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Final week of regular season sorts out seeding for Section III football playoffs.

jon rathbun, herkimer times telegram
·6 min read

One final weekend is all that remains for the 2023 high school football regular season and most teams have a reasonably clear view of their postseason future. Friday and Saturday will be their fianal chance to make any changes to the script for Sunday's Section III playoff seeding meeting.

Here is a look at some of the scenarios.

Frankfort-Schuyler's Martino Rocco runs the ball against Morisville-Eaton during Section III's 2022 eight player championship game inside the JMA Wireless Dome. The teams meet again Friday in Morrisvile, both having clinched 2023 league titles.
Frankfort-Schuyler's Martino Rocco runs the ball against Morisville-Eaton during Section III's 2022 eight player championship game inside the JMA Wireless Dome. The teams meet again Friday in Morrisvile, both having clinched 2023 league titles.

Class AA

Unbeaten Syracuse-Christian Brothers Academy (7-0, 4-0 AA-1) hosts Baldwinsville (3-4, 3-1 AA-1), tied for second place in Class AA-1, for its regular season finale. Cicero-North Syracuse (6-1, 3-1 AA-1) owns a head-to-head tie-breaker over Baldwinsville and would forge a three-way tie with a win over Utica-Proctor (2-4, 1-3 AA-1) Friday and a Baldwinsville victory.

Baldwinsville and Cicero-North Syracuse would be the second and third seeds behind Christian Brothers should the Brothers complete a perfect regular season.

Winless Fayetteville-Manlius (0-6, 0-4 AA-1) hosts Liverpool (3-3, 1-3 AA-1) Friday. A Liverpool win would put the Warriors fourth, Proctor fifth and Fayetteville-Manlius sixth. A Fayetteville-Manlius win would likely create another three-team tie unless Proctor were to beat Cicero-North Syracuse.

Rome Free Academy (6-1, 1-0 AA-2.) and Syracuse-Henninger (0-7, 0-1 AA-2) are locked into the seventh and eighth seeds from Class AA-2.

Class A

Whitesboro (6-1, 2-0 A-1) and Auburn (4-3, 1-1 A-1) square off Friday for the No. 1 seed in Class A. Whitesboro will be either the No. 1 or No. 2 seed depending on the outcome of that game while a loss would drop Auburn into a three-way tie with Syracuse-Corcoran (1-2 A-1) and West Genesee (1-2 A-1) to determine the second, third and fourth seeds.

Corcoran beat West Genesee at the end of September and holds their head-to-head tie-breaker.

Whitesboro's Kyle Meier sticks an arm out at Rome Free Academy's Derek Rodriguez at RFA Stadium Oct. 5.
Whitesboro's Kyle Meier sticks an arm out at Rome Free Academy's Derek Rodriguez at RFA Stadium Oct. 5.

Class A-2 teams have a mini-tournament to fill the final four spots in the Class A playoff field. Five teams are competing for four spots after Fowler withdrew from competition. Central Square is unbeaten in Class A-1 play and East Syracuse-Minoa has lost only to Central Square two weeks ago.

Class B

The top two seeds are set: New Hartford (7-0, 4-0 B East) has clinched a tie for first place in Class B West heading into Friday's game against Vernon-Verona-Sherrill (1-6, 0-4 B East), and already owns the tie-breaker over second place Central Valley Academy (5-2, 3-1 B East); Indian River (7-0, 4-0 B West) has already completed an unbeaten run through Class B West.

Carthage (2-4, 2-2 B East) plays at Camden (3-4, 2-2 B East) in a game that will decide the third and fourth positions from the East Division.

Central Valley Academy finishes the regular season at home, where the team is 4-0 this season, against Oneida (2-4, 1-3 B East).

Class C

General Brown (5-1, 4-0 C East) has completed league play and clinched the top seed from Class C East. Cazenovia (6-0, 4-0 C West) leads Class C West heading into its game at Canastota (2-5, 0-4 C West); the Lakers own the head-to-head tie-breaker over second place Skaneateles (5-2, 3-1 C West) which plays at Solvay (4-2, 2-2 C West), and they beat General Brown head-to-head to open the season.

Anthony Phan intercepts a pass for Holland Patent late in the first half of an Oct. 22, 2022, game against Adirondack. The teams met twice last fall. They meet again Saturday for the first time this season.
Anthony Phan intercepts a pass for Holland Patent late in the first half of an Oct. 22, 2022, game against Adirondack. The teams met twice last fall. They meet again Saturday for the first time this season.

Adirondack (6-1, 2-1 C East) holds second place in the East heading into a Saturday evening game at Holland Patent (3-4, 1-2 C East) which is tied with Lowville Academy (5-2, 1-2 C East). Lowville Academy finishes the regular season Friday against Little Falls (1-6, 0-3 C East).

In the West, Bishop Ludden/Syracuse Academy of Science (3-4, 2-2 C West) plays at Marcellus (1-5, 1-3 C West) Friday.

Class D

The Class D-1 standings are easy to interpret: Sandy Creek (6-0, 6-0 D-1) is unbeaten at the top with a two-game lead; Beaver River (4-3, 4-2 D-1), Dolgeville (4-2, 4-2 D-1) and Mt. Markham (5-2, 4-2 D-1) are tied for second with a two-game buffer assuring them of quarterfinal home games; Herkimer (2-5, 2-4 D-1) and Westmoreland/Oriskany (3-4, 2-4 D-1) are tied for fifth place; and Pulaski (1-5, 1-5 D-1) and Cato-Meridian (1-5, 1-5 D-1) are tied for seventh.

This weekend's results will sort out the playoff matchups. Mt. Markham travels Dolgeville, site of a memorable 6-0 game last fall that was decided on a touchdown on the first play from scrimmage. Beaver River hosts Herkimer Friday and will finish in a tie with Mt. Markham or Dolgeville, owning the tie-breaker in either case having already beaten both; if the Beavers win, they get the second seed; if they lose, the Beavers are third; and the loser of Saturday's game in Dolgeville is the fourth seed.

While Herkimer travels to Beaver River Friday, Westmoreland/Oriskany plays at home Saturday against Pulaski, loser of its last five games after beating Beaver River to start league play. If Herkimer and Westmoreland/Oriskany wind up tied, the tie-breaker goes to Westmoreland/Oriskany, a head-to-head winner last week.

Cato-Meridian hosts Sandy Creek Friday. If the Blue Devils from Cato-Meridian and the Blue Devils from Pulaski tie, the tie-breaker goes to Cato-Meridian, a 42-12 head-to-head winner.

Eight Player

Morrisville-Eaton is the defending Section III champion and the Warriors (6-0, 5-0 Eight Player West) have completed an unbeaten run through their league; Frankfort-Schuyler was the sectional runner-up last fall and the Maroon Knights (5-0, 5-0 Eight Player East) have completed and unbeaten run through their league; and Frankfort-Schuyler plays at Morrisville-Eaton Friday.

West Canada Valley (5-1, 3-1 Eight Player East) is second in the East and plays at Cooperstown (0-5, 0-4 Eight Player East) Saturday and has already clinched a home game. Sauquoit Valley (2-2 Eight Player East) plays at New York Mills (2-2 Eight Player East) to determine the third and fourth spots Saturday; both have been beaten by West Canada Valley if there is a tie-breaker for second place.

Weedsport (4-2, 4-1 Eight Player West) has also completed league play as the second-place team in the West. Bishop Grimes (3-2, 2-2 Eight Player West) travels from Syracuse to Clayton Friday for a game at Thousand Islands (4-3, 2-2 Eight Player West) that will determine the third and fourth spots.

This article originally appeared on Times Telegram: Mohawk Valley football teams prepare for final weekend of 2023 season