Sports

 

 

Sunday, October 27, 2002

Four area teams top quadrant seeds

BLOOMINGTON -- Four teams from The Pantagraph area earned No. 1 seeds in their respective quadrants for the Illinois High School Association football playoffs, which begin Friday, as the pairings were unveiled Saturday night.

Leading the way are undefeated Bloomington (Class 6A), Tremont (2A) and LeRoy (1A). Pontiac, which has an 8-1 record, also earned a top seed in Class 5A.

Game dates and times will be announced Monday by the IHSA.

Pontiac is among four area teams which will play opponents from its conference. Pontiac plays host to Corn Belt foe Olympia (5-4) in its first-round game. The Indians defeated the Spartans, 47-7, during the regular season.

Other conference first-round matches find Urbana at Normal Community; Morton at Canton; and Danville Schlarman at LeRoy. Morton eased past Canton, 31-26, during the regular season while LeRoy shut out Schlarman, 34-0.

NCHS, which has an 8-1 record and earned the No. 2 seed in Class 6A, opened the season with a 49-14 victory over Urbana. NCHS and BHS could meet in the third round.

In all, 19 teams from The Pantagraph area made the 256-team, eight-class field. Only two teams state-wide, which earned five wins, did not make the playoffs.

Teams which did not win their conference needed at least 29 points (number of victories by opponents) to earn an at-large berth.

Area teams securing home-field advantage in the first round were BHS, NCHS, Pontiac, Mahomet-Seymour, Metamora, Morton, Tremont, Deer Creek-Mackinaw, LeRoy, Ridgeview and El Paso.