R16 Playoff Preview 10/30/20

Class A

Kearney travels to Gretna and the Bearcats winning won’t be an upset. They lost to Elkhorn South in OT, to Lincoln SE on the final play of the game and to Bellevue West and Westside. Gretna is gearing up for a great 2-year run with a bunch of really good sophomores playing. A win here for Kearney and they would be hosting next week against Bellevue West. Watch for Fremont and Columbus to hang around in their games against Elkhorn South and Lincoln Southeast. Lincoln East plays the 4:30 game at Seacrest in a rematch against North Platte where they beat the Bulldogs 21-7 a few weeks ago. It might be too much for NP to win but that running offense will keep it close like before. Creighton Prep is definitely on upset alert against Jimmy Quintance and Millard North-or would it be an upset?

Winners:

Bellevue West over LSW

Kearney over Gretna

Elkhorn South over Fremont

Lincoln SE over Columbus

Millard South over Millard West

Prep over Millard North

Lincoln East over North Platte

Westside over GI

Class B

Although this is the wildest of all the classes, most of those big matchups don’t happen until the R8. Top seeded Bennington will be without Tyler LeClair who is arguably Class B’s best two way player against an improving Seward bunch. McCook travels east to play Plattsmouth and the Bison should be considered favorites here which would allow them to likely host Bennington at Weiland Field next week. Blair and their high-powered offense travel to Waverly against that brick wall Viking defense. Northwest has proven they can compete with anyone in this class, in fact earning that mid-season win against Waverly who beat Skutt in week 2. The Vikings have the linebackers needed to play against an option team like Skutt so I’d think they can make this one at least competitive. Roncalli played one of the toughest schedules in Class B and I’d expect them to hang around Hastings-look for the Pride to run the clock down on offense and complete some of those short passes to keep this one respectable.

Winners

Bennington over Seward

McCook over Plattsmouth

Aurora over Scottsbluff

Norris over Beatrice

Elkhorn over Omaha Gross

Waverly over Blair

Skutt over GINW

Hastings over Roncalli

Class C1

Without Mike Leatherdale, Wayne will have a tough time winning on the road against Adams Central in the 8/9 game. The Patriots were rated 2^nd just a few weeks ago but a couple of close losses to St. Paul and Kearney Catholic have put them down at the 8 seed. They’re good enough to get to Lincoln though with Slade Smith, Tyler Slechta and Hyatt Collins. I’ve been on this Battle Creek over Auburn train for a week and the battle tested Braves are more than capable of going down to southeast Nebraska and coming home with a win. Also, have Gothenburg as the 11 getting the road win against Lincoln Christian. Ever since the Swedes got healthy they’ve been a machine and playing like the preseason #7 rated team in C1. Wahoo and Pierce will both advance, setting up a state finals rematch at Pierce next week.

Winners:

Ashland-Greenwood over LVSS

Adams Central over Wayne

Battle Creek over Auburn

Kearney Catholic over Chadron

St. Paul over Cozad

Gothenburg over Lincoln Christian

Wahoo over Mitchell

Pierce over WPB

Class C2

All eyes will be on that 7/10 game at Memorial Field in Norfolk with Aquinas and Norfolk Catholic. The Knights are getting very close to being the Knights we all have gotten used to seeing during Coach Bellar’s 30+ year tenure. Aquinas and longtime Coach Ron Mimick bring in a typical Monarch team that runs their double wing system to perfection and plays great defense. They hung right in there until the end against Oakland-Craig before the 31-7 defeat to Bergan which came at the end of a grueling 3-game stretch. Bishop Neumann has been one of the toughest teams to figure out all year-they have that early season win over Norfolk Catholic but appear to have dealt with either injuries or Covid issues the rest of the way-case in point losing to Syracuse in the season finale last week. The last time they went out to Ord for the state semifinals they were ran off the field and it will be a tall task to keep it close against a loaded Chants team tomorrow night. Hartington CC should go on the road and get the W over Bridgeport-HCC has played a nasty schedule while Bridgeport hasn’t and this is just one of those games where the result should be more reflective of HCC being the 6 seed. Oakland-Craig and Crofton have a rematch from the 30-14 regular season Knights win. Crofton was without star RB Jimmy Allen in the late season loss to Norfolk Catholic but even with him, it will be tough sledding against the Knights, who no doubt remember last year’s opening round nail biter against HCC.

Winners:

Archbishop Bergan over Lincoln Lutheran

Sutton over NPSP

Wilber-Clatonia over GICC

Yutan over Sutton

Oakland-Craig over Crofton

HCC over Bridgeport

Norfolk Catholic over Aquinas

Ord over Bishop Neumann

D1

Right at the top of that bracket is Tri-County and Laurel-Concord-Coleridge. LCC is so battle tested having played Wakefield, Stanton, LHNE, Elkhorn Valley and Wisner-Pilger at full strength. Not going to call this upset but if Evan Haisch can do what he did last week against Thayer Central this one will be very close. The Bears played LHNE within 6 and Wakefield within 6. The best teams Tri-County has played are Weeping Water and Thayer Central so this LCC team is by far the best they’ve seen all season. Buckle up. Obviously, much discussion about Stanton and Arcadia-Loup City. ALC is a lower seed because they were missing key players early in the season. Since then, they have been on a tear, losing only to Burwell 28-22. Stanton runs by committee, led by 1000 yard rusher Sutton Pohlman. Expect a low-scoring, hard-hitting battle. Stanton has wins over Howells Dodge and LCC and has only lost to Wakefield. This is a state semifinal caliber game. The other R16 game to watch closely is Burwell and Howells-Dodge. Early thoughts are these could be the top two teams in the state a year from now-Burwell has to go on the road for this one so that’s one advantage for the Jaguars. Ultimately though, the winner of this one between these two storied programs is Burwell because of what they have up front in the trenches-specifically Carter Mann.

Winners:

Tri-County over LCC

LHNE over Weeping Water

ALC over Stanton

DCS over Lourdes Central Catholic

Burwell over Howells-Dodge

Neligh-Oakdale over Hi-Line

Elm Creek over Nebraska Christian

Cross County over Cambridge

D2

Biggest game across the state tomorrow in any class might be Osceola and HSF. Osceola has a core of players from last year’s D1 championship team and HSF is obviously the defending D2 champion and perennial power. The 6PM kickoff at the beautiful field in Humphrey should finally tell us just how good the Bulldogs are since their schedule has been soft enough to put them at a middle seed position. HSF has that one loss to Central Valley late in the season. Both teams played Palmer with the Flyers winning by 6 in week 3, and Osceola winning 74-36 in week 5. Both teams also played Riverside with Osceola winning by 33 and HSF winning by 54. This result of this one probably lands somewhere in the middle with Kyle Sterup, Bryce Reed and Carson Watts winning by a couple touchdowns to move on. It won’t be easy though. Wynot and Pleasanton is one where it’s the big offensive line of Wynot against state finalist Pleasanton and Tyce Westland. I don’t think Pleasanton is as good as they were a year ago but they’re better than the seed and should get the W here.

Winners:

FCSH over Creighton

Osceola over HSF

Sandhills/Thedford over Loomis

Pleasanton over Wynot

Central Valley over Medicine Valley

St. Marys over Bloomfield

Kenesaw over Allen

BDS over Ansley-Litchfield