Both Pinckneyville and Red Bud will take to the road for the first round of the football state playoffs Saturday.
Pinckneyville (7-2) was given the 11 seed in the south zone of Class 2A and will travel over four hours to take on the six-seed Bismarck-Henning (8-1) Saturday at 2 p.m. Bismarck-Henning is located northwest of Danville.
“Bismarck is very similar to us,” said Pinckneyville coach Tod Rushing. “They are a run-oriented team and they have good size. They also use multiple offense and will be looking to pound us with their running game. We can’t let the long bus trip get to us. We have to stay focused and limit turnovers. If we can do that, it should be a good game.”
Red Bud (6-3) is the six-seed in its Class 3A quadrant and will travel to take on Benton (7-2) the three-seed Saturday at 3 p.m.
“Benton has an explosive offense and statistically very similar to us,” said Red Bud coach Dave Lucht. “They have a quarterback that is very mobile, and the team has decent size. Benton has good depth and a very solid defense. For us to win, our defense has to step up and play like they did against Breeze Central. We have to stay focused, we don’t have a lot of wiggle room for mistakes in this game.”