High School Football observations going into Week 8

Let’s take a look at what we know and what we still need to find out about our area team as the regular season wraps up Friday.

Let’s start with Clarinda and Class 2A District 7 where it’s pretty easy to figure out going into the final week. Cardinal Country gets a lot of miles on Highway 2 Friday, making the trip to Centerville. The Cardinals and Big Reds are both 3-1 in district play with the only loss for both coming against Van Meter. Van Meter is locked into the top seed out of district and the winner of the Clarinda/Centerville game will be the district’s No. 2 seed, which means a home game in the first round of the playoffs. The loser will be seeded third and have to travel in the first round Friday.

Chariton and Interstate 35 are currently tied for the fourth and final playoff spot in 2A-7 but the Chargers play last place Clarke Friday while the Roadrunners have to deal with district champion Van Meter on Friday.

Class 1A 8 is a bit more complicated. Shenandoah is in a good spot but hasn’t yet clinched a playoff berth. A Shenandoah win Friday at AHSTW or an Underwood win Friday at home over Red Oak would put the Mustangs in the playoffs. But if Shenandoah loses and Red Oak wins, then the Mustangs would be in a three-way tie for third with Red Oak and Underwood, meaning the final two spots would come down to the 17-point tiebreaker. The top two in point differential for district games only (up to 17 points) would make the playoffs. Underwood has secured the top spot in that scenario. But, if Red Oak were to make up 32 points on Shenandoah, the Tigers could squeak in at the expense of the Mustangs.

Let’s look at the other scenarios regarding those two games (Shenandoah/AHSTW and Red Oak/Underwood). If Shenandoah loses and Underwood wins, the Mustangs would be seeded fourth out of the district with AHSTW second and Underwood third. If Shenandoah wins and Red Oak beats Underwood, then the Mustangs would jump all the way up to No. 2 seed in the district with AHSTW third and Red Oak fourth. If Shenandoah wins and Underwood wins, then the 17-point tiebreaker would come into play between Shenandoah, Underwood and AHSTW for the second, third and fourth spots. Underwood would get the No. 2 seed in that scenario while Shenandoah would have to beat AHSTW by 10 points or more to jump the Vikings for third.

Treynor is the district champion.

The state playoff qualifiers will be announced late Friday after the games are complete with the Iowa High School Athletic Association releasing first round matchups for Classes 2A, 1A, A and 8-Player at 10 a.m. Saturday. First round games take place Friday, Oct. 25.

My goodness, Clarinda, what a performance they had against Chariton in the regular season home finale Friday! The Cardinals had over 600 yards of offense and shut down one of the state’s top running backs. Clarinda looks to be rounding into form going into the end of the season.

Shenandoah took an early lead on Treynor and were right with the Cardinals into the second half before it got away. It was a similar story to their district loss to Underwood. Can the Mustangs stay with the Vikings for all four quarters, secure a playoff berth and have a chance to move up from being the four seed again?

Speaking of coming on strong at the end of the season, the Sidney Cowboys look to be playing their best ball of the year. They played CAM to double overtime two weeks ago and then rolled past Stanton/Essex Friday. Now the Vikings were shorthanded, more on that shortly, but Cowboy quarterback Michael Hensley put together an impressive game, on the ground and through the air, in scoring six touchdowns, in Sidney’s win. The Cowboys have a tough task Friday at Fremont-Mills, who beat CAM last Friday to clinch the Class 8-Player District 10 championship. That district is set with Fremont-Mills, CAM and East Mills are the playoff qualifiers in that order. Sidney head coach Eli Bales told me Friday that they’ll try to get a ninth game next Friday, which is permitted for non-playoff teams.

The Stanton/Essex Vikings played good football at the start of the season, but the roster has kept shrinking and their scores have been less and less impressive as the season has gone on. They travel to CAM Friday. In talking with head coach Jeff Grebin after Friday’s game, I could see the frustration but at the same time he saw some wins from his guys and some improvement from his younger guys that will for sure lead to better things going forward for the Vikings. That’s a proud program that isn’t used to struggling like this, but that experience could be huge for future teams.