ROCKINGHAM – The road to the North Carolina High School Athletic Association 4AA football state championship at Duke University’s Wallace Wade Stadium will run through Mallard Creek High School in the West Bracket — but it has the potential to run through Richmond County as well.
The NCHSAA released its official state playoff brackets for all classifications Saturday afternoon, a day after the regular season ended for many programs across North Carolina. Richmond Senior High School (10-1) received the No. 2 seed in the West Bracket, just missing out on the top seed, which went to No. 1 Mallard Creek (10-0).
The Raiders will receive a first-round bye with the No. 2 seed, and won’t play again until the day after the Thanksgiving holiday. Head coach Bryan Till’s team will welcome in the winner of the No. 7 West Forsyth High School and No. 10 Ronald Reagan High School matchup on Friday, Nov. 23 at 7:30 p.m. (the NCHSAA mandated start time for all games).
“We’re excited to be at home for the majority of playoffs,” Till said of the No. 2 seed. “There’s only one other team we’d have to visit (Mallard Creek), but I don’t think we’d be worried about being home at that point — we’d just be extremely excited to be in the West finals. Right now we need to worry about winning each week.
“If you’re a football person in this state, you realize how tough the I-Meck is as a conference,” he continued about the level of competition in the West. “They have three teams toward top of (West) bracket. But any team can beat another team, and every year there’s a surprise. I will say that the West is a lot tougher than the East this year.”
In 1A and 4A play, there are 48 teams that make the playoffs, while the 2A and 3A classifications see 64-team brackets. All four classifications are split into A and AA, with each school’s average daily membership (or total number of students enrolled) determining which way it goes. According to the North Carolina Department of Instruction’s website, Richmond had 2,159 students enrolled in grades nine through 12 at the conclusion of the 2017-18 school year, placing the Raiders in the 4AA bracket.
Teams are separated into the East and West brackets by the NCHSAA by their physical locations, starting along the coast and moving westward.
Joining the Raiders and the Mallard Creek Mavericks (Charlotte, N.C.) with a first-round bye in the West Bracket are No. 3 David W. Butler High School (9-2, Matthews, N.C.) and No. 4 Ardrey Kell High School (5-6, Charlotte, N.C.). All four teams won their respective conference titles in the regular season, hence why Ardrey Kell still gets a first-round break despite its sub-.500 record.
Heading into the regular season finale Friday at Purnell Swett, several projections had Richmond leapfrogging Mallard Creek for the No. 1 seed. But as Till explained, it was the outcomes of Friday’s games that kept the Mavs at the top.
“It comes down to the adjusted Maxpreps rankings,” Till shared. “They were readjusted last night because there were a lot of things that happened. Reagan lost (to West Forsyth) and that drops our strength of schedule a little bit. We won, but we beat a 3-8 team, whereas Mallard Creek beat an 8-3 team (Mooresville).”
Till’s Raiders compete in one of the most physical and competitive conference in the state, and the Sandhills Athletic Conference saw five of its eight total teams make the postseason. Pinecrest High School (8-3, Southern Pines, N.C.) is the only other SAC school to fall in the 4AA bracket, and landed with the No. 6 seed in the East Bracket. Chris Metzger’s Patriots will host No. 11 Panther Creek High School (6-5, Cary, N.C.) in the first round on Friday, Nov. 16.
Jack Britt, Scotland and Seventy-First high schools qualified for the 4A playoffs, and all three are in the 4A East Bracket, leaving Richmond as the only SAC school to be pushed to the West. No. 5 Seventy-First (8-3, Fayetteville, N.C.) will host No. 12 Jack Britt (5-6, Fayetteville, N.C.) in the first round. No. 10 Scotland (5-5, Laurinburg, N.C.) will travel to No. 7 Charles E. Jordan High School (5-6, Durham, N.C.) this Friday.
While there’s almost two full weeks until the Raiders will hit the gridiron again in Round 2, Till is already thinking ahead about what his team’s first playoff game could hold despite not knowing the opponent.
“Reagan and West Forsyth just played (Friday), and that’s a big rivalry game for them,” Till commented. “They know each other well, and I’m sure it’ll be be a hard-fought battle. I know Adrian Snow (West Forsyth head coach) well, and he has a great program. Reagan is a much different team than when we played them in Week 1. We’ll have our hands full with whichever team we get.”
Until that happens, Till said his program is going to take advantage of the bye, a luxury the Raiders didn’t have in 2017 when they lost to North Mecklenburg High School 27-23 in the opening frame.
“Rest is the obvious advantage,” he concluded. “It gives us time to be together and work on us. We can continue to build our camaraderie and get the chance to appreciate the postseason. The bye is also an opportunity to get an extra half week of preparation on your opponent, and the guys will get extra reps they wouldn’t normally get.”
For a look at the complete NCHSAA 4AA bracket, including East and West matchups, click here.
