The first brackets of the new statewide tournament era were finally released on Monday, and local football teams found out where they’d be traveling this weekend when things get underway.
Three local football teams punched their tickets to the first iteration of the statewide tournaments, and all three were welcomed with road games and lengthy road trips in the Round of 16.
Northampton earned the No. 9 seed in the Division 4 bracket after a 6-2 regular season, and the Blue Devils will play at No. 8 Ashland (8-0) in the opening round Friday at 7 p.m.
The Clockers didn’t lose a game during the regular season, running the table despite playing a plethora of tight contests. Three of their eight wins were by single digits, including a 24-20 win over Wayland on Sept. 24. For context, Wayland is the No. 10 seed in the Division 4 bracket, one spot below Northampton.
The Blue Devils benefited from a strong strength of opponent rating, with games against postseason qualifiers Wahconah, East Longmeadow, West Springfield and Westfield. Northampton went 2-2 in those outings.
The winner of the Northampton-Ashland game would meet either No. 1 Scituate or No. 16 East Longmeadow in the quarterfinal round.
In Division 6, South Hadley (4-4) earned the No. 12 seed while Easthampton (7-1) drew the No. 13 seed in the 16-team field. The Tigers will travel to play at No. 5 Winthrop (4-4) Friday at 7 p.m. while the Eagles head to No. 4 Rockland (6-1) for a 6 p.m. kickoff, also on Friday. Both road trips clock in just under two hours.
South Hadley’s trip has the squad meeting a Winthrop program that has won three of its last four games after a 1-3 start to the year. The Pride beat Saugus, 22-0, in the regular season finale last week. They opened the season with a 30-20 loss to Stoneham, which earned the No. 1 seed in the Div. 6 field.
As for Easthampton, the Eagles will play at Rockland in a 6 p.m. kickoff Friday. The Bulldogs lost just once all season, a 24-13 defeat at the hands of Middleborough, the No. 6 seed in the Div. 4 field.
If both South Hadley and Easthampton were to spring the road upsets, they would play each other in the quarterfinal round Nov. 12 in South Hadley.
Three teams in the top 16 of the Division 6 Power Rankings were booted from the bracket after failing to meet the minimum three-win threshold for qualification. That included Archbishop Williams, which was slotted as the ninth-ranked team in the division despite a 2-6 record.
• As for teams that didn’t qualify for the postseason, area schools were assigned non-playoff matchups for this weekend on Monday.
Amherst will travel to play Belchertown on Thursday night, while Smith Vocational will also visit Mahar on Thursday. Frontier heads to Athol for a Thursday night game and Holyoke drew a bye.