PREP FOOTBALL: Area 5A teams await playoff fates

Beauregard coach Smitty Grider has a tough task on his hands this week, when his Hornets travel to Handley — the undefeated No. 3 team in Class 4A — to finish out their regular season.

Who Beauregard plays beyond that is anybody’s guess.

The third-place Hornets — along with region champ Tallassee and fourth-place Valley in Class 5A-Region 2 — are going to have to wait for everything to shake out this week before they figure out who they’re playing in the first round of the playoffs.

While he said his focus is squarely on Handley, Grider also admitted to peeking ahead into the unknown a little bit.

“It’s impossible not to think about it,” Grider said. “I think it’d be easier if we knew for sure who we’re playing.”

Since five teams are tied for first place in 5A-Region 1 — all at 5-2 in the region and 2-2 against each other — it would take a “War and Peace”-sized article to go through all the scenarios with Vigor, Spanish Fort, St. Paul’s, Gulf Shores and LeFlore.

It’s basically all going to hinge on the Vigor-Blount matchup tonight.

If Vigor wins, it will also win the region by virtue of tiebreak (l) — “team whose defeated non-region opponents in class and above have the most victories.”

Vigor would have a maximum of 11 at that point, which is more than any other region team can touch, and would host Valley.

With Vigor out, the only two teams of the remaining four that beat the Wolves — LeFlore and Spanish Fort — would be singled out by virtue of tiebreak (c), with LeFlore being second and hosting Beauregard and Spanish Fort finishing third and traveling to Eufaula by virtue of LeFlore winning the head-to-head with Spanish Fort.

Gulf Shores would then nab the fourth spot and travel to Tallassee because it beat St. Paul’s, which would be odd team out.

If Vigor loses, St. Paul’s will most likely win the region — and host Valley — because it already has seven wins on tiebreak (l), and the only team that can potentially tie them is LeFlore, but that would take a lot of things falling right for the Rattlers.

With St. Paul’s out, Vigor and Gulf Shores are next because of (c), with Vigor finishing second and hosting Beauregard, and Gulf Shores finishing third and traveling to Eufaula by virtue of the head-to-head tiebreak.

Then, LeFlore would finish fourth and travel to Tallassee because it beat Spanish Fort earlier this season.

So Valley is most likely traveling to Vigor or St. Paul’s, Beauregard is most likely traveling to LeFlore or Vigor, and Tallassee most likely hosting Gulf Shores or LeFlore.

But anything can happen tonight and Friday.

In any case, a team with a record anywhere between 6-4 and 8-2 will miss the playoffs.

“The bad thing about it is we worked hard to get that region championship,” said Tallassee coach Rodney Dollar, whose Tigers host Holtville tonight at 7. “And we’re playing somebody that’s probably worthy of a region championship over there.”

Grider’s been there before, as an assistant on the 1997 Opelika squad that missed the playoffs with an 8-2 record, and as head coach of the 6-4 Hornets last year.

“It’s a terrible feeling,” Grider said. “You feel like you deserve to be there, you’re one of the better teams in the state. When you don’t get the opportunity, it’s very frustrating.”

dmorrison@oanow.com | 737-2568