It has been a theme all season.

Points have been scored at a rapid rate all year and nowhere was that fact more apparent than in round 1 of the IHSA playoffs.

Over 7,000, 7,019 points to be exact, were scored in the opening round’s 128 games and a wide disparity of them were scored by winning teams in a week full of runaway contests.

Winning teams scored an average of 41.1 points per game as 76 teams scored at least 40 points in their opening round playoff win, led by the high water mark of 73 points scored by Crete-Monee in its win over Quincy.

15 games saw a winning team score at least 60 points.

Defensive struggles were rare. Only 10 winners of the 128 scored less than 20 points in their victories.

Perhaps the most striking thing about all of these scoring numbers was the collective wide gap between the winning and losing teams. While winners averaged over 41 points per game, losing teams averaged just 14.

Repeat performances

There were multiple schools that were paired off with a team that they played in the regular season in Round 1.

Only one, Geneseo, was able to reverse the result of the previous meeting. Rochelle topped Geneseo all the way back in Week 1 by a 41-14 score, but a late rally gave Geneseo a 16-13 win in the rematch.

Most of the rematches netted results similar to the previous meetings.

But we did learn one thing for certain. There’s not much separating the Lyons and York football teams. Lyons toppled York 34-26 in the regular season game that wasn’t fully decided until the final 30 seconds and the Lions won the playoff matchup 24-21 on a game-winning field goal with no time remaining.

Seeds largely hold

Of the 128 opening round games, 32 lower seeded teams earned opening round victories.

That might seem like a lot, but of that group of 32 a large chunk of them fell into one of two categories.

Either the win came by a No. 9 seed beating a No. 8 seed or a No. 17 seed beating a No. 16 seed. Or the win came by a lower seed toppling a higher seeded Chicago Public League team.

15 of those lower seeded wins came from one or both of those categories.

Five Chicago Public League teams (Corliss, King, Simeon, Lane and Kenwood) won in the opening round, but all five wins came against other CPL squads.

Other CPL teams paired against non-CPL teams were 0-12 and lost by a collective margin of 606-172. Only Morgan Park, who fell 35-28 to St. Francis, played in a competitive contest against a non-CPL school.

Bizarre finish

Petersburg PORTA won its Class 3A playoff opener against Fairfield because of a 26-yard field goal as time expired to give the Bluejays a 9-8 win.

But based on video from game footage, the field goal should not have been attempted.

The PORTA quarterback accidentally kneeled on the ball with 10 seconds to play on third down. The down marker however erroneously did not change, and then the QB rushed back to the line and spiked the ball believing it was third down rather than fourth down.

Time should have expired before the spike, but there was a brief delay amid the confusion of the play sequence and after an official’s huddle, one second was left for a field goal attempt on what was actually a fifth down.

The scenario is somewhat reminiscent of a 2016 semifinal game where Plainfield North was erroneously awarded an untimed down that allowed them to kick a game winning field goal against Fenwick that sent Plainfield North to the state championship game.

Notable wins

It was already impressive that Flora earned an opening round victory over Class 2A playoff stalwart Nashville with a come-from-behind 42-39 win.

What made it more notable was the fact that is was the first ever playoff win for the Wolves after dropping games in 14 previous playoff appearances.

Chicago Corliss also joined the ranks of schools with at least one playoff victory in its history. Corliss logged a 61-0 over Lake View in a 5A opener.

There are now 52 playoff-eligible schools remaining that have never won a state playoff game.