'What do you think?': Breakdown of the football playoff brackets in the Springfield area

‘What do you think?’: Breakdown of the football playoff brackets in the Springfield area

Posted by Admin October 27, 2024 Football

The football playoff pairings were released by the Illinois High School Association on Saturday evening, and 15 teams in The State Journal-Register’s coverage area qualified for playoff berths in the eight-class system.

Both local teams in eight-player football, Pawnee and Kincaid South Fork, also qualified for the Illinois 8-Man Football Association playoffs.

Playoff schedule: IHSA football playoffs: Complete schedule for the Springfield area

The only matchup of two local teams in the SJ-R area is in Class 3A where No. 3 Williamsville (8-1) will host No. 14 Carlinville (5-4) at 7 p.m. Friday. Carlinville is 2-1 against the Bullets in the postseason, with a 42-35 second-round win in the 2016 Class 3A playoffs and a 35-21 win in the 2018 Class 3A quarterfinals. Williamsville won the most recent postseason matchup, 48-20 in the 2022 3A first round.

Playoff dates and times will be announced by the IHSA on Monday. Playoff dates and times will be updated at sj-r.com/sports as they become known.

CLASS 6A

No. 16 seed Springfield High (5-4) clearly faces its toughest opponent of the season with No. 1 East St. Louis. The Flyers were ranked No. 20 in the latest SBLive/Sports Illustrated National High School Football power rankings.

“This is probably the toughest matchup Springfield High has had in any season,” SHS coach Jon Hebb said with a laugh. “These guys (East St. Louis) are very much legit.”

East St. Louis (8-1) beat defending Class 8A state champion Wilmette Loyola 34-7 in Week 1, went 5-0 in the Southwestern Conference and played three out-of-state teams, including a 14-13 overtime loss to IMG Academy out of Florida on Friday.

“When they saw it, I think they actually got kind of excited,” Hebb said of his team. “They see it as, ‘We’re playing a team who is nationally, very highly-respected and they play a national schedule. In conference, they allowed one touchdown, and that was to Edwardsville.

“I looked at the guys and said, ‘What do you think?’ And they said, ‘What do we have to lose; let’s go give it a shot and see what happens.’ I’m pretty encouraged by it.”

Also in Class 6A, No. 5 Chatham Glenwood (7-2) will host No. 12 Crete-Monee (6-3) — the teams’ fourth postseason meeting since 2016. However, it will be the first time the Titans have been the host school. Glenwood is 0-3 against the Warriors.

Week 9 top takeaways: What we learned in Week 9 football? Rochester, Chatham Glenwood can still score in a flash

Week 9 top performers: Springfield-area high school football: Top performers, results from Week 9

CLASS 5A

Crazy enough, Sacred Heart-Griffin has never met Mahomet-Seymour over the last two decades until now.

The No. 14 Cyclones (5-4) will visit No. 3 Mahomet (7-2) on Friday at 7 p.m. They can’t skip ahead, but No. 11 Jacksonville (6-3) visits No. 6 Joliet Catholic (6-3) for a potential second-round rematch of the 2021 Class 4A state championship game featuring SHG and JCA.

SHG dropped its last two games to Chatham Glenwood 34-31 in overtime and defending Class 4A state champion Rochester 41-27. Tough losses to be sure, but the Cyclones seem on the cusp of turning the corner. Stopping turnovers is key but another priority is getting the young offensive line to jell.

“We’ve been working with them every week to bring them along and they have gotten better and we’re looking to keep growing it,” SHG coach John Allison said.

Sophomore QB Cam Brinkman has certainly developed over the course of the season. He went 25 of 39 for 322 yards and four touchdowns with one pick in the loss to Rochester.

“Talk about a kid who’s a competitor and showing signs of somebody much older than he is,” Allison said. “I knew watching him play basketball starting as a freshman last year that he can handle pressure and he’s shown that. And his ability to scramble and keep his eyes down the field, he’s a guy that you want taking the ball and leading the team. He’s definitely answered the call in terms of that leadership role.”

CLASS 4A

No. 4 Rochester (7-2) faces No. 13 Peoria Notre Dame (5-4) in the first round while No. 14 Taylorville (5-4) travels to No. 3 Waterloo (8-1). The Rockets haven’t met the Big 12 Conference foe since a 46-21 win at Peoria in the 2012 Class 4A quarterfinals. Rochester won its third straight state championship that season.

Meanwhile, Taylorville and Waterloo have never met in the postseason.

Nothing seems to faze Rochester, especially after a marquee win over rival SHG without head coach Derek Leonard, who was suspended earlier the same day for that game only following a hazing investigation.

Junior running back Kaiden Stout stayed the course with 104 rushing yards and two scores, along with senior receiver Mason Jacobs, who had six catches for 109 yards and a touchdown.

Quarterbacks Tanner Beal and JP Leonard combined for 87 passing yards, while even freshman Khordell Gregory chipped in a couple TD passes using deception after the Rockets lost their starter Bryan Zulauf for the season in a nonconference game against St. Louis Cardinal Ritter.

“I think we’re on the up and up,” offensive line coach Derrick Nelson said, while acting as the interim coach on Friday. “Each week we’ve been battling. We can get some kids healthy, execute better and I can’t wait for the playoffs.”

CLASS 3A

Besides Carlinville and Williamsville, the only other local team in the 3A postseason is No. 7 New Berlin (7-2), which will host No. 10 Benton (6-3) at 3 p.m. Saturday. It’s the first time the Pretzels have made the IHSA playoffs since 2015, this time in coach James Dambacher’s second season.

The Pretzels won their first six games before falling to state-ranked opponents Williamsville 39-7 in Week 7 and Maroa-Forsyth 43-22 in Week 9 to end the regular season. In both losses, the Pretzels only trailed by one possession at halftime, including 22-14 against former 2A No. 1 Maroa.

“We faced some adversity and I think our boys have been battle-tested at the end, so we should be ready for just about anything,” Dambacher said.

Dambacher believes that experience against Maroa will be especially beneficial defensively with another spread offense looming ahead.

“I would say there’s probably only maybe two or three true spread teams in the Sangamo now,” Dambacher said. “Especially going up against one of the best in the whole state in Maroa recently is good. We did some good things in that game and we also did some bad things, so we need to learn and fix that.”

CLASS 2A

No. 4 Pana (8-1), No. 11 North Mac (6-3) and No. 12 Niantic Sangamon Valley (6-3) all qualified for the 2A postseason. Pana will host No. 13 Shelbyville (6-3) while North Mac (No. 6 Arthur-Lovington-Atwood-Hammond, 8-1) and Sangamon Valley (No. 5 Vandalia, 8-1) both go on the road in the first round.

North Mac coach Robbi Howard said he’s glad to be back in the postseason after the Panthers missed out a year ago.

“It feels great. Last year was the first year as a player or coach I hadn’t been in the playoffs, so it feels good to be back in,” Howard said. “It’s been close to 10 years since North Mac won a playoff game. The opportunity is going to be a big task, but it feels good about getting in.”

North Mac’s defense continues to lead the Panthers. On Friday in the season finale, North Mac limited Greenville to 17 points — the lowest output for the 8-1 Comets all season.

“Every week in the South Central (Conference) is a physical brand of football,” Howard said. “The physicality in the South Central is more branded in 2A football. We’ve had five straight one-score games (Greenville kicked a field goal late to make it a two-score spread). The physicality has us prepared to face Arthur. We’ll see where we’re at.

“Coach (Nathan) Wise has done a great job with our defense, but it’s a unit that’s gotten better all year.”

He knows he’ll have a big challenge with ALAH.

“It’s going to be a tough matchup; they’re a very run-heavy team, from what I’ve seen online,” Howard said minutes after the pairings were released. “They’re physical and we’re going to have our hands full, no doubt.”

CLASS 1A

For the first time in 20 seasons as Rushville-Industry, the Rockets are headed to the postseason with a program regular-season record eight wins. Rushville-Industry missed the postseason last season for the first time since 2018.

“The kids have worked really hard and the coaches have worked really hard,” R-I coach Brian Lafferty said. “We just work on the fundamentals. We don’t try to do anything fancy: we’re just going to block and tackle and play fundamental football. If we do that, we’ve got a chance to win.”

The No. 4 Rockets lost their Week 1 game Toulon Stark County, 27-6, before running the table the final eight weeks. If R-I (8-1) can get past No. 13 Ottawa Marquette (5-4) and No. 5 Stark County beats No. 12 Galena (5-4), the Lincoln Trail-Prairieland (Small Division) Conference co-champs will meet in the second round in Rushville.

The Rockets’ first-round matchup will feature two teams running the Wing-T offense. Lafferty joked that it could make for a quick game.

“We kind of joke when we play Elmwood-Brimfield, who runs a kind of version of the wing offense, that our games will be done while other people are at halftime,” Lafferty said with a laugh.

The other area teams in the 1A playoffs include No. 13 Jacksonville Routt (5-4) at No. 4 Casey-Westfield (8-1) while No. 14 Nokomis (5-4) travels to No. 3 Camp Point Central (8-1).

8-MAN

Pawnee not only locked up the No. 1 seed but finished the regular season undefeated for the first time since 1984 with a 42-14 win over Milford on Saturday — all coming in coach Josh Talley’s first year at the helm.

Pawnee (9-0) now draws No. 16 Edwardsville Metro-East Lutheran (5-4) in a first-round home game of the 8-Man playoffs. PHS previously dispatched MEL 52-19 in Week 4.

The magnitude of the moment was not lost on Talley or the seniors.

“We kind of talked about it during the week,” Talley said. “A few months ago, they probably questioned what their senior season was going to look like. It just speaks volumes to their character and leadership. I told them from the very first day that this team is going to go as far as they take us and I think they’ve done a great job leading us and setting this team up for hopefully continued success in the postseason.”

PHS has knocked off a number of quality teams along the way, including potential second-round matchup and No. 9 seed Champaign St. Thomas More 20-6 in the season opener while also handing No. 5 seed Martinsville its only loss of the season, 42-12.

“I think back to the Martinsville game because that was the first time we were down all season (trailing 12-8 at halftime),” Talley said of the senior leadership. “By the time I got back to the locker room, the seniors were already taking the lead and basically saying everything that I was about to say, ‘We’ve got to clean up our mistakes, we can’t commit unnecessary penalties and we’ve got to do the little things right.’”

That they did and outscored the Bluestreaks 34-0 in the second half.

Elsewhere, Kincaid South Fork returns to the playoffs against a familiar opponent. The No. 14-seeded Ponies will visit No. 3 Cambridge Ridgewood in a rematch of last year’s first round game that Ridgewood won 42-30.

Contact Bill Welt: 788-1545, bill.welt@sj-r.com, Twitter.com/BillWelt. Contact Ryan Mahan: 788-1546, ryan.mahan@sj-r.com, Twitter.com/RyanMahanSJR.