For Tyrone, Bellwood-Antis and a host of other teams privileged to win enough games to get enough seeding points, the regular season is over and the district playoffs are set to begin this weekend. For some of the classifications, it’s a case of the usual suspects. For some, it’s the first time in a while that we have seen the names of their schools in the playoffs.
Defending District Vi champs Tyrone and Bellwood-Antis are back in the playoffs. Tyrone (9-0), the two-time defending District VI-AA champion is the top seed with 1,340 points, well ahead of number two seed Forest Hills (8-1) with 1,060.
The Golden Eagles will host number eight seed Penn Cambria (6-3), from Section I of the Laurel Highlands Conference, at Gray-Veterans Memorial Field on Friday night. Westmont-Hilltop (6-3), the number seven seed will travel to Forest Hills in the other Friday night contest in Double-A.
On Saturday night, Chestnut Ridge (8-1), the number three seed, will host number six seed Marion Center (7-2), and number four seed Bedford (7-2) will host number five seed Bishop McCort (7-2).
Bellwood-Antis (8-1), the defending District VI-A champ and number three seed, will play a Saturday night game at Bellwood Memorial Stadium, against number six seed Juniata Valley (8-1), in a rematch of the 2004 semifinal round game. The Blue Devils are the ICC Nittany champs and finished second to Tyrone in the MAFC Nittany Division, while Juniata Valley won the ICC Mountain Division.
Top seed Bishop Carroll (9-0) will play number eight seed Conemaugh Valley (7-2) at the Penn Cambria Athletic Field in Cresson, and number two seed Portage (9-0) will host United (7-2), the number seven seed on Friday night in Class-A action.
On Saturday night in class-A, the other quarterfinal game matches Blairsville (8-1) at Southern Huntingdon (8-1). These two teams finished in a dead heat with 1,120 seeding points, but the Bellwood-Antis win over Bishop Guilfoyle on Saturday night gave Southern Huntingdon the edge in the tiebreaker-opponents winning percentage and a home game in round one.
In Triple-A semifinals, Johnstown (4-5) the number four seed travels to top seed Bellefonte (8-1) and on Saturday, number two seed Huntingdon (7-2) puts out the welcome mat for number three seed Lewistown (5-4), who finished above the .500 mark at the end of the regular season for the first time in 30 years.
The Quad-A teams still have a week to go in the regular season before beginning their playoffs.
In District Five playoff action, Tussey Mountain (3-6), winless in 2004, collected the number six seed in District 5-A and will travel to number three seed Northern Bedford (6-3) on Friday night and number four seed Meyersdale will host number five seed Berlin-Brothersvalley (4-5) on Saturday.
Of the playoff teams, Tyrone, Huntingdon, Lewistown, Bellefonte and Bellwood-Antis are members of the Mountain Athletic Football Conference, while B-A, Chestnut Ridge, Juniata Valley, Southern Huntingdon, Tussey Mountain and Northern Bedford are members of the Inter-County Conference. Portage, Conemaugh Valley, Berlin Brothersvalley and Meyersdale are members of the WESTPAC Conference. Bishop Carroll, Bishop McCort, Westmont-Hilltop and Johnstown are members of Laurel Highlands Section II and Forest Hills, Penn Cambria and Bedford are members of Section I in the Laurel Highlands Conference. Blairsville, Marion Center and United are members of the Heritage Conference.
