Playoff pairings in place
The playoff brackets are set, and we now know all of the pairings for the regions that include the four local teams that qualified for the postseason: Boyle County, Danville, Garrard County and Mercer County.
Here are the first-round matchups in those regions, listed in bracket order:
Class 2A, Region 2
- Fort Knox (4) at Monroe County (1)
- Metcalfe County (3) at Bardstown (2)
- Washington County (3) at Green County (2)
- Glasgow (4) at Danville (1)
Class 3A, Region 3
- Powell County (4) at Taylor County (1)
- Somerset (3) at Estill County (2)
- Harlan County (3) at Wayne County (2)
- Garrard County (4) at Breathitt County (1)
Class 4A, Region 3
- West Jessamine (4) at Harrison County (1)
- Bourbon County (3) at Lexington Catholic (2)
- East Jessamine (3) at Franklin County (2)
- Pendleton County (4) at Boyle County (1)
Class 5A, Region 4
- Perry County Central (4) at Mercer County (1)
- Southwestern (3) at Letcher County Central (2)
- Clay County (3) at Pulaski County (2)
- South Laurel (4) at Whitley County (1)
They aren’t posted as of this writing, but you should be able to find the statewide brackets sometime over the weekend on Playoff brackets have been now been posted on this KHSAA page, and here are some interesting nuggets relating to the brackets of local interest:
- Both Boyle and Danville will face winless teams in the first round. Boyle, which just completed its first undefeated regular season since 2003, plays a Pendleton team that wrapped up its schedule with a 31-14 loss to Louisville Christian and lost 49-28 at Garrard a week earlier. Danville, which had an open date in week 11, plays a Glasgow team that finished its schedule with a 40-8 loss to Campbellsville, a team that Danville defeated 35-20. Both Glasgow and Pendleton have given up 40 or more points in five of their 10 games.
- Mercer’s opponent, Perry, saw a three-game winning streak snapped with a loss to Prestonsburg in its season finale. The Commodores gave up 48 points both in a loss to Whitley County and a win over Harlan but have outscored their opponents by two points, 298-296.
- Garrard faces a Breathitt squad that has won eight straight games after losses to Johnson Central and Prestonsburg at the start of the season.
- In Garrard’s 3A district, a three-way tie for first place between Taylor, Wayne and Somerset left the three teams in that order only after Taylor beat Caverna on Friday and the points-for-wins formula that starts with four defeated opponents was carried out to six teams before the tie between Taylor and Wayne was broken.
- In Boyle’s 4A bracket, West Jessamine and Harrison play a rematch of a game played just last week, when West Jessamine won 26-23 in Nicholasville.
Finally, here’s the schedule of playoff dates, which run later on the calendar than ever before:
- First round, Nov. 14
- Second round, Nov. 21
- Regional finals, Nov. 28 (Thanksgiving weekend)
- Semifinals, Dec. 5
- Finals, Dec. 12-13 at Louisville
