Round one of the Illinois High School Association football playoffs brought plenty of excitement to the Carbondale area. These games ended the football careers of some young men, while others remain alive to fight for the right to play another week.

Anna-Jonesboro High School and Murphysboro High School were the first two area teams to bow out of the playoffs after receiving difficult opening-round draws.

After sneaking into the Class 3A postseason field at 5-4, Anna-Jonesboro ran into a buzzsaw in Mt. Carmel High School. Sophomore Trevor Kennard ran for 235 yards to help the Aces to a 48-7 home win. Mt. Carmel travels to Nashville for its second-round game.

Murphysboro, which finished the regular season 7-2 and made the playoffs for the first time in 18 years, fell to one-loss Herrin High School in the first round of the Class 4A playoffs.

The Red Devils and Tigers fought to a scoreless draw in the first quarter, but from the 2^nd quarter on it was all Herrin. Senior Chase Merrill led the Tigers with 201 yards, and senior Brent Milner added 136 of his own en route to a 56-21 win.

“We couldn’t stop their running game,” Murphysboro head coach Gary Carter said. “The only way we were stopped offensively was we stopped ourselves.”

Herrin will travel to Lindenwood University to take on Belleville Althoff Catholic High School for its second round game Saturday at 7 p.m.

In contrast to Herrin’s ground’n’pound style of football with which it threw one pass for two yards against Murphysboro, the Crusaders embrace the passing game.

Junior quarterback Jordan Augustine threw for 210 yards and a touchdown in his team’s 41-38 comeback win over Columbia High School last week.

Augustine’s top targets are sophomore wide receivers Jordan Goodwin and Charles Coldon.

Althoff went 6-3 in the regular season despite being outscored by an average of 3.9 points per game. The Crusaders are in the postseason for the fourth consecutive year. Althoff is 7-2 in playoff games since 2012.

Also in Class 4A, undefeated Carterville held off Breese Mater Dei High School last week to advance to the second round for the third time in four years.

The Lions never trailed but were not assured of a victory until a Knights’ dive play on 4^th and 1 failed with under a minute to go.

As a reward for its efforts, Carterville will travel to Roxana High School for its second-round game Saturday at 1 p.m.

Roxana enters the game fresh off a 47-21 first-round thumping of Freeburg. Senior Seth Chester led the Shells with 170 rushing yards and two touchdowns.

Roxana’s ground game has been its calling card all season. Senior fullback Logan Reardon leads the Shells with 1,603 yards and 22 touchdowns on the ground, and junior Blake Vandiver has 1,142 yards and 15 scores of his own.

On defense, freshman defensive end Jordan Hawkins leads the Shells with 10 sacks in the regular season. Against Freeburg, he added a sack and tied for the team lead with 11 tackles.

Roxana is in the playoffs for the first time since 2003. This is also the Shells’ first winning season in that span.

In Class 5A, Marion High School advanced after a 41-7 drubbing of Waterloo High School. Marion has reeled off eight wins in a row since starting the season 0-2.

Head coach Kerry Martin said he saw an improvement in the way his team practiced after losing its first two games.

“I think we got more consistent,” Martin The first two games were against good opponents, and they probably made us better, even though it didn’t seem like it.”

About nine minutes into the game, Waterloo cut the Wildcats’ lead to 8-7. That was as close as the game would get as Marion finished the game by scoring 33 unanswered points.

The Wildcats’ next game will be their toughest test of the year. Marion will travel to Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin High School to take on the defending 5A state champions Saturday at 2 p.m.

SH-G is making its 15^th straight postseason appearance and has won 24 straight games. The Cyclones are looking for their fifth state title in 10 years.

Senior quarterback Gabe Green threw for 1995 yards and 28 touchdowns in the regular season. Only one of his 135 pass attempts was intercepted. Green is committed to Southern Mississippi.

In the Cyclones’ first-round game, Green threw for only 96 yards, allowing the ground game to run up the score on Jerseyville High School in a 49-7 blowout win.

Sacred Heart Griffin head coach Ken Leonard likes to employ trickery in his offense, sometimes splitting linemen out wide to block on screen passes.

“They’re the real deal,” Martin said. “They’re a great football team. It’ll be our toughest test of the year, no doubt.”

In Class 2A, Johnston City High School continued a rather quietly excellent season, knocking off Black Diamond Conference rival Eldorado High School 28-20.

The Indians made use of the power run game to wear down the Eagles. Junior running backs Austin Thompson, Nick Summers and Nico Gualdoni contributed to the run game, and 6’5” senior tight end Brandon Brunk provided a nice option through the air when Johnston City went to the air.

Up next for the Indians is another Black Diamond rival in Chester High School. The Yellow Jackets defeated Carmi-White County High School, yet another Black Diamond School, in the first round.

Chester knocked off the Bulldogs 21-8 to set up a showdown between one-loss teams. The Indians handed the Yellow Jackets their only loss of the regular season in week five at Johnston City.

Chester utilizes a balanced offensive attack that saw five Yellow Jackets run for more than 100 yards and five more who recorded more than 100 receiving yards.

Senior Blake Eggemeyer led Chester’s ground game with 769 yards and 16 touchdowns in the regular season. Junior Jordan Berner paced the receiving corps with 559 yards and 7 scores.

This weekend’s rematch will also be at Johnston City on Saturday at 2 p.m. Chester will look for different results this weekend.

“I feel like we did not play a very good game, and they played an outstanding game,” Chester head coach Bryan Lee said. “So we just feel like we’re going to take a shot at some retribution. We’ve got a chance to do a better job than we did.”

Thomas can be reached at [email protected] and on Twitter @tdonleyde