By By KEVIN TRAVIS
Sports Editor
The Washington Pam Pack, who won its first playoff game in a decade last year, will look for more success this year. Washington returns to a recent playoff foe in Elon on Friday.
The Pack (6-5), which finished fourth in the Coastal Conference, earned the No. 10 seed for the N.C. High School Athletic Association Class 3-A state playoffs. Washington will play at No. 7 seed Western Alamance (8-3) in Friday’s first-round game. The Warriors, coming off a 48-16 loss to Northern Guilford, finished third in the Mid-State Conference.
The two teams met in the first round of the 2006 state playoffs, with Western Alamance taking a 35-12 victory.
“They are a good team from what we remember three years ago,” Washington coach Sport Sawyer said. “They have nice facilities. We’re just excited to be in the playoffs and play some more.”
The winner will face either the No. 2 seed Hertford County Bears (11-0) or the No. 15 seed White Oak Vikings (5-6) in the second round.
1-A Playoffs
Some familiar faces will see each other in the first round of the 1-A state playoffs. Nine area teams qualified for the postseason.
The No. 12 seed Southside Seahawks (4-7) will travel to Williamston to face the No. 5 seed Tigers (9-2) in a battle of Four Rivers Conference teams. The Tigers, last year’s 1-A state runners-up, took a 47-27 win over the Seahawks two weeks ago.
The winner will face either the No. 4 seed Wallace-Rose Hill Bulldogs (9-2) or the No. 13 seed Northampton-West Hurricanes (4-6) in the second round.
The No. 15 seed Northside Panthers (3-8), coming off a 29-28 win over the Seahawks in the annual Anchor Bowl, will face the No. 2 Creswell Tigers (10-0) in the first round. Northside coach Keith Boyd said getting the win over Southside was crucial heading into the playoffs.
“It’s nice to get that win,” Boyd said. “We found some things that worked.”
Northside is familiar with the Tigers, who took a 48-12 win over the Panthers in the first game of the season.
“They beat us earlier this year,” Boyd said. “But the teams have changed over the last 12 weeks. We’ll just have to go back to the drawing board, and I’m sure they’ll do the same thing. We’ll get a game plan together and hope that everything works out for the best.”
The Tigers captured their second straight Tideland Conference championship with another perfect run through conference play.
The winner faces either the No. 10 seed Columbia Wildcats (5-4), who won three of their last four in Tideland Conference play, or the No. 7 seed North Edgecombe Warriors (6-4) in the second round.
The No. 8 seed Jamesville Bullets (5-4) earned a home playoff game, and will play host to the No. 9 seed Plymouth Vikings (7-4) on Friday night. Plymouth took a 50-0 win over Jamesville on Aug. 28.
The winner will face either the No. 1 seed Manteo Redskins (11-0), the Four Rivers Conference champions, or the No. 16 seed Mattamuskeet Lakers (1-7), a Tideland Conference member, in the second round.
The No. 14 seed Roanoke Redskins (3-8) will face the No. 3 seed Weldon Chargers (9-1) in the first round.
The winner will face either the No. 6 seed Jones Senior Trojans (7-4) or the No. 11 seed Northampton-East Rams (3-8) in the second round.
NCHSAA State Playoffs
Class 3-A
First Round
Washington at Western Alamance
Class 1-A
Southside at Williamston
Northside at Creswell
Mattamuskeet at Manteo
Plymouth at Jamesville
Roanoke at Weldon
Columbia at North Edgecombe