Bayside Chatter: Playoff football on horizon

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The regular season ended for football earlier this week and the playoffs begin Tuesday.

Playoff seedings have not been announced for Section 5 but the top spot goes to McGregor and No. 2 and 3 go to Floodwood and Cromwell.

Silver Bay and Hill City will meet in the section’s only quarterfinal contest with the only question being who will host the game. The Mariners are 1-5 and Hill City is 3-4. If computer rankings are used like last season, the Bay leads as Hill City has played a much weaker schedule. In other words, the Mariners desperately needed a win at Babbitt and a Hill City loss to end the regular season.

Six teams fell from the unbeaten ranks last week, leaving 34 teams still unbeaten. Minneota’s unbeaten streak was stopped at 19 games, the longest in the state.

Luke Thun has now passed the 1,000 mark in career passing yards with a total of 1,039 good for ninth overall in the Mariner record book. He is also ninth in pass completions with 69. Cody Larson is seventh in career receptions with 40 and eighth in receiving yards with 554. While these are very nice individual accomplishments, football is a team game and they could not be attained without the team. You need teammates to block for you. You need teammates to catch the ball and throw the ball for you. You also need teammates to all be on the same page so that the play called works correctly.

A number of people were upset about the pass interference calls called against the Mariners in the Orr game, but the fact is that the game officials were right. When the defender has his back to the ball and throws his arms up at the last second it is called face guarding and is pass interference, regardless if the ball hits the defender and there is no contact.

Tags: sports, football, bayside chatter