Commentary By Charles Prince

The North Jefferson News



Matters on high school football fields in North Jefferson will take on a very serious tone as all of our Alabama High School Athletic Association schools resume region play this week.

In Class 2A, things are very simple for the Fultondale Wildcats—whip Vincent this Friday and they’re in the state playoffs. A victory this week would be the fourth in four region starts for the Wildcats, so they’d be guaranteed at finish no worse than fourth place in 2A, Region 5 play. A win, however, would change Fultondale’s goals, as they would then be facing a three-game race to a region championship and a home game in the first round of the playoffs. All first and second place finisher’s in AHSAA regions host first round playoff games, while the third and fourth place finisher’s in each region travel for first round games.

In 5A, Region 6, the picture not as clear for our local schools, as Gardendale and Mortimer Jordan are both two wins away from reaching the postseason, with four region plays left to play.

Each school faces some tough games in their final four region matchups. This week Mortimer Jordan hosts Erwin and next week they travel to meet region leader Cullman.

The Rockets on the other hand, travel to Walker next week and then return home on Oct. 19 to host Erwin. Then on Oct. 26, they head back out on the road to Cullman.

Both the Blue Devils and the Rockets sit with 2-1 region marks, so they need to go 2-2 in their final region games to qualify for the playoffs. But if either wants to host a home playoff game, they’ll likely need to run the table and finish 6-1 in region play. If they drop one game of their final four, they might need help to take second place in the region and host a playoff game.

If either club wins out, they might win the region title by virtue of having whipped Cullman head-to-head. But, lets not get ahead of ourselves just yet. Both Mortimer Jordan and Gardendale have to qualify for the playoffs first before they can start thinking about a region crown.

Hayden is still mathematically alive, but they don’t have a realistic chance of reaching the postseason, as they would have to win all four region games remaining to get in. With a tilt against Cullman this week and a game with Mortimer Jordan still looming down the road, the Wildcats won’t reach the playoffs this year.

In Class 4A, Corner has new confidence after their first win last Friday, but their chances of reaching the playoffs are slim, however, they are still alive.

Over the next four weeks of play, every game will be a big game, because each game is a region game that can make or break our local school’s chances of making the postseason party.