Orion football coach Chip Filler looks at the familiar names in this year's Illinois Class 2A lower bracket and cannot help but feel a sense of pride.

"This area is just filled with good football," the first-year Chargers head coach said of a 16-team bracket that includes six teams from the Quad-Cities region and another three who vie in Q-C area conferences. "I'm proud to say we're part of it really.

"You get put in the class of the Morrisons, the Stark Counties, who we get to play on Saturday, the Mercer Counties ... to be mentioned in that caliber and that class is pretty impressive for us. We're happy and excited about that."

Morrison coach Cory Bielema is pleased to see a bevy of Big Rivers Conference mates join his unbeaten Mustangs in the playoffs. But he also is happy to find his top-seeded crew parked away from the Q-C crowd in the bracket's upper quadrant.

Two of the Mustangs' past three postseason openers were against Big Rivers opponents. En route to the state semifinals in 2006, Morrison dispatched league foes in each of the first two rounds.

"It's a little disappointing to have to play a conference opponent in the first round," Bielema said. "You don't really get to feel that playoff atmosphere. It may seem like a Week 10 game instead."

If the unbeaten Mustangs continue to advance, familiar foes almost certainly await, however. The crowd of 2A Q-C contenders in the lower quadrant almost assures a quarterfinal clash of local titans.

If seeds hold, that contender would find the Mustangs waiting for a semifinal match.

One thing's certain, Filler said. The bracket is budget friendly.

"As long as you're lucky enough to keep winning," he said, "you know you don't have too big a travel."