The first weekend in October annually is the last weekend for significant out-of-state play.

The reason is quite simple.

When October rolls around, teams retreat to conference play and postseason play for the balance of the fall season. In fact, South Dakota will crown its state champions this week, and Indiana is the first major fall-playing state to begin postseason play this week.

This past weekend, the Gateway City Soccer Classic in St. Louis, Mo., ended up being a showcase for Illinois team talent as Peoria Notre Dame, Quincy and Collinsville all defeated ranked out-of-state opponents en route to bracket titles. Also, St. Ignatius (Cleveland, Ohio) boys team traveled to New York where they put a hitting on St. Anthony's (Melville, N.Y.) and Martin Luther King (Manhattan, N.Y.) to justify their lofty national ranking.

In the most buzarre of out-of-state competitions this past weekend, South Kent School (South Kent, Conn.) traveled to DePaul University in Illinois to face Milwaukee Marquette (Milwaukee, Wis.). When the officials were a no-show, a Marquette parent -- who is a certified official -- worked the center and DePaul found two other individuals to handle the sides to get the match played -- a 3-1 win for Marquette. Marquette is counting the match, however, South Kent is claiming it as an exhibition. 

There was quite a bit of regional turnover this week, especially on the boys side with the Gateway results. However, the No. 1 position changed in only two regions -- Olathe East (Olathe, Kan.) taking over the top spot in the Midwest boys rankings while Issaquah (Issaquah, Wash.) climbing to No. 1 in the Northwest girls rankings.

See the entire FALL high school region and state rankings:

FALL REGION RANKINGS: BOYS (Oct. 5) | GIRLS (Oct. 5)

FALL STATE RANKINGS: BOYS (Oct. 5) | GIRLS (Oct. 5)

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