Pittsburgh on Monday but got outpitched by Jameson Taillon.

KJAN Sports Director Chris Parks’ Weekly discussion with Atlantic Head Football Coach Mike McDermott. They talk about the loss last week to Kuemper Catholic and look forward to the homecoming match-up with OA-BCIG.

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The Atlantic girls swim team defeated Newton in a home swim meet on Thursday night by winning 9 of 11 events.

Annamaria Lowary, McKenna Ewoldt, Clare Christensen, and Kate Landhuis won the 200 Yard Medley in a time of 1:57.68. Ewoldt, Christensen, Aleah Hermansen, and Cambry Miller won the 200 Yard Freestyle Relay in 1:43.22 and the 400 yard Freestyle Relay at 3:52.60.

Lowary was an individual winner in the 200 Yard IM, 100 Yard Freestyle, and 100 Yard Backstroke. Other winners included: Hermansen – 50 Yard Free Style, Christensen – 100 Yard Butterfly, Bryer Rose – 500 Yard Freestyle.

The IGHSAU released their weekly volleyball rankings on Thursday. Here is a look at local ranked teams. See the full rankings here: vbrankings92718

Class 1A

8. East Mills

Class 2A

4. Sidney
6. Tri-Center
8. Treynor
9. St. Albert

Class 3A

1. Kuemper Catholic
11. Red Oak
15. Shenandoah

Class 4A

15. Lewis Central

Class 5A

12. CB Abraham Lincoln

w/ Chris Parks

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West Central Valley hosted the Wildcat XC Invitational on Thursday night at the 5×80 Golf Course in Menlo. North Polk won the girls race and AC/GC won the boys title.

Girls Team Top 5

1. North Polk 27
2. Panorama 52
3. AC/GC 81
4. Eagle Grove 89
5. Ogden 152

Girls Individual Top 5

1. Ella Waddle, Panorama 19:14.00
2. Kate Crawford, AC/GC 19:42.11
3. Lucy Schaffer, North Polk
4. Sophie Schaffer, North Polk
5. Kennedy Wendel, North Polk

WCV Wildcat XC Girls 2018

Boys Team Top 5

1. AC/GC 77
2. Ogden 97
3. IKM-Manning 114
4. Woodward Academy 123
5. Missouri Valley 128

Boys Individual Top 5

1. Jordan Hustak, Missouri Valley 16:31.40
2. Noah Nelsen, AC/GC 16:34.85
3. Louden Foster, WCV
4. Quentin Dreyer, IKM-Manning
5. Garrett Buxton, Ogden

WCV Wildcat XC Boys 2018

Glenwood swept the team titles at the Shenandoah Cross Country Invitational on Thursday night. Janette Schraft of Glenwood and Noah Jorgensen of Sidney were the individual title winners. Atlantic’s Taylor McCreedy and Jalen Petersen were both Runner-Ups last night.

Girls Team Top 5

1. Glenwood 29
2. Atlantic 67
3. CB Abraham Lincoln 119
4. CB Thomas Jefferson 158
5. Lewis Central 159

Girls Individual Top 5

1. Janette Schraft, Glenwood 17:25.06
2. Taylor McCreedy, Atlantic 18:11.06
3. Emma Lucas, Bedford 18:32.24
4. Tori Castle, Treynor 19:17.79
5. Lacey Jackson, Glenwood 19:39.73

Shenandoah XC Girls 2018

Boys Team Top 5

1. Glenwood 58
2. CB Thomas Jefferson 74
3. Lewis Central 74
4. Atlantic 127
5. Red Oak 166

Boys Individual Top 5

1. Noah Jorgenson, Sidney 15:59.52
2. Jalen Petersen, Atlantic 16:09.41
3. Wimach Gilo, CB Thomas Jefferson 16:15.52
4. Sam McIntyre, Glenwood 16:20.64
5. Connor Lancial, Lewis Central 16:23.06

Shenandoah XC Boys 2018

Hawkeye Ten Conference

(3-0) Kuemper Catholic 25-25-25, Atlantic 6-17-14
(3-2) Glenwood 25-20-21-25-15, Clarinda 18-25-25-15-5
(3-0) Red Oak 25-25-25, Denison-Schleswig 22-19-17
(3-2) St. Albert 25-25-11-24-15, Shenandoah 21-15-25-26-10

Western Iowa Conference

(3-0) AHSTW, Avoca 25-25-25, Riverside, Oakland 17-20-18
(3-0) Treynor 25-25-25, Missouri Valley 13-18-17
(3-1) Underwood 25-15-25-25, IKM-Manning 12-25-20-22

Rolling Valley Conference

(3-0) Ar-We-Va 25-25-25, Boyer Valley 22-21-18
(3-2) Coon Rapids-Bayard 25-25-24-23-15, West Harrison 21-10-26-25-10

Corner Conference

(3-0) East Mills 25-25-25, East Union 19-23-17
(3-2) Griswold 25-18-21-25-15, Lenox 21-25-25-20-12
(3-0) Stanton 25-26-25 Bedford 22-24-12
(2-0) Fremont-Mills 25-25, Heartland Christian 10-14
(2-0) Thomas Jefferson 25-25, Fremont-Mills 23-8

Other Scores

(3-1) Abraham Lincoln 25-25-22-25, Bishop Heelan Catholic 14-18-25-16
(3-0) Westwood, Sloan 25-25-25, Sioux City West 19-11-8

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP) — Trevor Allen ran for 180 yards and two touchdowns and Northern Iowa beat Indiana State 33-0 on Thursday night in a Missouri Valley Football Conference opener.

Northern Iowa (2-2), which beat Hampton 44-0 last week, has back-to-back shutouts for the first time since 2012.

Marcus Weymiller added 90 yards on the ground and Eli Dunne threw for 218 yards for Northern Iowa.

Austin Errthum had field goals of 20, 31 and 46 yards in the first half to give UNI a 9-0 lead. Allen made it 16-0, from 18 yards out, on UNI’s first possession of the second half, and he added a 16-yarder later in the quarter. Linebacker Duncan Ferch’s second career pick-6 capped the scoring late in the fourth.

Ryan Boyle threw for 136 yards and an interception for Indiana State (2-2), which hasn’t won a conference game since Oct. 22, 2016. ISU was 1 of 16 combined on third and fourth down conversions.