By Con Marshall
Ten football teams from the Panhandle have qualified for the first round of the state playoffs that will begin Friday.
One of the games will be at Chadron’s Cardinal Field, where the Red Birds will host Lincoln Christian in Class C-1 action starting at 4 p.m. Both teams are 7-2. The Cardinals feature the leading rusher in Class C-1 while the Crusaders feature the second leading rusher in Asa Wegrzyn. The winner will advance in the second round a week later to meet the winner of the Sidney-Omaha Roncalli game that will kicking off at the same time Friday in Sidney.
Since Sidney is 9-0 and the No. 1 Class C-1 seed and ranked third by the Lincoln Journal Star, and Roncalli is 5-4 and the No. 16 seed, expectations are that the Red Raiders will advance to the second round.
Another first-round game in the northern Panhandle will be in Hay Springs, where the 8-0 Hawks will host the 4-4 Sioux County Warriors in 6-man action. Hay Spring won 69-19 when those teams met on Sept. 27. After overwhelming previously undefeated Arthur County 60-14 in their season finale, the Hawks have moved to No. 2 in the Journal Star’s 6-man rankings.
This year’s playoff game has an advantage for the Warriors from Harrison. Last year they had to travel 536 miles to play at Pawnee City for the opening round contest.
Two more 6-man playoff games are set for Friday in the Panhandle. Undefeated and highly regarded Garden County at Oshkosh (6th in the rankings) will host the 5-3 Southwest Roughriders from Bartley, and the Leyton Warriors will greet the Diller-Odell Griffins in Dalton. Both of the latter teams are 6-2. Leyton is ninth in the latest rankings.
In addition, Potter-Dix, which is 5-3, will visit the Red Cloud Warriors, who are 7-1 after losing for the first time last Friday night to undefeated Pawnee City. Red Cloud is 7th among seventh in the LJS rankings this week.
There’s an oddity in the first round of the Class B playoff pairings. Both Gretna High and Gretna East will be playing in the Panhandle’s Twin Cities. Gretna High will tangle with Scottsbluff and East will visit Gering. Both Gretna teams have 5-4 records. Scottsbluff is 8-1 and Gering is 6-3. When the two Gretna teams played this fall, East won 23-20.
The Scottsbluff Bearcats are fifth in the Journal Star’s Class B rankings. Greta East (Griffins) is eighth and plain Gretna (Dragons) is 10th.
Another unusual occurrence has Valentine hosting Kearney Catholic in the C-2 first round. Those teams also played in the Heart City last Friday night with the Badgers winning 20-14. Valentine has won seven games in a row since falling to Chadron 43-6 on Sept. 6. The Badgers are ninth in the LJS rankings.
Remaining games involving teams from the West have 5-4 Mitchell playing at Malcolm, which is 7-2, in Class C-2 action, and 7-2 Bridgeport visiting North Platte St. Pat’s. which is 8-1 in a D-1 8-man encounter. The Irish beat the Purple Bulldogs 21-8 when they met in this year’s season-opener. Malcolm is sixth and St. Pat’s is fourth in the latest top 10 ranking.
