By Staff
Staff Reports, Hartselle Enquirer
Win and the Tigers and coming home for the opening round of the playoffs, lose and things get tricky.
Should Hartselle whip the Walker Friday night, the Tigers will clinch second place in 5A, Region 8. Second place assures Hartselle of hosting a playoff game on Nov. 12 during the opening round of the state playoffs. A loss would mean the Tigers would have to depend on others teaming losing their final regular season game in order to clinch home field on Nov.12.
A loss coupled with a Russellville win over Athens, would create a three-way tie for second in region play between Athens, Hartselle and Walker.
Hartselle, Athens and Walker would are 1-1 against the other two teams.
The next tiebreaker involves win by non-region schools defeated. Each school has one non-region opponent remaining in the season's final week.
Hartselle is set to face three-win Florence next week, while Athens faces five-win Sparkman and Walker faces four-win Hueytown. Wins would increase the schools wins over non-region opponent total, but the school with the highest total would be awarded second place in the region and host a first-round playoff game.
The simplest formula of all is for Hartselle to defeat Walker Friday. A Tiger win would clinch second, regardless of the outcome of the Athens-Russellville game.