Throughout the weekend, Illinois high school football fans talked about the madness of Springfield High School's 94-72 defeat of Rock Island in the first round of the Illinois High School Association playoffs.   

The ninth-seeded senator (7-3) has not looked back, even with many fans. They have turned their attention to the number one and undefeated Remont. Springfield High School supporters may remember that Lemont ended the Senators' final playoff hope with a 52-14 victory in the first round of the 2019 6A playoffs.  

"We celebrate after the game, and then when Monday arrives, we restart the game plan," said SHS top receiver and senior receiver Mitchell Logan. 

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But there are key differences, and the senator thinks these may work in their favor: Springfield High School now believes it can win the playoffs after last week, quarterback Rashard Rochelle is a senior, he has Dedicated to Rutgers University, not a sophomore starting sophomore.  

Moreover, some players said that there are similarities between Rock Island and Lemont.  

"(Like Rock Island, Lemont owns) a good running game; their running backs are actually very good," said senior safety and receiver Antwione Alwerdt. "But as long as we reduce the defense to a running game, we should be fine." 

After Friday's victory, head coach Roy Gulli said that the biggest challenge in the game was to allow fourth-year quarterback Rachad Rochelle-known by many as a train-to play his role freely.

Although the game plan for this week's game initially had more scripts, Rochelle said that if Gouli asked him to freestyle again, he would be ready. 

"Many times, when things don’t follow your way, you will become nervous, but when the leader tells you,'Do what you should do', the pressure on my back will be relieved and I can go out. Play loosely," Rochelle said.  

"Sometimes when I'm on the field, I have a different perspective from the coaching staff, so I can look at things in a different way, so just know that I have power, and if I see something, I really think I can pitch or change I have that power in the game, and it feels good. 

"If I see something that I think can make the team better and score touchdowns, I will definitely do it." 

The last time Springfield High School held a playoff game was in 2010, and the Senators won a game in the playoffs for the last time that year.

Those were the five seasons before Roy Gully was hired by Springfield High School in 2015. And it may appear in the soundtrack of the Friday Memorial Stadium-Flo Rida's arena national anthem "My House"-which is five years away from being popular.

More: "Ultimate Warrior": Rutgers University quarterback left an indelible mark on Springfield High School

Rochester entered the Central Eight Major Leagues in 2010 and won the league title from longtime champion Sacred Heart Griffin in November of the same year, and won the first of eight state championships in 10 seasons.  

Also in 2010, the Chicago Blackhawks won the first Stanley Cup since 1961, opening a span of three championships in six seasons.  

All this is due to madness, this is the highest-scoring game in Illinois playoff history, with a total score of 166 points.  

Springfield High School trailed 21-6 at the end of the first quarter, but the Senators led the Rocks 36-14 in the second quarter, leading 42-35 at halftime.

Although Springfield High School's defensive players admit that they will not have many defensive highlights in their online profile during the game, the Senators do need to stop at a critical moment to get back into the game and take the lead.

More: Springfield High School, Rock Island set a playoff record in a wild first-round shootout

"But thanks to defense: we had bad times and good times," Alwerdt said. "They must have appeared, made some mistakes, passed the ball to the attacking side (and) we can provide it." 

Center linebacker Nolan Kulavic quickly tried to give most of the credit to the offense.  

Scores and schedule: Where and when the Springfield area teams play in the IHSA football playoffs

"We have to play some games," Kulavic said. "We didn't play the greatest game, but it was mainly due to offense; they played a great game and saved our season." 

But Kulavic also said that knowing that the offense can reach that level will help reduce some of the pressure on the defense.  

"When you have such a strong firepower on the offensive end, you don't really worry about how much the opposing team scores, you just want to stop as much as possible," Kulavic said. 

The Rock Island game was the first playoff game after SHS ran back to Tyree Coleman to spend his first two seasons in the Southeast. And he saved the best game of his career when he made his debut. He scored 255 yards and 4 touchdowns in 26 attacks. He also got his fifth TD kick-off return.  

He said he left it all on the court-not just in a metaphorical sense.  

"I was vomiting on the court-I was really tired," Coleman said, "but on Monday, we must resume work immediately, not stop, step on (metal) and work with the coach." 

Coleman said he has more places-to behave wisely, but hopefully no vomiting. 

"I still have a lot of things in my fuel tank, I just need to continue working, the team must continue to advance, I think we can go very far," Coleman said.  

Contact Ryan Mahan: 857-246-9756, ryan.mahan@sj-r.com, Twitter.com/RyanMahanSJR.