By BAKER ELLIS / Sports Editor

In a week and a half, we will have playoff football. That is a thing that is both exciting and daunting. Daunting from a sense of scale, because of how much will be taking place at the same time, but also daunting because every game is an elimination game. There are six AHSAA teams in Shelby County that are going to the playoffs. Let’s take an early look at their matchups.

 

Spain Park vs. Hazel Green/Gadsden City/Buckhorn

Okay off the bat this is confusing. Spain Park is the top seed in Region 3, which means the Jaguars will play the No. 4 seed in Region 4 in the first round of the state tournament. The problem is Region 4 is a mess, and Hazel Green, Gadsden City and Buckhorn all finished region play 4-3. Each beat Grissom, Huntsville and Sparkman and lost to Bob Jones and James Clemens. Gadsden City beat Buckhorn, while Buckhorn beat Hazel Green and Hazel Green beat Gadsden City. Confused? Cool.

When this happens, it gets complicated. Really, really complicated. Normally, per AHSAA rules, when more than two teams tie in region play, the team that defeated all other tied teams is placed at the forefront. That didn’t happen here, because the three teams all beat and lost to each other. If that doesn’t work under AHSAA guidelines, then the next way to resolve a tie-breaker is to see who had the best record against the top teams in the region, but these three teams beat and lost to the exact same opponents outside of themselves.

Eventually, what will decide this region is number of victories by defeated non-region opponents. Gadsden City’s only defeated non-region opponent is Oxford, who has three wins this season but could pick up a fourth this Thursday. Hazel Green beat Fort Payne, which has seven wins this season but could pick up an eighth on Friday. Buckhorn has beaten Austin and JO Johnson this year, which have a combined victory total of 12, but could have as many as 14 by Friday.

Stay with me. If Buckhorn beats Muscle Shoals on Thursday, then it grabs the No. 3 seed and Spain Park will then play Hazel Green, which won the heads-up game against Gadsden City. If Hazel Green beats Hartselle, which has six wins, and Fort Payne picks up an eighth win, then the qualifying Trojans opponents will have 14 wins. If that happens and Buckhorn loses to Muscle Shoals, and either JO Johnson or Austin lose as well, then Hazel Green will claim the No. 3 spot and Gadsden City will claim the No. 4 spot because it beat Buckhorn.

There’s more to this, but at the end of the day Spain Park will beat any of these three by three touchdowns, so it doesn’t really matter.

 

Briarwood at Fort Payne

With the win against John Carroll Catholic on Oct. 23, Briarwood locked up the No. 4 spot in 6A region 5, albeit with some help from a Jackson-Olin loss to Homewood on the same night. Region 5 is matched up with Region 7 in the first round of the 1A-6A state tournaments, which pits Briarwood against the top team from Region 7, Fort Payne. Fort Payne has averaged 31 points per game this season and has scored 28 or more six times through nine games. Briarwood has averaged 14 points per game this season, a number greatly propped up by the 34 points the Lions hung on John Carroll this past week. The fact this team started 0-3 and still found a way to make the playoffs is celebration enough for Fred Yancey’s team, and their season will almost surely end in the mountains of North Alabama on Nov. 6.

 

Chelsea at Blount/Saraland

Chelsea, the No. 3 seed in 6A Region 3, will face off against the No. 2 seed in Region 1. Blount and Saraland are both tied for second at 6-1 in the region, with both team’s one loss coming to Spanish Fort. Blount and Saraland square off on Friday, Oct. 29. The winner claims the two seed and will host Chelsea the following week.

 

Calera at Eufala

After laying claim to the No. 3 seed in 5A Region 4, the Eagles will travel to Eufala, the second-place team in Region 2. The, Tigers have put up some points this season, hanging 60 or more on the board three separate times, although the three teams Eufala has scored 60 on are a combined 2-26, so that has to be taken with a large grain of salt. Throwing those three statistics-propping games out the window, the Tigers look much more beatable. They’re averaging just under 30 points per game in their other six games this year, and are giving up right around 21 points a game as well. This is a winnable game for a Calera team that, taking away its three largest victories against teams that are a combined 3-25, is averaging 29 points per game.

 

Helena vs. Sidney Lanier

The Huskies will host their first-ever playoff game on Sept. 6 when the No. 3 seed from Region 2, Sidney Lanier, comes to town. After starting the season 0-3, the Poets have gone 4-2 down the stretch, and each of their four wins have come during region competition. This is a banner year for the Poets, who have been bad in recent history. Very bad. They were 9-51 from 2009-2014. But third year head coach Clayton Harris seems to be figuring something out, and this team has won almost half as many games this season as it has in the last six years combined. Regardless, the Poets are putting up just 21 points per game, and Helena should be able to handle them in the first round.

 

Montevallo vs. St. James

The Bulldogs are hosting a first-round playoff game for the first time since 1995. That’s a big deal. No one on the Montevallo roster was alive in 1995. The last time Montevallo won a home playoff game was 1984. Andrew Zow, Montevallo’s head coach, was five years old in 1984. So this is a really big deal for the school and the community. St. James is 5-2 through its last seven games and is averaging 24 points per game, and the Trojans are not a team to look past lightly. However, this Montevallo team is special, and barring any sort of freak injury in the next week and a half, should win its first home playoff game in over 30 years.