IHSA football playoff pairings: Central earns No. 1 seed in Class 1A, QND receives home game to open Class 4A bracket

QUINCY — Dylan Dickhut’s historical research uncovered a unique fact about the Central football program.

The Panthers have never been a No. 1 seed in a playoff bracket, not even when finishing the regular season undefeated.

Saturday night, history changed.

Central drew the No. 1 seed in the Class 1A south bracket according to the postseason pairings released by the Illinois High School Association during a live television broadcast. The Panthers (8-1) will face 16th-seeded Villa Grove (5-4) in next weekend’s first round.

Game dates and times will be officially released by the IHSA on Monday, but the state association is encouraging teams to play Friday night to help officials avoid an overlap with college assignments.

“We had a couple of undefeated teams that didn’t end up on the No. 1 line, so it’s pretty awesome,” Central coach Brad Dixon said. “That’s all you can do. You can’t worry about the team before you if they were home or away. If you’re the No. 1 seed, when everything else is even, you get to host the game.

“That’s what we wanted, and that’s what we get to do.”

The Panthers are one of four area teams to earn playoff bids — Quincy Notre Dame in Class 4A, Unity-Payson in Class 2A and Brown County in Class 1A are the others — and one of two to earn a first-round home game.

Even though they finished the regular season at 6-3, which most seasons means a road trip for the playoff opener, the Raiders will start at Advance Physical Therapy Field as the sixth seed in the south bracket and face 11th-seeded Bethalto Civic Memorial.

The teams have agreed to play at 7 p.m. Friday.

“We didn’t think it was going to be a possibility, but it turned out there was a slim chance,” QND coach Jack Cornell said. “I’m glad to be playing at home.”

After suffering three straight losses to teams that finished the regular season with a combined record of 25-2, the Raiders won their final two games, including beating Alton Marquette 51-6 Friday night.

“We’re getting healthy, which is key,” Cornell said. “We’re getting more guys on the field. (Friday) night was the perfect kind of game to lead us into the postseason, and we’ll see if we can keep it going.”

How far the Raiders go will depend on how the bracket shakes out. Looming as a potential second-round opponent is Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin, which is coached by the winningest coach in Illinois high school history in Ken Leonard. The top-seeded team in the bottom half of the bracket is Rochester, which has won seven state titles.

“Not to mention all the other juggernauts in there,” Cornell said. “I don’t know if there is a more stacked class in the state.”

It will take playing big-boy football to survive.

“It’s a good thing we’ve been playing big-boy football ever since I got here as head coach,” Cornell said.

In Class 2A, Unity-Payson drew the 11th seed at 6-3 and will travel to sixth-seeded Nashville (8-1). The Mustangs beat Winchester West Central 32-29 on Friday night to improve their playoff seed and draw. That came a week after losing to Carrollton, which is the No. 1-ranked team in the Class 1A state poll and a No. 2 seed in its bracket.

“It helps get us ready for the playoffs,” first-year Unity coach Matt Woodworth said. “The defense is playing real well. Offensively, we’ve been fairly balanced, and I don’t think we’ve hit our stride yet there. We have good moments and bad moments, but we keep getting better every week.”

Woodworth said the Mustangs have to focus on themselves as much as they do the Hornets this week.

“We have some things we need to clean up, some mental mistakes that sort of slowed us down offensively,” Woodworth said. “I’ve been telling the boys for a while now, if we can take care of our mistakes, some penalties and stuff like that, we’d be a very dangerous team.”

Brown County struggled as much as any playoff team down the stretch, losing four of its last five games, but a senior-laden lineup makes the Hornets dangerous. They are the 13th seed in the Class 1A south bracket and travel to fourth-seeded Toledo Cumberland (8-1) for the opener.