ALBEMARLE — On Sunday afternoon, the North Carolina High School Athletic Association released its football playoff brackets.
Three Stanly County teams — North Stanly, South Stanly, and Albemarle — were included in this year’s tournament and are set to play their first-round matchups on Friday night.
In the 2A bracket’s West Region, the No. 19 North Stanly Comets (6-4) will head to Lawndale to face the No. 14 Burns Bulldogs (7-3).
The Comets finished their season with a 3-1 Yadkin Valley Conference record — good for second in the conference — as they closed out their regular season winning two out of three games. North will face a Burns team that tallied a second-place 5-1 record in the Southern Piedmont Conference but lost its season-finale after winning six in a row.
Either the Comets and Bulldogs will play on Nov. 22 against the winner of No. 3 Monroe (9-0) and No. 30 T.W. Andrews (4-6).
In the 1A bracket’s West Region, the No. 8 South Stanly Bulls (5-4) will host the No 25. Avery County Vikings (2-7).
With a 2-2 YVC record, the Bulls finished in third place in their conference standings, closing out their campaign with a 20-14 home win over Union Academy (5-5) following back-to-back losses. The Vikings were 2-2 in the Western Highlands Conference this season, losing all five of their non-conference matchups.
On Nov. 22, the victor between the Bulls and Vikings will challenge the winner of No. 9 Starmount (9-1) and No. 24 Andrews (4-5).
In the 1A bracket’s West Region, the No. 23 Albemarle Bulldogs (3-7) will travel to Ronda to challenge the No. 10 East Wilkes Cardinals (8-2).
Finishing in fourth place (1-3) in the YVC, the Bulldogs struggled down the stretch of their schedule as they lost four of their final five matchups. This season, the Cardinals claimed the third-place spot in the Northwest Conference rankings with a 4-2 conference record.
Either the Bulldogs or Cardinals will advance to play against the winner of No. 7 North Rowan (6-4) and No. 26 Cherryville (3-7) on Nov. 22.
Over in the Rocky River Conference, the fifth-place West Stanly Colts (1-9) failed to land a state playoff bid this season, finishing with a 1-4 conference record. The Colts’ single victory marked their least successful season since struggling through a winless 0-11 campaign in 2012.
The NCHSAA state playoffs are scheduled to have third-round matchups on Nov. 29, followed by fourth-round matchups on Dec. 6; regionals are slated for Dec. 13 and championship games are set for Dec. 20 and Dec. 21.
The 2A and 4A state title games will be played at North Carolina’s Kenan Memorial Stadium in Chapel Hill, while the 1A and 3A games will be played at NC State’s Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh.