LHSAA playoff pairings to be released today

Published 12:00 am Sunday, November 4, 2018

The Louisiana High School Athletic Association will announced the playoff pairings for all classes and division today with the first round of playoff games set for next weekend.

Several Teche Area teams will be in the postseason and while the pairing aren’t announced just yet, a check of websites that track power ratings gives an idea of the opponent for the first-round matchups.

Defending Division III champion Catholic High finished the regular season with a 9-1 mark and appeare to be locked into the No. 6 seed with a power rating of 14.278 as reported by Louisianasportsline.com. All power ratings and potential opponents will be based off of this website.

If that holds, then the Panthers will play host to No. 11 seed St. Thomas Aquinas (5-5) in the first round of the playoffs. The two teams met in Hammond on Sept. 14 with CHS taking a 63-7 win over the Falcons.

With its 47-0 win over Northside Friday, Westgate finished the season with a 6-4 record and should end up as the 25th seed and would be in the road in the first round against No. 8 seed Plaquemine (8-2).

The only other Teche Area school that would have a Top 8 seed would be St. Martinville Senior High, which put the touches on a perfect 10-0 regular season with a 30-28 win over Breaux Bridge Friday.

The Tigers should end up as the No. 3 seed in Class 4A and would have a first round home playoff game against No. 30 seed, and District 5-4A rival Opelousas High (5-5).

St. Martinville beat Opelousas 40-7 on Oct. 19.

In Class 2A, Franklin Senior High (4-5), under interim coach Tremayne Johnson, should finish as the  No. 22 seed and would be on the road in the first round against No. 11 seed Mansfield (7-3).

This will be Franklin’s first playoff appearance in football since losing 13-6 to Westlake in the first round in 2013.

West St. Mary (3-6) finished 26th in the power rankings and would be on the road at No. 7 seed Vidalia (7-3) in the first round.

In Class 3A, Erath (4-6), under first-year coach Eric LeBlanc, finished as the 27th seed and will be on the road at No. 6 seed Lake Charles Prep in the first round.

In Class A, Centerville (5-5) finished as the 20th seed and would be on the road in the first round at No. 13 seed Gueydan (6-3) in another battle between district teams in the first round.

Gueydan beat CHS 45-6 in a District 7-A contest on Oct. 5.

In Division IV, Hanson (3-7) should be the 15th seed in the playoffs and would be on the road in the first round against No. 2 seed and last year’s Division IV state runnerup Ascension Catholic (9-1).

New Iberia Senior High (2-8) is 43rd in the Class 5A power rankings, while in the Class 2A power rankings Jeanerette (2-8) is 34th; Delcambre (3-7) is 35th and Loreauville (1-9) is 36th and in the Divison IV power rankings Highland Baptist (0-10) is 23rd. Those teams are not expected to make the playoffs this year.

The official LHSAA power rankings will be released today and a full report on the 2018 football playoffs will be in Monday’s Daily Iberian.