No. 16 Sumner-Eddyville-Miller (3-5) at No. 1 Cody-Kilgore (8-0). Cody-Kilgore was the 2016 Six-Man state runner-up; its closest call in an unbeaten regular season was a 34-point win v. No. 7 seed Sioux County. SEM was the Class D-2 state runner-up in 1992 and all five of its losses are to playoff teams.
No. 9 Heartland Lutheran (6-2) at No. 8 Arthur County (6-2). Arthur has been the standard bearer for the six-man game forever - it has won three state titles and been featured in Sports Illustrated - and its only losses have come to unbeaten teams, Cody-Kilgore and Creek Valley. Heartland is enjoying the best season in its history with one of those losses by just two points.
No. 12 Red Cloud (6-2) at No. 5 Eustis-Farnam (6-2). Red Cloud won six of its last seven, the loss to unbeaten Harvard, while Eustis-Farnam has also won six of its last seven, the loss to qualifier Sandhills Valley.
No. 13 Crawford (5-3) at No. 4 McCool Junction (8-0). McCool was unchallenged on the way to a perfect regular season, the exception an 11-point win over 7-1 Humphrey/LHF (go ahead, do the math), which is ineligible for the playoffs. Crawford’s losses are to Panhandle powers Cody-Kilgore and Sioux County, who are a combined 15-1, and 6-2 Arthur County.
No. 14 Wilcox-Hildreth (4-4) at No. 3 Creek Valley (8-0). Consider this the football equivalent of the alpha and omega, as these teams met in the season opener with Creek Valley winning, 58-40. Wil-Hil is the defending state champion but has lost four of its last five games; Creek Valley has completed the first perfect regular season in the program’s history.
No. 11 Sandhills Valley (4-4) at No. 6 Maywood/Hayes Center (5-3). Maywood/Hayes Center won the regular season game between these teams, played just two weeks ago, but a 55-28 count. The beautifully named Sandhills Valley formerly went by McPherson County/Stapleton.
No. 10 Sterling (5-3) at No. 7 Sioux County (7-1). Sterling lost its three games at midseason - to teams with a combined 23-1 regular season record - while Sioux County’s only misstep came in its Week 8 loss to unbeaten Cody-Kilgore. I will save you looking - it’s 504 miles from Sterling to Harrison.
No. 15 Spalding Academy (4-4) at No. 2 Harvard (8-0). Harvard has been the season-long No. 1-ranked team but is the No. 2 seed. The Cardinals finished as Six-Man state runner-up in 2017 and reached last year’s semifinal round before losing to eventual champion Wilcox-Hildreth. Spalding Academy was one of the six-man powers when in the early 1990s the game spiked in participation, winning the state title in 1993 and finishing as runner-up in 1990, and was Class D-2 state runner-up in 1979.
@HuskerlandBob Sez: This should be fun. It certainly seems as though there is a real separation between the top four seeds - all of them unbeaten - and the pack but then again that’s why they play the games. Harvard’s done nothing to diminish its preseason No. 1 ranking but Cody-Kilgore has size and speed, McCool has speed and speed, and Creek Valley has all free agent fans pulling for the Storm. That kind of thing happens when you leave basically a decade of varsity football losing in the rearview mirror; for me their rise to power is the story of the football season.
