Darren Kinnard/River Radio Sports Central
Photos by Ryan Zeigler/Field Focus
By virtue of their 50-25 win Friday night at Edwards County, the Christopher/Zeigler-Royalton/Elverado Bearcats earned the school’s first playoff berth since 2008, and it comes in Mike Rude’s first year as the team’s head coach.
That’s a big turnaround for a team that had lost 20 in a row and 25 of its last 27 heading into the season. In fact, prior to this season, the Bearcats had gone 29-112 since that last playoff team 17 years ago.
CZRE is the 15th seed in the 16-team 3A southern bracket, drawing the two seed, undefeated Vandalia in the first round of the playoffs. The Vandals won the South Central Conference, scoring 40 or more points in eight of their nine games, with 10 points being their smallest margin of victory–28-18 at 6-3 Greenville back in week six.
The Bearcats and Vandals will kick off at 2:00 Saturday in Vandalia.
