Now, the unbeaten Chiefs hope to show United just how much.

No. 1 state-ranked Dee-Mack (9-0) will be at home for a first-round Class 1A playoff game against defending state champion United (5-4). Pairings were released Saturday night by the Illinois High School Association, with game dates and times to be announced Monday.

"They taught us a lot about what you have to have and what you have to do to advance in the playoffs," said McDonald, whose team is seeded first and Alexis eighth in Quadrant A. "They're a class program and we know we have our work cut out for us.

"But if they do a lot of the same things as last year, which we think they do, we at least have some familiarity with them."

Midstate Conference champion Dee-Mack was among 16 Pantagraph area teams to earn playoff berths.

Big 12 Conference co-champions Normal Community (8-1) and Bloomington (8-1) will be at home in first-round Class 6A games.

NCHS, seeded second in Quadrant D, plays host to No. 7 Rock Island (6-3), while third-seeded BHS faces Big 12 rival and sixth-seeded Champaign Centennial (6-3). The Ironmen and Purple Raiders would meet in the second round should both advance.

NCHS played at Rock Island in the 2001 playoffs, posting a 35-7 second-round win.

"I think it's kind of interesting that we drew a team not in the Big 12," Ironmen coach Hud Venerable said. "It reminds me of the way the playoffs used to be, when you opened up with somebody you hadn't seen in awhile. I like that."

BHS downed Centennial 35-14 in the season's sixth week. The Raiders are making their 19th straight playoff appearance and have finished second the past three years.

"Originally, Centennial was not one of the top two choices (from the Big 12) we thought we'd play," BHS coach Rigo Schmelzer. "But we've seen them. They know us, we know them.

"It's going to come down to just executing and not making mistakes. There will not be many surprises either way."

Normal West (6-3) joins NCHS and BHS in Quadrant D. The Wildcats are seeded fifth and play at No. 4 Peoria Richwoods (7-2).

"I think it's nice we get to play somebody new," Wildcats' coach Darren Hess said. "To play somebody the caliber of Richwoods is an outstanding opportunity to see where we're at.

"It's going to be a smashmouth type game. They run the ball very well and throw four or five times a game ... similar to us. It might be a quick game."

Central Catholic earned a No. 2 seed in Class 4A. The Saints (7-2) will be at home against Mid-Illini Conference member Illinois Valley Central (5-4), the No. 7 seed in Quadrant C.

"We held out a lot of hope (of being 3A), but we didn't know how it was going to shake out," Central Catholic coach Bobby Moews said.

"We haven't played a 3A school all year, so it's not going to be a big deal to us. We've been playing 4A and 5A teams, so we're playing where we normally play."

A win would send the Saints against a Corn Belt Conference rival. They would meet the winner of an all-Corn Belt matchup pitting No. 6 seed Rantoul (6-3) at No. 3 Prairie Central (7-2).

Corn Belt champion Mahomet-Seymour (8-1) is the No. 2 seed in Quadrant A of 4A. The Bulldogs are at home against No. 7 West Hancock (5-4).

Another Corn Belt member, Pontiac, will be at home in Class 5A. The fourth-seeded Indians (7-2) face No. 5 seed Morton (7-2), which is coached by University High and Illinois Wesleyan graduate Hal Chiodo.

There are two all-area matchups in Quadrant D of Class 1A. No. 5 Ridgeview (7-2) plays at Midstate rival and fourth-seeded Lexington (7-2), which downed the Mustangs 22-3 in the regular season.

The other features No. 6 Heyworth (6-3), making its first playoff appearance since 1993, at perennial playoff qualifier LeRoy (7-2), the No. 3 seed. Also in 1A, No. 7 Fisher (6-3) is at No. 2 Arthur-Lovington (8-1).

Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley (7-2) gained a No. 4 seed in Class 2A and will be at home against No. 5 Central A&M (7-2). No. 7 El Paso-Gridley (5-4) plays at No. 2 Aledo (8-1) in another 2A matchup.

The only area team in 3A is PBL (5-4), a No. 8 seed to play at No. 1 seed Bureau Valley (9-0).

Tri-Valley was among five teams statewide to finish 5-4 and not make the playoffs. The Vikings had 34 points to fall one shy of the cutoff.

By Ronald Blum

Associated Press

CHICAGO -- Yes, the Chicago White Sox do indeed have a bullpen, and they have the lead in the World Series, too.

Neal Cotts and Bobby Jenks got out of an eighth-inning jam, Joe Crede hit a go-ahead homer and saved two runs with a pair of diving stops and the White Sox beat the Houston Astros 5-3 on Saturday night in Chicago's first World Series game since 1959.

"They don't see the bullpen," Chicago manager Ozzie Guillen said. "Now they see it."

On a night when 43-year-old Roger Clemens hoped to become the oldest pitcher to win a World Series game, the Rocket hobbled off after just two innings, done in by the hamstring injury that has hampered him since early September.

Winner Jose Contreras allowed the Astros three runs in seven-plus innings in their first World Series game, and tied a Series record by hitting three batters.

Chicago pitched four straight complete games in finishing off the Angels in the AL championship series, a feat not achieved in the postseason since 1956. But when Willy Taveras hit a leadoff double off Contreras in the eighth with Houston trailing 4-3, manager Ozzie Guillen took him out after 81 pitches.

Cotts, a left-hander whose seven pitches and two outs was Chicago's only relief work against the Angels, came in and allowed a sharp single to left by Lance Berkman, a ball hit so hard that Taveras had to hold at third.

Cotts then struck out Morgan Ensberg and Mike Lamb, and Guillen went to his bullpen again, raising both arms high and wide to signal for the burly right-handed rookie Jenks to face Jeff Bagwell.

"I don't want to embarrass the kid, but I want the big boy," Guillen said.

Jenks didn't mind.

"I think it's pretty funny," he said.

Throwing fastballs that reached 100 mph, Jenks struck out Bagwell on a 2-2 pitch, raising his right hand and pumping a fist as he came off the mound.

"He chases fastballs up," Jenks said.

Scott Podsednik added an RBI triple in the eighth against Russ Springer to boost the margin, and Jenks retired the side in order in the ninth, striking out two.

Crede had broken a 3-3 tie in the fourth inning with a solo homer off Clemens' replacement, 26-year-old rookie Wandy Rodriguez. As the ball went just over the glove of a leaping Taveras in left-center, Crede strolled around the bases, and Chicago was truly a toddlin' town.

"You got the nerves and butterflies going in and you know what, the game starts and you calm yourself down and realize you got a job to do, and that's go out and win a ballgame," Crede said.

With the infield in, Crede sprawled to make a backhand grab on Ensberg's hard grounder with a runner at third and one out in the sixth. With runners at the corners and two outs in the seventh, he made another backhand play on Craig Biggio, in his 18th season with Houston and appearing in his first World Series game.

"They put the good wood on the ball, tough situations, and I was fortunate enough to get leather on it," Crede said.

Jermaine Dye hit a solo homer for the White Sox, and Lamb hit a solo shot for the Astros.

Chicago, which has not allowed more than four runs in any of its nine postseason games, will try to try to make it 2-0 on Sunday night, when Mark Buehrle goes against Andy Pettitte, making his 11th Series start.

Clemens became the second-oldest pitcher to start a World Series game, trailing only 46-year-old Jack Quinn for the 1929 Philadelphia Athletics. He wasn't sharp from the start, needing 54 pitches to labor through two innings, and he appeared to be limping as he left the dugout and headed down stairs back to the clubhouse after the second.

The Rocket, who signed with Houston before the 2004 to lead his hometown team to its first World Series, allowed three runs and four hits.

Rodriguez replaced him with the score 3-3 in the middle of the third. He got into a two-on, one-out jam only to escape, but threw Crede turned on a high 0-2 pitch.

Rodriguez had control problems, walking five in 3Ä innings, but that was the only run he allowed.

Houston threatened to tie it in the sixth, when Taveras doubled leading off and advanced to third on a grounder. But, with the infield in, Crede dived to his right to backhand Ensberg's hard grounder and threw to first as Taveras held, and Contreras retired Lamb on a groundout.

Contreras, Clemens' teammate on the 2003 New York Yankees, became the sixth Cuban pitcher to start a World Series game. He didn't allow a run after the third.

When the World Series was last in Chicago in 1959, box seats went for $10.31, a fraction of the $185 price this year. In a town where the Cubs usually dominate, there were "Go Sox" banners over entrances of Orchestra Hall and the Art Institute of Chicago.

A sellout crowd of 41,206 filled U.S. Cellular Field, next to where the old Comiskey Park played host to the Series 46 years ago. It was 53 degrees at game time, cold enough for commissioner Bud Selig to be wearing a scarf as he watched from his front-row seat.

Players, most of them in the Series for the first time, waved to people in the stands when they lined up on the foul lines for the introductions. Many Astros watched the early innings standing on the top step of the dugout, and Rodriguez's excitement was clear when he spiked the ball across the infield after catching a relay at first to complete a 3-6-1 double play in the fifth inning.

Dye's first-inning homer to center, which came on Clemens' ninth pitch to him, was wiped out by Lamb's second-inning homer to center.

Carl Everett singled leading off the bottom half, third on Aaron Rowand's hit-and-run single to right and scored on A.J. Pierzynski's grounder to first, waiting for Lamb to throw to second before sprinting home and scoring with a headfirst slide. Juan Uribe's run-scoring double made it 3-1, but Berkman pulled a two-run double to right in the third that made it 3-all.