IHSA football playoffs open with shutouts, narrow wins across Illinois

Class 8A winners emerge

Illinois' expanded high school football playoffs began Friday with opening-round games across Classes 1A through 8A. The Illinois High School Association's brackets recorded results ranging from one-point escapes to shutouts, while other first-weekend matchups remained scheduled for Saturday. This season's field has 384 teams, up from 256, and the leading 16 seeds in each class receive byes before joining opening-round winners in the next stage. ^{[1] [6] [7]}

In Class 8A, Chicago Lane shut out Joliet Central 56-0 and advanced to face South Elgin. Oak Park-River Forest beat East Aurora 58-7, earning a matchup with top-seeded, undefeated Lincoln-Way East. Both scores appear on the IHSA bracket and in The Telegraph's statewide Friday roundup; the bracket identifies their next opponents but had not assigned dates or times for those games as of its late-Friday update. ^{[2] [6]}

Other 8A results showed the range of Friday's games. Naperville Central held off Warren Township 18-14 and is paired with Oswego next. Marist defeated Neuqua Valley 49-28 to draw Mount Carmel, while Barrington blanked Waubonsie Valley 38-0 to move into a meeting with Sandburg. Those are opening-round outcomes, not results from the subsequent first round, which has yet to be played. ^{[2] [6]}

Close games in 7A, 4A and 2A

Class 7A produced two of the tighter finishes. Buffalo Grove beat Andrew 28-27 and is slated to face St. Rita, while Moline edged Benet Academy 42-38 and advances toward Glenbard West. Reavis also won a three-point game, 31-28 over Elgin, to reach a matchup with East St. Louis. The IHSA bracket confirms those scores and pairings; Friday's statewide list independently records the victories. ^{[3] [6]}

In Class 4A, Civic Memorial defeated Quincy Notre Dame 28-24 and will visit undefeated Centralia. Waterloo beat Taylorville 34-28 and is paired with Rochester. Metamora's 56-7 win over Marquette and Cahokia's 47-0 victory over East Peoria were more decisive. The bracket shows that several 4A opening-round games were still set for Saturday, so the Friday winners do not represent the full group moving forward. ^{[4] [6]}

Carlinville won a 35-28 game over Riverton in Class 2A and moves on to face top-seeded Johnston City. Chester defeated Trenton Wesclin 55-14 and is paired with Newton. Those matchups illustrate the expanded format: Friday's winners now meet teams that did not need to play in the opening round, while the remaining Saturday games will fill out the rest of the bracket. ^{[1] [5] [6]}

More games are still to come

Saturday's schedule includes Edwardsville against Chicago Lincoln Park in 7A and Chicago Curie against Oswego East in 8A, according to the IHSA brackets. Neither had a result on those late-Friday bracket updates. The first-round field will not be complete until the scheduled opening-round games finish and scores are recorded. Readers looking for a particular school should use the relevant class bracket rather than assume Friday's statewide roundup is final. ^{[2] [3] [6]}

The bracket structure also changes the path to a title. In Classes 1A through 6A, the top eight teams in each of two 24-team halves received byes; Classes 7A and 8A seeded 48 teams together and gave byes to seeds one through 16. Championship games are scheduled for Nov. 27-28 at Hancock Stadium in Normal. For now, Friday's confirmed scores establish only the first group of teams through the new opening round. ^{[1] [7]}