2026 IHSA playoffs: Steve Soucie’s Class 2A playoff analysis and picks

Round of 32 matchupsEastland-Pearl City (5-5) at Port Byron Riverdale (9-0): Eastland-Pearl City has one of the most deceptive records in the field having cut its teeth on tough competition in the NUIC Conference and was one of multiple league teams that forced running clocks in Round 1. Top-seeded Riverdale eyes its first playoff win since 2001 and based on this year’s production its hard to believe it was winless in both the 2022 and 2023 seasons.Pick: Port Byron RiverdaleIllini West (8-2) at Peotone (7-2): Illini West didn’t lack for offensive capability in most of its games this season, but suffered inconvenient outages in each of its two losses, scoring a combined total of eight points in those games. Peotone employs a rugged run based style and has enjoyed the fruits of those labors having scored 40 or more points in five of its last six games.Pick: PeotoneBismarck-Henning (6-4) at Tri-Valley (8-1): Bismarck-Henning played eight playoff teams, scheduling two of them when other te