Rich Zinanni is the fifth-winningest coach in Illinois football history with 286 victories, 52 of those in the Illinois high school playoffs at the helm of the Kankakee McNamara Fighting Irish.

Zinanni has coached his Irish to seven state championship game appearances and come away victorious in four of those.

And, yet, the veteran coach's career is somehow incomplete.

Zinanni never has beaten the Geneseo Maple Leafs. He is 0-4 in postseason matches against three different Geneseo coaches, a record that makes him and McNamara the losingest foe in Geneseo's own storied postseason history.

Today in Kankakee, the Irish will become the first team Geneseo will have faced five times in a postseason run that encompasses 35 years and 62 victories over 91 playoff starts.

The contest coincides with a Geneseo bid to score the 600th overall victory in its 93 years of football.

Zinanni - whose Irish fell 16-14 to the Leafs a year ago when Geneseo's Adam Haviland blocked a last-second McNamara field-goal attempt- would like to think the law of averages just might help this year's crew keep the Leafs waiting for No. 600.

"Well, it's about time, I would think," he said.

Zinanni's frustration started with a 55-7 Leafs whitewash in 1977 in Geneseo. More than three decades later, Zinanni said he still can hear the victory bell that tolled after each of the Leafs many scores that day.

"All's I can remember is that bell ringing constantly over there," the McNamara coach said. "The following year, we got them in the state championship game."

In a freezing rain at Hancock Stadium on the Illinois State campus in Normal in 1978, coach Bob Reade, quarterback Lance Hofer, wide receiver Norm Singbush and the Leafs collected a third straight Class 3A state crown with a 14-7 win.

A 10-year-old named Larry Johnsen Jr. watched that one go down from the sidelines.

"That was an incredible experience," remembered Johnsen Jr., now in his sixth season as the Leafs coach.

Johnsen Jr. isn't taking for granted a fifth Leafs postseason win over Zinanni and the Irish today.

"Not only the law of averages, but I think they are a pretty darned good team," the Geneseo coach said of a 6-4 McNamara outfit that lost to three playoff-bound foes in the rugged Chicago Catholic League before knocking off unbeaten and top-seeded Chillicothe IVC last week.

Zinanni, whose Irish also fell to a Denny Diericx-coached team 42-21 in a 1999 first-round tilt at Geneseo, wouldn't deny that his club is interested in avenging last year's hard-to-swallow defeat.

"Who'd have thought we'd be doing this again at our place," he said. "It's a great thing for us to have another chance."

These Irish are led by quarterback Derek O'Conner, whose father, Kelly, quarterbacked for Zinanni in that 1978 title contest.

The veteran coach remembers the father as one of the fiercest competitors he ever coached. He said the son is cut from the same cloth.

Kelly O'Conner is a Kankakee dentist, which might come in handy for Zinanni's bunch.

After all, beating Geneseo has been like pulling teeth for the Irish.

Vs. McNamara

1977: Geneseo 55, McNamara 8, second round. (Leafs won state title.) In Kankakee

1978: Geneseo 14, McNamara 7, state championship. In Normal.

1999: Geneseo 42, McNamara 21, first round (Leafs reached semifinals.) In Geneseo.

2008: Geneseo 16, McNamara 14. (Leafs reached quarterfinals.) In Kankakee.

Familiar foes

Geneseo has played 17 teams multiple times in the IHSA playoffs. The Leafs' record vs. teams they have faced three times or more:

Opponent Record

Kankakee McNamara 4-0

Metamora 3-1

Rock Island Alleman 3-1

Rockton Hononegah 2-1

Peoria Notre Dame 2-1

Morris 1-3

Riverside Brookfield 0-3