Playoff season has finally arrived and Southern Illinois has plenty of submissions. Today’s post is just 8A-5A and I’ll make a post with the rest tomorrow.
For any northerners, feel free to chime in with any questions you may have on the 618’s qualifiers and feel free to correct on teams from your neck of the woods.
8A
#4 Edwardsville (8-1) vs #29 Aurora West (5-4) Saturday 2:00 pm
The Tigers pulled off a 29-12 upset over De Smet Jesuit last week to earn a top seed that will pay immediately dividends. Aurora West has lost four consecutive, including two to non-playoff teams, so the Tigers should roll big here. Looking ahead, I see a realistic path to the semis where they would likely be against Loyola. That path is far from a cakewalk, however, with likely meetings with Glenbard West and York along the way.
#11 Belleville East (7-2) vs #22 Aurora East (6-3) Friday 6:00 pm
The Lancers are certainly not the eleventh best team in this bracket but here they are. Belleville East finished the year 2-2 against playoff teams and lost the last two of those four games. One of those, a 48-0 blowout loss to East St. Louis hurts, but a 49-45 loss to Edwardsville in week 7 gives some credence to this squad. Looking at Aurora East, there really isn’t a great source of optimism. Their lone win against a playoff team was a 32-21 victory over 5-4 West Chicago. Take Belleville East to win here before facing grim odds at Maine South in round two.
7A
#28 Collinsville (5-4) at #5 Maine West (9-0) Saturday 3:00 pm
As is often brought up, Collinsville plays a schedule largely consisting of smaller schools. In fact, they have only faced school with a larger enrollment: Belleville East, who they lost to 24-21 in week one. The Kahoks’ loss last week to 5A Troy Triad (6-3) is not all that encouraging either. Maine West seems to have an inflated record as well, playing just two playoff teams. The home team should still be a slight favorite here because the long travel factor on a Saturday morning cannot be overlooked.
6A
#4 East St. Louis (7-2) vs #13 Lemont (5-4)
The Flyers will look to repeat a dominant path to a 6A state championship that saw them running clock all but one opponent. That lone exception? Lemont, who pushed them down the wire in a 32-29 final. The odds of a close fight are far lower this time. First, East St. Louis gets to host this time. East Side has only lost one home game in the last six years. Lemont also looked sharper headed into last year’s meeting at 12-0. I, like many others, am looking forward to a likely quarterfinal between East St. Louis and Kankakee.
5A
#3 Highland (8-1) vs #14 Mt. Vernon (6-3)
The lone common opponent on the schedules here is Waterloo. Mt. Vernon defeated them 55-41 and Highland blasted them 38-6. Realistically, the gap between these teams is likely larger than 18 points when you look at their resumes as a whole. Highland should be a strong favorite here as long as they can avoid some sort of a shootout where they can’t stop Mt. Vernon’s run game. Round two should be intriguing if we get to see the likely Highland at MacArthur matchup.
#14 Triad (6-3) at Mahomet Seymour(7-2)
Not really sure why Mahomet is not being talked about more in this 5A South bracket. The Bulldogs two losses came against 7A Quincy (9-0) and 5A #2 Morton (8-1). If Triad wants to knock them off, they’ll need a repeat of their week 9 victory over Collinsville with four interceptions on the night. They will also need their offense to be at their sharpest against a Mahomet offense that kept five of their opponents to 7 points or less. Whoever advances here gets the winner of high-powered Peoria vs Joliet Catholic and will certainly be an underdog.
edgytim.rivals.com