This past Saturday the IHSA football playoffs were officially set and four local Illinois teams have been selected.
Starting in 1A, the Salt Fork Storm finished the year at 6-3 and guaranteed themselves a spot in the playoffs. The Storm were given the #10 seed, which means they will have to hit the road to take on the #7 seed, the 7-2 Greenfield/Northwestern Tigers. The Tigers come out of the Western Illinois Valley (South) Conference. The Storm started the season at 5-0, even though they may of not had the last half of the season they envisioned, losing three straight games against the other three playoff teams in the Vermilion Valley Conference, they did get a tough fought win in the last week to get their guaranteed spot in the playoffs. The game will be at Greenfield High School on Saturday the 30th at 1 pm.
In 2A, the area has two teams making it in. First, the 7-2 Westville Tigers, who also received a #10 seed on Saturday, the Tigers got a tough draw in the First round as they will have to take on another 7-2 team in the #7 seed Maroa-Forsyth Trojans. The Trojans play in a Sangamo Conference, who also had four teams make it into the playoffs. The Trojans had another solid season with both of their losses coming by only a touchdown. Both teams are lead by coaches who have been to the title game, with the Trojans taking the title home twice. The Tigers vs the Trojans will kickoff at 1 pm on Saturday the 30th at Moroa-Forsyth High School.
The other 2A team making the playoffs is the Bismarck-Henning Rossville-Alvin Blue Devils who were able to finish the season with a 9-0 record. The Blue Devils have now made the playoff for 11 straight seasons, and will be the only area team with a first round home game when they received a #3 seed. They will play the #14 seed North Mac Panthers who fished the season at 5-4 just making it into the playoffs. North Mac, like most teams in the playoffs, have been in almost every one of their losses, two of them being by less than a touchdown and another being a forfeit loss. They also come out of the Sangamo Conference. You can listen to this game on 94.9 K-ROCK and online at VermilionCountyFirst.com this Saturday, October 30th with pre-game at 12:40 pm and kickoff at 1 pm.
And finally for the 3A playoffs, a team that has not made the playoffs since the 1993 season has officially made it back into the playoffs. The Hoopeston Area/Armstrong Potomac Cornjerkers finished the season with a 5-4 record which was just enough to make it in. The Cornjerkers received a #12 seed and will have to take on #5 seed Fairfield Mules who ended their season at 8-1. The Mules play out of the Black Diamond Conference, were they suffered their lone loss to an another 8-1 team by only two points. The Cornjerkers will have a tough test in front of them against this Mules team, but they have played in close games this year and won. They will match-up at 2 pm on Saturday the 30th at Fairfield High School.
