Football playoff pairings (for now)
District play is over for most football teams, and all but one of the Advocate-area teams that will make the playoffs knows who and where it will play in the first round. The one that doesn’t know is Mercer County, which must wait out the results of a tight tiebreaker to see where it will travel.
Here’s the rundown of the Nov. 6 first-round games in the four regions that include local schools, with question marks (?) beside those matchups that aren’t yet set and explanatory remarks with each region:
Class 2A, Region 2
Fort Knox (4) at Green County (1)
Glasgow (3) at Danville (2)
Washington County (3) at Monroe County (2)
Metcalfe County (4) at Bardstown (1)
(Fort Knox snapped a 40-game losing streak with a stunning upset of Bardstown on Friday, but that didn’t change anything in District 4. Danville tied Bardstown for first place and Fort Knox tied Washington for third, but both got the lower seeds because they lost head-to-head meetings. Barring significant upsets, Danville would be at home only for the first round. The Glasgow-Danville game is a rematch of a first-round game last year, which the Admirals won 45-6.)
Class 3A, Region 3
Magoffin County (4) at Somerset (1)
Taylor County (3) at Estill County (2)
Powell County (3) at Garrard County (2)
Wayne County (4) at Breathitt County (1)
(Garrard, Taylor and Wayne finished in a three-way tie for second place in District 5 at 3-2, and the tiebreaker that awards points for defeated opponents puts the teams in that order, with no possibility of them changing after next week’s non-district games. As a No. 2 seed, the Golden Lions will host a playoff game for the first time since 2004, the last time they had a winning season.)
Class 4A, Region 3
?-East Jessamine (4) at Harrison County or Holmes (1)
Pendleton County (3) at Lexington Catholic (2)
?-West Jessamine (3) at Harrison County or Holmes (2)
Bourbon County (4) at Boyle County (1)
(Bourbon’s loss to Pendleton means the Colonels will come to Boyle for the first round. In District 5, Harrison and Holmes are tied for first place at 3-0, and they haven’t played each other yet, even though district play was supposed to be completed this week. The winner of that game next Friday at Holmes will be the district champion; the loser will be second. Boyle would play three or four playoff games at home if it keeps winning; the Rebels’ only possible road game would be in the regional final if they play the District 5 champion.)
Class 5A, Region 4
Perry County Central (4) at Pulaski County (1)
?-South Laurel (3) at Harlan County, Letcher County Central or Whitley County (2)
?-Harlan County, Letcher County Central or Whitley County (3) at Southwestern (2)
?-Mercer County (4) at Harlan County, Letcher County Central or Whitley County (1)
(We won’t know how a three-way tie for first place in District 8 shakes out until after next week’s games, and Mercer will play the team that wins that tiebreaker. Right now the order is Letcher, Harlan, Whitley, but it’s too close to call, except to say that it looks like Whitley will finish third.)
