Troy Helton of Covington and Owen Deacon of James River have taken top honors on the All-Pioneer District football team.

Helton was named offensive player of the year, while Deacon won the defensive player of the year award. James River’s Philip King was named coach of the year.

Click here to see the all-district team.

It’s 10 a.m. Saturday, mere hours since I rolled back into Roanoke from Pearisburg where Giles senior Ian Mann put up more than three bills of rushing yardage and threw a TD pass in the Spartans’ 41-14 win over James River in the first round of the Division 2 West Section football playoffs.

Sixty-four games took place across Virginia on Friday night. Eight more are today, wrapping up the opening round. The Central Region finished its regular season last night. The Richmond-area Group AAA teams will join the playoff party next week.

Here’s what jumped out at me Friday:

1. Some Group A schools from the 434 and 804 struggled big-time.
Covington destroyed Rappahannock 51-28 on the road, while Parry McCluer handled Charles City 33-7 in the Division 1 East Section. Bath County nearly pulled off a second straight first-round win in losing at No. 2 seed Sussex Central 14-10. Also, in Division 2 Gretna was hammered at Grayson County 44-31, while Dan River got steamrolled 55-27 at home by Stuarts Draft. Division 2 East top seed Essex, unbeaten and ranked No. 1 in Group A by the AP, had a fairly close shave against 3-7 Luray before winning 28-12.
Was the Dogwood District that far down this year? It appears so after last night. William Campbell, at 3-7, saved some face for the league with a 41-22 win over West Point in Division 1 East. Altavista, seeded No. 4, hosts Surry County today, but this is an Altavista team that lost earlier this year to James River.
Conversely, the Shenandoah District had a pretty good night. Stuarts Draft, Riverheads and Wilson Memorial all had blowout wins. East Rockingham also won a Division 2 East game and will get its shot at Essex next week. The game between Riverheads and Wilson Memorial next week in Fishersville should be a monster. Read more »

Twenty-eight Timesland teams will be involved in 22 games Friday and Saturday as the VHSL football playoffs open across the state.

So, I’ve been a little busy this week collecting enough information on some of these outlying teams as well as compiling the final Timesland regular-season statistics, which will appear in their usual place in The Roanoke Times on Friday.

A version of these capsule previews also will run in the paper. They will include my predictions for Friday’s 21 games and the one Timesland game Saturday. The prep fearless forecasters contest is still running, although the emails with the list of games was not sent out until late this afternoon.

Also, check Friday’s paper for a feature story on Patrick Henry assistant coach Jeff Johnson and a story on Cave Spring place-kicker Daniel Seymour, who will play in a football game Friday night and then run in the VHSL Group AA cross country championships Saturday morning. 

One note to those who have asked. Yes, the All-Region IV team did appear briefly on the blog Wednesday. It was sent in prematurely by one of the league’s ADs, and I complied with a request to take it down until further notice.

The playoff capsules sans predictions are below:

NORTHWEST REGION DIVISION 6
PATRICK HENRY (8-2) at COLONIAL FORGE (8-2)
Friday, 7:30 p.m.
Coaches: Patrick Henry (Alan Fiddler), Colonial Forge (Bill Brown).
Scouting Patrick Henry: PH is in the playoffs for the first time since 2000 with the last playoff win in 1994. Virginia Tech-bound QB David Prince has run for 687 yards and passed for 703. Xavier Whorley (174 carries, 1,210 yards, 18 TDs) is the top back. LB Demetrius Anderson and DE Nate Lee (21 TFLs) lead the defense. PK Jacob Otterman has five FGs.
Scouting Colonial Forge: The Forge, located in Stafford, lost 21-14 at Franklin County last year in the first round. The Eagles are 3-2 against AAA playoff teams with losses to C.D. Hylton (35-16) and Massaponax (59-30). QB Damen Daniel (592 rush yards, 962 pass yards) leads the offense. Brown has won VHSL state titles at two other schools.
Next week: The NW Region reseeds. The winner gets either Hylton or Stonewall Jackson. Read more »

The schedule for the first-round of the VHSL playoffs has been set for Timesland teams. Twenty-one of the 22 Timesland games will be played on Friday. Radford will play at Clintwood at 2 p.m. Saturday.

The complete statewide schedule is below:
 
FIRST-ROUND VHSL PLAYOFF PAIRINGS
DIVISION 6
Eastern Region
Granby (9-1) at Ocean Lakes (10-0), Friday, 7 p.m.
Bayside (8-2) at Oscar Smith (9-1), Friday, 7 p.m.
Grassfield (8-2) at Salem-Virginia Beach (8-2), Friday, 7 p.m.
Western Branch (8-2) at Bethel (8-2), Saturday, 7:30 p.m. Read more »

Here’s a nod to all you sleepy-heads who stayed up until the wee hours of the morning crunching playoff numbers.

Your dedication and interest are part of what keeps high school sports afloat.

I covered Group AAA and Group AA as far as Timesland schools last night. Here’s what we know about the Group A scenarios heading into some big games today:

DIVISION 2 WEST SECTION

Fort Chiswell will be the No. 1 seed. Wilson Memorial will be No. 2 and Dan River will be No. 3. Giles could possibly pass John Battle for the No. 4 spot, but it’s not very likely. It would require at least two huge upsets today. Graham will be the No. 6 seed. Riverheads jumped all the way from 12th up to No. 7.

Grayson County’s huge comeback win over Galax moved the Blue Devils to the No. 8 spot. Floyd County and Gretna are tied for the No. 9 spot at the moment. If unbeaten Essex wins today against Rappahannock, then Gretna would grab the No. 9 seed. In that event, Gretna would play at Grayson County, while Floyd would play at No. 7 Riverheads. James River and Union will take the next two spots. The order likely will be determined by the VHSL tiebreaker that computes the average Rating Scale score of the 10 opponents each team has played. I’ll  try to come up with that one later.

Virginia High will be the No. 13 seed. Look for a first-round rematch against Bristol rival John Battle. Stuarts Draft will be seeded No. 14. Glenvar is in, and the Highlanders will be No. 15 if Central-Wise loses today to J.I. Burton. If Central-Wise wins, Central will be No. 15 and Glenvar will be No. 16. Grundy still has a shot at the No. 16 spot if Central-Wise loses.

DIVISION 1 WEST SECTION

Honaker will get the No. 1 seed if the Tigers beat Haysi and if Richlands beats Tazewell today. If those things occur, George Wythe will be the No. 2 seed. Defending state champion Clintwood is No. 3 unless Honaker loses today.

Eastside will be seeded either No. 4 or No. 5. Haysi would move up to No. 4 with a win today over Honaker. J.I. Burton would be No. 5 with a win today and a loss by Haysi. Rural Retreat earned the No. 7 seed with its 7-3 record.

Galax, despite losing a big lead late to Grayson County on Friday, has the No. 8 spot locked up. Galax will host No. 9 Chilhowie next week. No. 10 Hurley will play at Rural Retreat. Castlewood will be No. 11 and play at the No. 6 seed. Holston is No. 12 and will play at the No. 5 seed.

The last four seeds in order are No. 13 Northwood, No. 14 Radford, No. 15 Eastern Montgomery and No. 16 Patrick Henry-Glade Spring. The school is located in Emory but that’s another story. Today’s games will determine the road trips for those four schools.

DIVISION 1 EAST SECTION

The East picture is still muddled, but it’s safe to say that unbeaten Franklin will be the No. 1 seed, Sussex Central is No. 2 and Central-Lunenburg is No. 3. Altavista will be either No. 4 or No. 5. West Point will be either No. 5 or No. 6.

There are so many games to be played today in the East that all sorts of shuffling is possible. No matter what, Parry McCluer will get a first-round game at home thanks to Friday’s shutout win over Covington. The Cougars face a road game and it’s possible the opponent could be Parry McCluer. We’ll know later today.

Bath County moved past Craig County last night into the No. 15 spot. The Chargers will travel to Sussex Central. Craig County will be No. 16 after losing five of its last six games. The Rockets will go to Franklin. How good is the East Section in Division 1? Don’t forget that last year Bath County made the long trip to Franklin and came back with an upset win over the Broncos.

Who were the biggest gainers and biggest losers after the smoke cleared Friday night in Week 9 of the high school football regular season?
With regard to how Friday night’s outcomes affected the playoff scenarios, here is the scorecard:
For the official rating scale points updated by the VHSL, click here.

TOUCHDOWNS
 1. Glenvar. The Highlanders’ 48-44 win over Radford moved them up to No. 16 in the Division 2 West Section. Glenvar now has a clear path to a playoff berth if the Highlanders can sweep Auburn and Eastern Montgomery in the last two weeks.
 2. Northside. The Vikings all but locked up a playoff berth in Region III Division 3 with their overtime victory at William Byrd. Now the Vikings have their eyes on a possible No. 2 seed even though they are No. 5 currently. Read more »