By Greg Perkins The 3A state football playoffs get underway Friday, Nov. 2, at sites of the eight highest seeded schools. Winslow has made the post season as the 16th and final seed and as such they will travel to Northwest Christian to take on the top-ranked number one seeded Crusaders. The Bulldogs come in with a 6-4 regular season record, which included a shut out loss to Snowflake last week. The Crusaders have just one blemish on their 9-1 record. That week two loss was to second seeded Yuma Catholic. Since that game Northwest Christian has run off eight consecutive wins, with most being by lopsided margins. The Bulldogs may be in for a huge battle, which does not look to end in their favor. Snowflake finished the regular season with an 8-1 record, which was good enough to place them as the No. 3 seed in the bracket. They will host No. 14 Fountain Hills, which comes in with a 5-5 season mark. The two schools have one common opponent this year in Payson. The Falcons handled Payson 13-6, while the Lobos took care of the Longhorns 34-7. Snowflake, like Northwest Christian, is coming in riding a large winning streak with seven straight victories. Fountain Hills has won three of their past four but Snowflake is the better team here and playing on their home field will be more than enough of an advantage for Snowflake to advance. The rest of the state bracket matchups look like this. No. 8 Wickenburg will host No. 9 Benjamin Franklin. The winner of that game will face the Winslow/Northwest Christian winner. No. 2 Yuma Catholic will host No. 15 Show Low. No. 6 Sabino hosts No. 11 Blue Ridge in a rematch of the week five game won by Sabino 14-7. No. 5 Valley Christian will host No. 12 Coolidge. No. 4 Page gets to host No.13 Pusch Ridge who has to make a long drive from Tucson. No. 7 Odyssey Institute will host No. 10 Safford. The eight first round winners will meet up at the sites of the higher seeds next week in the quarterfinal rounds of the state playoffs.
