The Road to Champaign: Saturday 10 a.m. UPDATE: Van Metre Field 's drying nicely

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Despite heavy cloud cover and some eartly morning fog, Van Metre Field should be more than playable by kickoff time at 1 p.m. The Indians host Hillsboro in the first round of the Class 3A playoffs.

Neal Toler of Illinois Wing & Rotor used a jet-propelled helicopter to hover over the playing surface for about 90 minutes Saturday, a few minutes after a tarp was removed.

The tarp has overed the middle part of the field-from goal line to line-since late Wednesday.

"The field looks to be in pretty good shape considering all the rain we've had the past week," Indians coach Al Martin said. "It drains well and we've had a lot of great help with the helicopter and the tarp."