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| SportsMonday, October 23, 2006 3:03 AM CDT |
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IHSA playoffs pit familiar foes
BLOOMINGTON -- The football coaches from Normal Community and Danville high schools won’t have to exchange game film this week as they prepare for their first-round matchup this weekend in the Illinois High School Association playoffs. The teams met Friday in the regular-season finale at Danville, which was won by NCHS, 35-12. The undefeated and No. 1 state-ranked Ironmen were awarded the top seed in the 16-team lower bracket of the Class 6A field. Fellow Big 12 Conference member Danville was the No. 16 seed with a 5-4 record. “It will be different playing somebody two weeks in a row,” said NCHS coach Hud Venerable. “We can both watch our game film from this past week and figure out what we did well and what we need to improve on. It was a tough game for us. Danville is a dangerous team. We will have to be on our game to beat them.” NCHS was among four Intercity schools and 18 teams from the Pantagraph area to make this year’s eight-class, 256-team playoffs. Other Intercity teams gaining berths were Bloomington and Normal West in Class 6A and Central Catholic in 4A. BHS announced Saturday night that its first-round game at home versus Ottawa will be at 7 p.m. Friday. The majority of games’ dates and times will be announced Monday by the IHSA. Area schools Fieldcrest and Prairie Central earned No. 2 seeds in Class 2A and 4A, respectively, and will play host to other area teams in the first round. Fieldcrest meets No. 7 Iroquois West, while Prairie Central drew Corn Belt Conference and Livingston County rival Pontiac. “I don’t know how it works, but it’s certainly an interesting draw,” said Prairie Central coach Brian Hassett, whose undefeated team won the Corn Belt title with an 8-0 record. “There’s a huge rivalry between the teams. I expect the same type of game we had the first time we played them this year. It will go down to the final horn.” The Hawks hung on to defeat Pontiac, 26-21, in the second week of the season after squandering a 20-0 first-half lead. Pontiac, which is the No. 15 seed and has a 6-2 record, came up one yard short of winning the game on the final play. “We will be the underdog because Prairie Central proved it is the best team in our conference by going through it undefeated,” said Pontiac coach Mick Peterson, who is retiring at the end of the season. “We knew if we were going to be in 4A, we’d have to go through Prairie Central. “In the past we’ve always been 4A in the regular season and then get bumped up to 5A in the playoffs. This year everything that had to go our way did for us to be 4A. Prairie Central is loaded, but we are looking forward to the challenge.” First-year Fieldcrest coach Brett Cazalet admitted he was surprised his 7-2 team received a No. 2 seed opposite 5-4 Iroquois West. “We were hoping to be a three seed, but I guess the way things fell out we caught a break,” said Cazalet. “Every team one through eight is good, but it’s nice to have a home game.” Bloomington, Central Catholic and GCMS (1A), all with 8-1 records, were awarded No. 4 seeds. BHS will entertain Ottawa (5-4), while Central Catholic is home to Stillman Valley (7-2). GCMS faces Carthage (6-3) at Gibson City. Other area teams earning playoff berths included six Heart of Illinois teams in Class 1A -- Flanagan-Woodland, Lexington, Ridgeview, Fisher, LeRoy and Tremont; Dwight in Class 3A; and Mahomet-Seymour in 4A. West, which finished with a 6-3 record and received the No. 11 seed in its bracket, will be on the road at No. 6 Oak Forest (7-2). The only other matchup pitting area teams is No. 10 Ridgeview (6-3) at No. 7 Flanagan-Woodland (7-2). The teams are among eight from the Heart of Illinois Conference to make the playoffs, but did not face each other in the regular season. This year all classes with the exception of 2A and 3A were divided into two, 16-team brackets. To reduce travel times, 2A and 3A were divided into four, eight-team quadrants. “I like the brackets better,” said Venerable, whose team won the Big 12 Conference title. “Even though we are playing a team we are familiar with in the first round, it gives teams more of an opportunity to play teams outside of their conference and area in the early rounds.” NCHS, which finished second in 6A last year, could face a somewhat familiar foe in the second round if it wins its opener. The Ironmen will face the survivor of the Morris-Joliet Catholic game. Morris defeated NCHS in last year’s state title game. “When we heard they were probably going to brackets in 6A rather than quadrants we figured the Big 12 and South Suburban conferences would be in the same bracket,” Venerable said. It took a 5-4 record and 38 points to make the playoffs. Fisher was among four teams to get in the field with 38 points. Eighteen teams with 5-4 records lacked enough points to make the playoffs. See Scoreboard for complete pairings Get area high school sports scores and statistics at Varsity Sports. E-mail this story | Print this story | Search archives | RSS Show comments |  Hide comments | Hide comments on all stories |
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to: boo hoo wrote on Oct 23, 2006 3:33 PM:
Boo Who? wrote on Oct 23, 2006 12:59 PM:
Bring it on! wrote on Oct 22, 2006 7:41 PM:
Raider fan wrote on Oct 22, 2006 5:18 PM:
BHS Fan wrote on Oct 22, 2006 12:00 PM:
Playoff Picture wrote on Oct 22, 2006 11:15 AM:
Dman wrote on Oct 22, 2006 7:16 AM:
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