Four R-C teams make state playoffs
Published 9:38 am Tuesday, November 7, 2017
All four Roanoke-Chowan area high school football teams made the NC High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA) state playoffs.
Three of those teams will open on the road, while Northampton County – riding a school record 10-game win streak – received a bye in the 1A playoffs.
The Jaguars (10-1), received the second-seed in the 1A East bracket to earn the first-round bye. They will play their first playoff – a home game in Gaston – against the Southeast Halifax-South Creek winner on Friday, Nov. 17. Plymouth (6-5) – hoping to make a sixth consecutive trip to the state championship – opens at home against 4-6 North Edgecombe.
Hertford County’s Zion Riddick makes a leaping interception in Friday night’s regular season finale against Bertie. Both the Bears and the Falcons made the post-season and will begin play on the road on Friday. | Photomedoc.com / Steven Ferguson
Two regional teams received byes in the 1-AA ranks, and both are seeded one-and-two. Tarboro (11-0) will open on Nov. 17 against the winner of Williamston Riverside (6-5) and Princeton. If Edenton Holmes (10-1) wants to make a second trip to the state championship, this time as a 1AA, they will first face the winner of Manteo (8-3) versus Gates County (6-5) after the Aces’ bye week. The Red Barons will be meeting the Redskins for the second time this season. They lost to the ‘Skins on Roanoke Island Oct. 6, falling 34-7.
In the 2-A state playoffs, First Flight (8-3) is one of just two teams out of four Northeastern Coastal Conference teams that made the post-season, to have a home date.
Northeastern (11-0) is the top 2-A seed and they will host Bertie (4-7), who limped into the playoffs on a three-game losing streak. One of those losses was to the Eagles, 49-6, on Oct. 20. Friday’s game will mark their second meeting in Elizabeth City this year.
Meanwhile, the Nighthawks will face perennial power, Clinton (5-5) at Warren Judge Memorial Field in Kill Devil Hills on Friday night. First Flight is the eight-seed.
Hertford County (6-5), the 11-seed, travels to Pinetops to face six-seed Southwest Edgecombe (9-2). The winner here gets the winner of Goldsboro (6-5) against Southwest Onslow (8-3) in the next round.
A more comprehensive preview of the local teams will be in the Thursday edition of the Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald.