One quick look at the bracket on pairings night showed the potential for some titanic matchups as early as Round 2.

And after one week of the playoffs, that’s exactly what materialized.

All seven undefeated teams won in the first round, only two underseeded teams claimed victory and both were nine seeds over eight seeds. And both of those nine seeds (Tri-Valley and Maroa-Forsyth) are programs that have made more than their fair share of postseason noise in the past.

Collectively the 16 teams remaining in Class 2A have a combined record of 147-13.

First round predictions: 15-1

Second-round matchups

Rockridge vs. Tri-Valley: Rockridge made quick work of some pretty good teams in the Three Rivers Conference, besting both Monmouth and Newman Central Catholic by comfortable margins. Tri-Valley looked like a lesser version of its previous self when it found itself at 3-2, but the Vikings have looked sound during their current four-game winning streak.

Pick: Rockridge

Seneca vs. Wilmington: These two teams used to meet annually when both were members of the former Interstate Eight Conference (now the Illinois Central Eight) and Wilmington routinely had Seneca’s number. They’ve also been a more recent thorn in the Fighting Irish side; Seneca won a regular-season meeting between the two schools in 2023, before Wilmington bounced them out of the playoffs in the quarterfinals later in the year. Both of these two teams love to utilize a power running game and this might be one of quicker contested playoff games in IHSA history.

Pick: Wilmington

El Paso-Gridley vs. Newman Central Catholic: El-Paso Gridley took things up a notch and blasted its way to an undefeated regular season. The Titans wasted no time putting away Chicago Marshall in the opening round of the playoffs, either. But this might be the first time they’ve seen a top-notch caliber defense all season and it will be interesting to see how it responds to that challenge. Newman Central Catholic has stormed its way to a number of victories, but really got wiped out in its two losses.

Pick: El Paso-Gridley

Farmington vs. Aurora Christian: Farmington escaped in the first round with a late-game field goal to dispatch Eastland-Pearl City. It was the kind of contest that could have easily gone wrong on the Farmers so with renewed focus they have to now challenge a sneaky good Aurora Christian team that like Farmington typically has no trouble posting points. The Eagles have scored 40-plus points in all but two of their games and even did so in one of their losses, a narrow 45-42 decision they lost at the hands of undefeated Bishop McNamara.

Pick: Aurora Christian

Johnston City vs. Maroa-Forsyth: Johnston City flirted with disaster in its opening round playoff matchup with Wesclin, but eventually regrouped to pick up the victory. The Indians likely won’t have the luxury of starting slowly against Maroa-Forsyth, because despite its two losses remains one of the most dangerous teams on the south side of the 2A bracket.

Pick: Maroa-Forsyth

Flora vs. Pana: Flora ousted 2A postseason stalwart Nashville in the first round, something that’s been difficult for a lot of programs to do in recent seasons, but the win was even more impressive considering it was Flora’s first win in 15 tries in the postseason. Pana has been relentlessly attacking scoreboards all season and had put up 60-plus points in three of its last four regular-season games before overwhelming Bismarck-Henning in the first round of the playoffs.

Pick: Pana

Westville vs. DuQuoin: Westville decided it enjoyed scoring points so much during the regular season, they posted over 500 of them, that they would carry that over into the postseason rolling Shelbyville in the first round. DuQuoin does seem to possess a pretty strong defense and has utilized that to its advantage but the Indians might be hard pressed to keep this Westville offensive attack in check.

Pick: Westville

Arthur vs. Cumberland: Cumberland was one of just two opponents to play remotely close games with the Arthur over the course of the Lincoln Trail Conference regular season as Arthur claimed a 35-20 victory back in Week 3. It was one of just three times all season Arthur has been held under 40 points. Cumberland’s defense has served as its anchor for most of the year and it will have to be better than it was in the first meeting.

Pick: Arthur