We're Baa-aack!

With all of the small schools joining the 8-Man football format, the IHSA 1A playoffs grew considerably ... "bigger". Teams like Athens, Moweaqua Central and Carrollton – schools that would have been in 2A, suddenly got bumped down to fill up the 1A playoffs.

"Yeah, it's going to be a lot tougher in the playoffs this season," Panther head coach Ric Arand said back in August when explaining how the bigger schools would now be in their way.

The first such opponent – Ridgeview/Lexington – came to Lena for the 1A semi-finals Saturday afternoon, and any question of how the Panthers "were...