There's very little flash on the Mount Carmel roster.

And if anything can be learned from that is that flash isn't required to stack up victories.

The Caravan have been a classic example of that this season motoring though its first 13 games without much fanfare.

They will have a chance to prove its method is superior when it plays one of the flashier teams in in Illinois, but not surprisingly Mount Carmel isn't wasting much time getting hung up on who the opponent is this week, as they are just another team in the line.

"We don't really talk about opponents," Mount Carmel coach Jordan Lynch said. "We get another chance to play 48 minutes with our brothers. The biggest thing I've told the kids to block out the noise."

Head coach: Jordan Lynch (24-2, 2 years)

Last State Title Game Appearance: 2013, Won 30-0 over Lake Zurich (Class 7A)

The Path to State

• defeated Blue Island Eisenhower, 61-14

• defeated Glenbard North, 34-14

• defeated Phillips, 24-8

• defeated Willowbrook, 27-6

Offensive stalwart

The Caravan often go as their junior quarterback Justin Lynch does. Lynch has emerged as an extremely viable run-pass threat for Mount Carmel and his skills seem to blend nicely into what Mount Carmel is trying to accomplish.

Defense stalwart

Austin Maciel-Haygood seems to get himself involved in a number of key defensive plays for the Caravan. He's notched over 100 tackles this season, and 12.5 tackles for loss. As a unit, Mount Carmel doesn't give up much and Maciel-Haygood is a big part of that.

The wildcard

Kenenna Odeluga has emerged as a capable lead back for Mount Carmel when he is running with authority and in tandem with Lynch defenses don't know which way to turn.

Stat Book

• Mount Carmel has allowed just nine first quarter points to opponents this season.

• The Caravan have only posted two games of more than 40 points this season.

• Usually a run-dominated squad, the Caravan have thrown for nearly as many yards as they have ran for as they have ran for 2,131 yards while passing for 1,828.

Quotable

"This team kind of reminds me of myself when I was playing it is a bunch of blue collar kids that we don't necessarily show off. It's a bunch of kids that grind every day that love coming to work that really fall in love with the process. We're not going to blow to many teams away when we take the field but that at the end of day these kids love football and these kids are going to really have each others back." - head coach Jordan Lynch

The skinny

In an era of high-powered football teams looking to post huge numbers, the Caravan seem like a team out of a bye gone era. It appears to be a team interesting in exactly one thing: winning. It doesn't matter how many points they score, or what stats they rack up, at the end of the day if the Caravan have more points than the opposition, they're content with what they've accomplished.