East St. Louis has earned something of a reputation as being willing to play all comers.

The Flyers have played a slate of nationally-ranked opposition for several seasons now, so now back in Illinois for the postseason, the all comers now come exclusively from the CCL/ESCC.

The remaining three schools in the 6A draw all come from that powerhouse conferences and all hope they have a shot at boosting the powerful Flyers from the field.

First up will be St. Laurence, who is trying to keep its surprising postseason run going at least one more week.

If the Flyers advance, two more CCL/ESCC teams lurk as a championship game opponent: Nazareth or Fenwick.

First round predictions: 15-1

Second round predictions: 6-2

Quarterfinal round predictions: 4-0

Semifinal round matchups

Nazareth vs. Fenwick: These two schools are separated by less than 10 miles and are members of the same conference. But despite that there’s not that long of a history of the two schools playing one another as they are in different CCL/ESCC divisions. In a bit of a surprise the two teams enter the semifinal on different planes. Fenwick has powered its way to the semifinals winning each of its games by at least 28 points, while Nazareth has labored it a bit, most notably needing a huge fourth quarter rally to dispatch Lake Zurich in the quarterfinals.

Pick: Nazareth

East St. Louis vs. St. Laurence: East St. Louis is easily the most deceptive three-loss team in the field as all of those losses came to nationally ranked out-of-state teams. Since returning to playing Illinois-based teams in the postseason they have simply dominated. St. Laurence continues to surprise opponents using a smashmouth football philosophy to try to grind opponents into submission.

Pick: East St. Louis