By Brian Argabright
A whole lot of playoff scenarios are up in the air this weekend for the teams from District 29-6A and District 30-6A.
Thanks to UIL realignment, Del Rio’s first round playoff opponents will no longer be from the Rio Grande Valley. Instead, Del Rio would most likely travel to San Antonio to face a team from District 29-6A, aka Northside San Antonio.
Who that would be is dependent on the results of this weekend’s games in both districts.
Headed into Thursday night, Eagle Pass leads the district standings at 5-0. Del Rio and United are tied for second at 4-1, but United holds the head-to-head tiebreaker. Laredo United South and Laredo Alexander are tied for fourth at 2-3, but South has the head-to-head tiebreaker.
If Del Rio beats Eagle Pass Thursday and United beats Alexander Friday, then three teams would be 5-1 and seeding would be decided based on total net points between the three teams in their meetings due to Del Rio beating Eagle Pass, Eagle Pass beating United and United beating Del Rio.
Del Rio lost to Laredo United 20-13, but Eagle Pass beat United 24-20. That means Eagle Pass carries +4 net points headed into Thursday’s game and United has a +3. Del Rio is currently at -7, so the Rams would need to beat Eagle Pass by at least 12 points to overtake the Eagles and Longhorns in terms of seeding if the three teams end the regular season tied.
South just needs to beat Laredo LBJ Thursday night and they’d claim the fourth spot outright. If both South and Alexander lose, or if both teams win, South still takes fourth place. The only way South doesn’t get in is if Alexander beats United and South loses to LBJ.
Think that’s confusing? It’s worse in San Antonio.
Based on enrollment, Del Rio’s possible first round opponents include Brennan, Taft or Harlan. Taft takes on Holmes (1-6) on Thursday while Harlan faces John Jay (0-7) on Friday.
Brennan is the district champion at 7-1. They’ve finished their regular season and are just awaiting their first round opponent, which will be Del Rio or Eagle Pass.
Warren is second at 5-2, but then there’s a four-way tie for third between Taft, Harlan, O’Connor and Stevens, which are all 4-3. Based on their remaining schedules, four teams could finish 5-3 and throw everything into chaos.
O’Connor and Warren can each claim a playoff spot if they win their last games.
If Warren beats Marshall (3-4) on Saturday, they take second in district.
If O’Connor beat Stevens on Thursday, they claim a playoff spot by virtue of having already beaten Taft and Harlan this season. O’Connor lost to Warren earlier this season.
We’ll have to wait until Saturday night to see how everything plays out.
