Six Carbondale area high school football teams made the Illinois High School Association playoffs this year, but just two remain.

The third installment of the IHSA playoffs brings the Carbondale area one game this weekend. However, that one game may just be the most anticipated matchup of the year.

Carterville High School (11-0) will host Herrin High School (10-1) at 1 p.m. Saturday in the quarterfinal round. Despite both playing in the Southern Illinois River to River Conference, the two schools have not met on the gridiron in 18 years.

Anticipation for the game is high on both sides.

“It’s two communities that are tradition-rich football towns,” Herrin head coach Jason Karnes said. “That puts a little extra on it, but it’s also a big quarterfinal football game.”

Just six miles separate Herrin and Carterville. Carterville senior linebacker Nathan Lieber said that proximity adds to the excitement.

“It definitely makes it more exciting,” Lieber said. “We know most of the Herrin players, and they know us. It definitely ramps it up a bit. We know it’s going to be really crowded and a good atmosphere.”

Carterville advanced to the quarterfinals on the strength of a 49-22 victory at Roxana High School. The Lions utilized 153 rushing yards and 3 touchdowns from senior Brayden Bisaillon to notch their 11^th straight win.

The Shells fumbled four times in that game.

Junior quarterback Blake Hicks ran for 82 yards and 2 touchdowns and threw 2 touchdowns to junior Austin Swalls.

Herrin’s road to the quarterfinals was much rockier. The Tigers’ second-round game against Belleville Althoff Catholic High School went down to the wire.

With the score tied at 14 with 43 seconds left, senior standout fullback Brent Milner blocked an Althoff punt. Milner then scored the game-winning touchdown to give Herrin a 21-14 win and its first quarterfinal berth since 2004.

The Carterville-Herrin quarterfinal game features two solid defenses. Herrin has not allowed more than 30 points in any game and has held four opponents under 10 points, including a shutout of Breese Central High School on Oct. 24.

Carterville has 2 shutouts this fall and only allowed one team to score more than 28 points.

Offensively between the two teams, four backs with over 1,000 rushing yards will take the field. Milner and senior running back Chase Merrill of Herrin and Carterville’s Bisaillon and Hicks have each surpassed the milestone. It was the second straight 1,000-yard season for Milner and Merril.

Although the fall weather and the extended football season have combined to turn nearly the entire football field at Herrin’s Harrison Bruce Sports Complex brown, Karnes said he would not mind playing and practicing on it for another week or two.

“Any football field, if you can keep playing on it, you keep playing on it,” Karnes said. “It’s grass. It’s tough. We have a great field. Mike Lentz and our maintenance department do a great job. Hopefully we’ll get another opportunity to play on it.”

The deeper into November each team plays, the colder the weather gets. Carterville head coach Dennis Drust said the cold has not negatively affected practices.

“The kids have been handling it well,” Drust said. “We’ve acclimated ourselves to it, and the kids know what it’s going to be like.”

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