Here's a breakdown of every NUIC and Big Northern playoff opener, led by Le-Win and Byron

The postseason is here for three local NUIC teams and five area Big Northern Conference teams, with three-time defending Class 1A state champ Lena-Winslow, and recent 3A state champs and state runners-up Byron, poised to make another run at it.

Here is a look at the six playoff matchups that include Rockford-area teams from those two conferences on either Friday and Saturday:

More BNC, NUIC football: Find out who hit playoffs as rushing, passing and receiving leaders

CLASS 1A

No. 9 Ottawa Marquette (7-2) at No. 8 Forreston (7-2), 7 p.m. Friday

After rattling off seven straight wins to open, Forreston dropped its last two games: 6-0 to Durand/Pecatonica in a rain storm in Week 8, and 36-8 to No. 1 seed Le-Win last week. ... But led by Owen Mulder, third in the NUIC in rushing with 608 yards and 14 TDs, the Cardinals have shown they can win close games (22-21 over Gibson City Melvin-Sibley on Oct. 7) and they can steamroll teams (46-0 over West Carroll and 22-8 over Stockton in the two weeks before that). ... Forreston has four running backs that have rushed for over 200 yards and have scored. ... The Cardinals lost 38-16 to Le-Win in the 1A state semifinals last postseason, and Le-Win went on to win the state final game by 22 points over Camp Point Central. ... Ottawa Marquette, which won one playoff game and then bowed out last year, was second in the Chicagoland Prairie Conference this season, and is coming off a 27-26 win over Dwight when they stuffed a point-after run with eight seconds left.

More: Le-Win football Gage Dunker and Lena-Winslow pull away from Forreston, appear ready for playoffs

No. 16 Lutheran (5-4) at No. 1 Lena-Winslow (9-0), 2 p.m. Saturday

Le-Win is the clear favorite to go all the way and win its fourth straight 1A state title. But Lutheran gets the first shot at the Panthers, and they're excited about it: "Are we ready for Lena-Winslow? I don't know," Lutheran head coach Jeff Luedke said. "But we're excited. We're playing our best, and it could be something special, or it could be just another big win for them." ... Lutheran is led by Gavin Sanders, who has scored 18 touchdowns and has 950 yards rushing. Le-Win is led by Gage Dunker, who leads the area with 1,697 yards on the ground and 24 TDs. ... Lutheran has moved Sanders to quarterback, where he can be more of a weapon, and they won three of their last four games to get into the playoffs. ... Lutheran has one shutout, but has allowed more points (244) than it has scored (228). ... Le-Win, on the other hand, has three shutouts and four other games when they allowed one touchdown, and has scored (428) way more than it's given up (77). ... Sanders did rush for 305 yards and five touchdowns in the season opener against Winnebago, and could be an X-factor if the Crusaders can find a way to get him in space. Le-Win is fast on both sides of the ball, however.

CLASS 3A

No. 10 Monmouth-Roseville at No. 7 North Boone (6-3), 7 p.m. Friday

The Vikings of North Boone have fine-tuned their passing game of late, and QB Jack Christensen heads into the playoffs after completing 128 of his 244 passes, over 52 percent, for 1,510 yards with 19 TDs and seven interceptions. Wideout Chris Doetch has 36 catches for 452 yards with seven TDs. ... However, the Vikings started the season with a 6-0 loss to Oregon, were drubbed 69-0 by Byron in Week 4, and fell 62-34 to Dixon in the regular-season finale. They did win two games over playoff teams, however: holding off Stillman Valley 19-14 and pounding Lutheran 34-3. North Boone still averaged 28.0 points per game on the season. ... Monmouth-Roseville averaged 27.4 points per game on offense, but also gave up 28.2 points on defense. They are one of only three teams in the 3A bracket that surrendered more points than they scored this year. ... RB Payton Thompson is coming off a 174-yard, two-touchdown game in Monmouth-Roseville's 34-18 win over Sherrard in the regular-season finale.

No. 13 Stillman Valley (5-4) at No. 4 Chicago Noble/Johnson (8-1), 7 p.m. Friday

This game will be played at Gately Stadium in Chicago on Friday night, making this an even taller task for Stillman Valley. ... The Cardinals have had an up-and-down season, dropping three of their last five games, but still making it into the playoffs for the fifth straight time. ... Stillman Valley won five state titles in Mike Lalor's first 16 years as head coach, but have won nine games just twice since. ... This season the Cardinals have used five or six different ballcarriers almost every game, led by Braden Rogers who has 598 yards on the ground with 10 TDs. ... Stillman Valley lost starting quarterback Braden Engel to a season-ending injury around the midseason point. He rotated in and out as a starter last year as well. ... Chicago Noble/Johnson has five wins over playoff teams this year, and outscored teams 347-80 while winning the Chicago Public, White-Southwest Conference title. ... With a different coach every year, Chicago Noble/Johnson went 8-0 in 2019, 0-6 the next two years (one was a COVID-19-shortened season, the other time they forfeited their remaining games), and 9-0 last year, but did not play in the playoffs. This is the program's first appearance in the IHSA playoffs.

No. 16 Chicago Noble/Hansberry (5-4) at No. 1 Byron (9-0), 1 p.m. Saturday

Byron should roll here, similar to the way it rolled over all of its regular-season opponents, to the tune of outscoring their first nine foes 537-45. ... Byron is averaging 59.7 points per game on offense, which leads the state, in all classes. And it has a state-high 54.7 average margin of victory headed into the playoffs as well. ... The Tigers have often used more than 10 ballcarriers in a game, but they are led by sophomore fullback Caden Considine (810 rushing yards and 17 TDs) and Brayden Knoll (742 yards with 14 TDs). ... Byron QB Ayden Shank has proven he can throw, completing 12 of his 21 passes for 245 yards with four touchdown passes. ... And while the Noble/Hansberry Bengals have only allowed 18.1 points per game, they are averaging just 19.1 points per game on offense. They will most likely need to score a lot more than that to beat Byron.

No. 12 Oregon (5-4) at No. 5 Durand/Pecatonica (7-2), 1 p.m. Saturday

Du/Pec lost two of its last four games, but the two wins were over 6-3 Fulton (46-14) and 7-2 Forreston (6-0), and the two losses were to Le-Win (48-27) and 8-1 Belleville (Althoff Catholic). ... Du/Pec has four shutouts this season, but its offense has been its driving force, led by QB Cooper Hoffman, who leads the NUIC with 1,603 passing yards and 20 touchdown passes. ... Oregon won three of its last four to get into the playoffs for the first time since 2014. The Hawks have looked much improved all season long, even in early-season losses to Dixon (29-20) and G-K (20-14). Oregon hadn't even won more than three games in a season since 2014. Now the Hawks are led by the BNC's leading rusher, Logan Weems (1,108 yards and 16 TDs), and have a nice balance after a strong season from QB Jack Washburn (1,111 yards through the air with seven TD passes and two interceptions.)

Jay Taft is a Rockford Register Star sports reporter. Email him at jtaft@rrstar.com and follow him on Twitter at @JayTaft. Sign up for the Rockford High School newsletter at rrstar.com. Jay has covered a wide variety of sports, from the Chicago Bears to youth sports, since the turn of the century at the Register Star, and for over 30 years all together.

This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Illinois high school football playoff preview for NUIC, BNC teams