Prairie Central head football coach Andrew Quain is looking past his team’s 51-8 victory over Paxton-Buckley-Loda in week six of the regular season and is instead focused on battling the team again in the playoffs.
Quain is treating the game against the Panthers at Paxton a few weeks ago as last season.
“We are in the postseason now so it’s a whole new ballgame here,” Coach Quain told Fairbury News on Monday.
The Hawks were able to secure the number one seed in the 3A south bracket and face PBL at home this Friday night at 7, a game we will broadcast on Fairbury News with audio only. The quadrant they are in has several Illini Prairie opponents like Monticello and Tolono Unity, meaning they are potential opponents down the road.
“We like our chances,” admits Quain. “There are some teams in the south we just don’t have a lot of familiarity with.”
While PC’s focus is getting a win in week one of the playoffs, the bigger goal is to win five games and make it down to Champaign in November.
“You’ve seen it in years past where you beat a team and see them again later on and the other team wins,” notes Quain.
Quain feels good about playing at home this week as the crowd was excellent last Friday on Senior Night against Central Catholic. This provides a fun playoff atmosphere as PBL is expected to bring a decent crowd to Fairbury as well.
It is a nice to have a familiar opponent from a preparation standpoint.
“You can’t just go into the week with the exact same game plan to we are definitely finding some ways to make tweaks to what we are doing.”
Jeff Curl and Joel Swanson will be the broadcast team calling Friday night’s action from Lewis Field on Fairbury News Facebook at 7 p.m. Our coverage will be audio only with no video, per IHSA rules and NFHS rights to postseason videos. Fairbury News is your home for Prairie Central Hawk football.
