Football playoff draw, bracket released

Neel Madhavan, Richmond County Daily Journal, Rockingham, N.C.
·2 min read

Apr. 12—The high school football regular season was filled with all kinds of ups and downs thanks to COVID, but it's now in the past. The playoffs have arrived.

Finishing No. 1 and No. 2 in the Sandhills Athletic Conference standings, both Richmond (3-0) and Scotland (4-1) earned automatic playoff bids.

The Raiders are the No. 4 seed and will host No. 5 seed Middle Creek on Friday, while the No. 6-seeded Fighting Scots travel to the coast to face No. 3 seed New Bern. Both teams are in the 4A East region.

Richmond head coach Bryan Till said that they're just glad to be playing.

"Obviously, we are excited to be in the playoffs," said Scotland head coach Richard Bailey. "New Bern and Scotland have a pretty strong history of playing each other in meaningful games. The ride isn't ideal, but at this point we will go anywhere in order to play a game."

Should Richmond win, it would face the winner of No. 1 seed Cardinal Gibbons and No. 8 seed Pine Forest. If the Scots win, they would face the winner of No. 2 seed South View and No. 7 seed Jack Britt.

If both teams with their first two games, Richmond would host Scotland in the semifinal, where the winner would advance to the 4A state championship game.

The No. 1 and No. 2 seeds on the West half of the bracket are Grimsley and Providence, respectively.

The Raiders enter the playoffs coming off a quarantine and pause in accordance with COVID protocols that forced the cancelation of the team's final three regular season games. Richmond's last game was a 48-8 road win against Lumberton on March 26.

Scotland clinched its playoff spot courtesy of a 20-3 win over Jack Britt April 9.

Elsewhere in the SAC, Pinecrest earned a No. 8 seed in the 4AA East bracket and will face No. 1 seed Apex Friendship in its first round.

Reach Neel Madhavan at 910-817-2671 ext. 2751 or [email protected] Follow on Twitter at @NeelMadhavan.