The Shadow
One final week of regular season high school football is upon us and there’s a ton of unanswered questions regarding seeding and who will be in and who will be left out of the Region 3C playoff tournament.
And why not.
That’s what makes this so much fun on the outside looking into all that surrounds the football regional postseason.
Last year it was Liberty Christian Academy and Turner Ashby who were No. 1 and No. 2 all season long, while the rest of the field was up in the air.
This year, it’s very similar at the top with LCA and the Knights.
That was until the latest VHSL regional playoff rankings came out as Alleghany is ready to crash that party.
In the latest Region 3C rankings, LCA remained at the top, while the Cougars jumped from No. 3 and into a second place tie with Turner Ashby.
This makes Friday’s games for both AHS and TA incredibly important.
Why?
If Alleghany were to win and Turner Ashby loses, then the Cougars will jump TA and move solely into the No. 2 spot and earn at least two home playoff games.
TA is on the road on Friday against Spotswood in Penn Laird. The Trailblazers are one of several teams vying for a playoff position as they entered the week in the latest rankings No. 10 and are within less than two points of No. 7 Wilson Memorial. If the Blazers knock off TA for a second year in a row, then SHS will have gained several extra bonus points and should jump into the bottom half of the top 8, regardless of what the other teams do.
No. 13 ranked this week, last Friday Brookvile had a chance to really shake up the rankings, but the Bees came up short in their upset bid last against top-seeded LCA and will miss the regional playoffs.
New this week to the top-8 is No. 8 Broadway. The Gobblers crushed East Rockingham at home 35-3 and thus ended the Eagles season. East Rock just three weeks ago were ranked as high as No. 6, but the Eagles dropped three of their final four games.
Broadway jumped Monticello who dropped to No. 9. The Mustangs lost to Orange County last Friday 34-31. MHS plays at Fluvanna County on Friday. The Flying Flucos enter the rankings this week at No. 11. Both MHS and FCHS will miss the regional playoffs barring major losses to Broadway, Wilson Memorial, and Spotswood.
Near the middle and towards the bottom of the latest rankings remained the same as Heritage-Lynchburg, Rustburg, Staunton, and Wilson Memorial all remained No. 4, 5, 6, and 7 respectively in that order. The Green Hornets have the toughest matchup of this group as they play on the road against Stuarts Draft (7-2).
We talked about it several weeks ago that we are in for a wild ride. Outside of LCA being the top overall seed, the rest of the field will shuffle by late Friday night, early Saturday morning when the official playoff bracket is released, and we will have all the latest coverage on it when they are announced.
Week 9 VHSL Region 3C Rankings – Top 8 make playoffs
1. Liberty Christian Academy 29.75
2 (T). Alleghany 27.11
2 (T). Turner Ashby 27.11
4. Heritage-Lynchburg 26.11
5. Rustburg 24.11
6. Staunton 23.22
7. Wilson Memorial 22.56
8. Broadway 22.33
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9. Monticello 21.67
10. Spotswood 21.11
11. Fluvanna County 19.67
12. East Rockingham 18.80
13. Brookville 18.78
14. Western Albemarle 17.78
15. Rockbridge County 15.56
16. Rocktown 15.22
17, Waynesboro 14.56
Week 11 Regional Schedule
Alleghany at Floyd County
Broadway at Harrisonburg
Turner Ashby at Spotswood
Monticello at Fluvanna County
Staunton at Waynesboro
Wilson Memorial at Stuarts Draft
Rustburg at Glass
Maret at Rocktown
William Monroe at Rockbridge County
Heritage at Brookville
Liberty Christian Academy at Jefferson Forest
Albemarle at Western Albemarle
BYE: East Rockingham
