Published on October 17, 2026 9:58 pm
Last Updated on October 17, 2026 9:58 pm
Effingham High School will travel to Decatur MacArthur for the first round of the Class 4A IHSA football playoffs.
Full playoff pairings are available on the IHSA website, which indicates the game will take place Saturday at a yet-to-be-determined time in Decatur.
The Generals (7-2) will enter postseason play coming off a 49-6 road loss at Jacksonville; their only other loss was Week 4 against Rochester by a 50-20 margin. Both teams to knock off MacArthur ended the regular season 8-1 and received first-round byes in the 4A bracket.
The only common opponent between Effingham and MacArthur is Mattoon; the Green Wave hosted the Generals in the opening week of the season and lost 48-0. Effingham defeated Mattoon 14-12 last week.
A 2-7 regular season record paired with more playoff points than any other school in the 4A field was just enough to get the Flaming Hearts into IHSA’s newly expanded playoff format; it was announced prior to the school year that an additional 128 teams across the state would make the postseason field, meaning each of the eight classes now features 48 playoff teams instead of the traditional number of 32. The top eight seeds on each side of the bracket get to lay out a week while the rest of the teams in the field begin duking it out this weekend.
Effingham is the No. 24 seed on its side of the bracket, the lowest available. MacArthur is a No. 9, the highest seed to have to play an opening-round game. Whoever comes out of Saturday’s game in Decatur will advance to travel to No. 8 Mt. Zion the following week with No. 1 Centralia most likely waiting another week down the road.
This story will be updated once a game time is decided upon between the two schools. Whenever kickoff might be, you’ll hear it right here on Your Home for Hearts Football, 979 XFM.