NHR Playoff Central: AAAA Section Seeding Thoughts
Section play will be underway in all classes starting this week and NHR will have a daily “Playoff Central” article to bring you top performers, top upcoming games, the biggest upsets, and everything else in the season’s final three weeks.…
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Continue ReadingSection play will be underway in all classes starting this week and NHR will have a daily “Playoff Central” article to bring you top performers, top upcoming games, the biggest upsets, and everything else in the season’s final three weeks. That starts tomorrow. Today we talk about some of the things that caught our eye as we look through each section.
AAAA
1AAAA. New Prague/Farmington will be a good potential first game although Lakeville South has no cakewalk either as Owatonna just beat Red Wing last week. Owatonna got the 6 and Farmington the 5 seed despite Owatonna having a better record. Why? Farmington had a better schedule and they beat the Huskies by 16.
2AAAA. Eden Prairie vs Minnetonka in round one, Tonka trying to avoid a first round exit for the second straight year. Jefferson/Edina will be another quality first round game. Chaska and Shakopee earned the simpler first round match-ups but Chsaka gets Jefferson/Edina winner (if they win round one) and top seed Shakopee has a tougher road to state than the last two years as they have to play Tonka or EP in the semi-finals.
3AAAA. Eagan won eight games this year and got the three seed, and you can’t even argue against that. Apple Valley is only team in this section with a winning record although .500 Eastview was 8-0 against the section teams seeded under them (they got the 2).
4AAAA. Central went 18-7 and got the seven seed, tough crowd. But a tough section they are in. Central/CDH, Tartan/Stillwater, and NSP/East Ridge are goo first round games. I don’t think many people know that the Raptors were 15-11 this year as it was a season they were expected to be about 5-7 games worse than that.
5AAAA. Thursday night Centennial plays Mounds View in the game that will grab everyone’s attention. The Cougars only won ten games but they didn’t have Tyler Peterson for half of the year. Tough draw for Mounds View who won 20 games and are rewarded with Centennial, then likely top ten Champlin Park if they win the first round, and then Osseo likely if they upset the Rebels. Not what you would recall a “reward” from the section seeding.
6AAAA. Remember when Minneapolis South knocked off Tonka last year in the playoffs? This South (14-12) they takes on Cooper (16-7) and that could be an interesting game as well. St. Louis Park had the third best record (18-8) in the section, had the 4th best QRF, ranked 3rd in Czar’s list, got the five seed and will head to Armstrong (14-12). Why? I would say because they lost to Armstrong and then lost the second of the games against Cooper so I have no problem with it. Still missing how Cooper got ahead of Armstrong though especially when you use head to head logic as Armstrong beat them, Armstrong had the tougher schedule, better QRF, etc etc.
7AAAA. This section catches a lot of crap and considering how the other sections always seem to change around and this one doesn’t much people will keep wondering. The teams are better this year though it seems. Blaine, Forest Lake, and St. Francis are solid squads and most of them overall have had some good wins. That said, in two weeks at state it’s likely to be top ten level teams at state everywhere else, but from here.
8AAAA. Moorhead had the worst record but they did beat Buffalo. Coaches still voted the 4-21 Spuds to face Maple Grove in the 1/8 while 6-20 Buffalo will play Elk River in the 2/7. Either way, a blow out is likely. Brainerd and Rogers both were 19-7 but Rogers beat Northfield so they get STMA in the 3/6 while Brainerd faces St. Cloud Tech in the 4/5.