A charter bus. A trip across the state. A Saturday afternoon game.
Hearing phrases like that can make high school football teams and fans think its late October or November when the playoffs are in high gear - not in the first week of September.
Yet here the Macomb High Bombers are.
"Maybe it'll have that (playoff) feel to it," said Macomb High head coach Kelly Sears.
The Bombers will catch a ride on a charter bus at 7 a.m. Saturday and head east to Paxton, where the Paxton-Buckley-Loda Panthers await for a pair of games. The fresh-soph game is set to begin at 11:30 a.m. with the varsity game to follow at approximately 1:30 p.m.
Saturday's game is the first-ever meeting between the two teams. Paxton is located in Ford County, north of Rantoul.
"It's going to be a long trip over there," said Sears, who admits that he's not a fan of Saturday games. "Hopefully the kids are going to be ready to go and will be focused when we get there and get off the bus.
"A lot of kids will be probably be sleeping on the way," he added. "But we've got to be woke up by the time we get there and be ready to go."
Both squads enter this week's game having suffered lop-sided losses in their respective openers.
Macomb lost to state-ranked Quincy Notre Dame 50-6, giving up 392 yards of total offense - 310 on the ground. The MHS offense finished with 145 yards - 95 on the ground.
"There were a lot of positives," said Sears about last week's game. "... That was probably one of the better games we've played against QND in a few years. The score may not have been very indicative of it, but we did a lot of nice things.
"The things that we can correct, we're going to correct and get on with it this week," he added.
P-B-L lost to Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley 35-0 in its opener as Michael Romshek ran for 147 yards and one touchdown on 10 carries for the Falcons, who finished with 306 yards rushing. Quarterback Stephan Birt completed four passes for 89 yards and rushed for a TD.
Tyler Smith added 100 yards on 11 carries, scoring three touchdowns for the victors.
Senior fullback Ricky Tester (5-10, 195) led the Panther offense with 79 yards rushing on 14 carries, while adding two catches for 18 yards. P-B-L finished with 149 yards rushing on 36 carries and 37 yards passing on six completions by QB Kendall Cox (senior, 6-1, 175).
Both teams face significant halftime deficits a week ago. Macomb trailed 28-0, while P-B-L was down 20-0.
Significantly out-sized by QND last week, the Bombers look to be on much more equal footing with the similarly sized Panthers this week.
First-year coach Greg Wood leads P-B-L, who finished 1-8 last year.
"Going into a program (with a new system for the first time), the kids looked a little confused (in last week's game)," said Sears. "But I think they're going to be a lot better this week."
Sears noted that the Panthers used a double-wing offense - an offense Sears has seen many times before - especially in the Olympic Conference.
"I thought it was a Pat Elder (former Sherrard coach) team when I first started watching it on tape," he said.
On defense, the Panthers lined up in a four-man front with a variety of looks.
Surviving last week's contest, Sears is looking for a lot of improvement from the squad this week.
"We're not looking at the playoffs or anything else, we're just taking it one game at a time," he said.
"The defense has got to get a lot better," Sears added. "We don't want to give up 50 points again. ... And we've got to get the offense rolling."
Line play as always, looks to be key, especially on defense where Sears noted that "if the line looks good, the linebackers look good."
With this being the final game before the start of Olympic Conference action next week, Sears is looking for the team to take a step in the right direction.
"We're hoping that the kids are going to step up to the challenge," he said. "We're looking to be really super-competitive."