Eight York and Lancaster county football teams will play in the South Carolina High School League Class 4A and 5A playoffs, which begin Friday, Nov. 6.
Two local teams earned opening round byes. Northwestern is the No. 1 seed in the Class 5A Upper State, and South Pointe is the No. 3 seed in the Class 4A Upper State. Both Rock Hill schools will play at home Nov. 13 against opening round winners.
The other six local teams play Friday, with four of them hosting games. Under SCHSL bracket rules, the higher seeded team hosts every game through the semifinals unless the league assigns a neutral site.
Class 4A Upper State
Five local teams are in the Class 4A field, and two of them will meet in the opening round. No. 6 Lancaster hosts No. 11 Clover on Nov. 6. The winner travels to South Pointe on Nov. 13.
No. 8 Catawba Ridge hosts No. 9 Fountain Inn in Fort Mill. The winner plays at top seed Gaffney in the second round.
No. 5 Indian Land hosts No. 12 Greenwood, with the winner going to No. 4 T.L. Hanna in Anderson.
The bracket sets up a possible meeting between Catawba Ridge and Indian Land. If both teams win their first two games, they would play each other in the third round Nov. 20. On the bottom half of the Upper State bracket, the South Pointe side meets the Westside side in the third round.
Class 5A Upper State
Rock Hill opens its playoff run on the road as the No. 9 seed at No. 8 Boiling Springs. A Rock Hill win would send the Bearcats to Northwestern on Nov. 13 for a crosstown playoff game against the top seed.
No. 7 Fort Mill hosts No. 10 Lexington on Nov. 6. The winner plays at No. 2 Dutch Fork in the second round.
Northwestern and Fort Mill are on opposite halves of the Upper State bracket. They could meet only in the Upper State final, set for Nov. 27, the day after Thanksgiving.
Lower State Brackets
Hilton Head Island holds the top seed in the Class 4A Lower State, with Lugoff Elgin seeded second. In Class 5A, James Island is the Lower State No. 1 seed and Berkeley is No. 2. Carolina Forest, which beat Rock Hill for the Class 5A boys volleyball title Oct. 31, is the No. 4 seed in the 5A Lower State football bracket.
State Finals Schedule
The SCHSL will play six state championship games over two days. On Friday, Dec. 4, the 1A Division 2 final kicks off at noon, followed by 2A at 4 p.m. and 4A at 8 p.m. The Saturday, Dec. 5, schedule has 1A Division 1 at noon, 3A at 4 p.m. and 5A at 8 p.m.
The Lower State team will be the designated home team in every state final.
The second round is scheduled for Friday, Nov. 13. Brackets and results will be updated on the South Carolina High School League website at schsl.org.
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Thomas Hyslip lives in Tega Cay with his wife and daughter. After 27 years in the U.S. Army and Federal Law Enforcement, he retired to pursue his passion for teaching. Tom is now an Assistant Professor of Instruction at the University of South Florida. In 2 short years he has won 10 awards from the South Carolina Press Association, including first place in column writing, education beat reporting and best podcast.
