CLASS 3A PLAYOFFS: Taking the new with the old

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ Harrisburg's Jason Roper and Eldorado's Brandon Hampton find themselves on completely opposite ends of the IHSA playoff spectrum.

Which is ironic, because heading into Saturday night, the two Saline County coaches felt like they might meet each other in what would have been this week, the first week of the 3A football playoffs.

Instead, Roper and Harrisburg will make a return trip to Mt. Carmel, where the Bulldog knocked off the Aces in Week 1 26-15.

As for Hampton, Eldorado will also be on the road, traveling to Anna-Jonesboro and taking on an Wildcat team the Eagles are unknown too.

Also new for EHS this year in the postseason is the fact they are considered a 3A ball club.

But for Hampton, it's something that he expected, but is excited to see what opportunities can be made.

"Anna-Jonesboro is a team, a program that we have a lot of respect for. As a coach, you relish the opportunity to build yourself a program like Anna has. The way the community gets behind their team. It's very much the same thing we are trying to do here at Eldorado."

Hampton said there are two train of thoughts when it comes to post season play. One of which is playing a team that you are already familiar with, such as Roper and the Bulldogs are with Mt. Carmel. But for Hampton, he likes the unknown factor. He said it, "adds to the playoff atmosphere. The only thing we know about Anna-Jonesboro is from the box score.""

Roper knows all too much about the Aces, but as the sixth year Harrisburg head coach knows, in the playoffs you're going to play Mt. Carmel at one point or another.

Mt. Carmel is 8-0 since playing Harrisburg the first week of the season.

"We know what they are going to do. They know what we're going to do. That's not just the nature of this business but when you play a team as much as we play each other. It'll be a tough ballgame and I'd like to have gotten Benton or someone we haven't played yet, but the road in the 3A playoffs always seems to go through Mt. Carmel."