By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
Southeast Alamance holds the highest seed of any team from Alamance County going into the high school football state playoffs.
First-round games are at 7:00 p.m. Friday, when there will be four games in Alamance County.
Southeast and Cummings are in Class 2-A East Region. Williams, Western Alamance, Southern Alamance, and Eastern Alamance are in the Class 3-A East Region field.
Seeding is based on a formula that includes team record and a strength of schedule component that, in part, involves the winning percentage of opponents. That explains why Western Alamance is seeded ahead of Southern Alamance despite conference standings and a head-to-head result.
Graham (1-9), a Class 2-A school, didn’t qualify for the postseason.
Here’s a look at the matchups:
Heide Trask at Southeast Alamance
Southeast (10-0) is the No. 3 seed in the East Region. Heide Trask (6-4) is seeded No. 30.
This will be the first home playoff game in Southeast program history. In the school’s first season last year, the Stallions played three road postseason games.
Last year, Heide Trask was a first-round loser at Cummings.
SouthWest Edgecombe at Cummings
Cummings (8-2) is seeded No. 13 with a first-round date vs. No. 20 seed SouthWest Edgecombe (5-5).
This is the fourth year in a row that the Cavaliers begin the playoffs with a home game.
“I think we’re going to have a deep playoff run,” Cummings linebacker Jaheim Marley said.
Cummings receiver/strong safety Ja’Kway Robertson didn’t play in the regular-season finale because of a shoulder sprain.
East Wake at Williams
Central 3-A Conference champion Williams (9-1) is seeded fifth and takes on No. 28 seed East Wake (5-5).
This is the third year in a row that the Bulldogs, who own a nine-game winning streak, open the postseason at Burlington Memorial Stadium.
Vance County at Western Alamance
No. 16 seed Western Alamance (7-3), which finished third in the Central 3-A Conference, meets No. 17 seed Vance County (8-2).
Western has dropped first-round road games in each of the last three years.
Vance County posted a 5-0 record in non-conference play, including a 14-6 decision in early September at Central 3-A Conference member Orange.
The Vipers are a relatively new school in their seventh football season. They went 10-0 in the 2023 regular season, but their lone playoff victory came in the 2022 first round.
Southern Alamance at Cape Fear
Southern Alamance (7-3), the Central 3-A Conference runner-up and a 21-3 winner at Western Alamance to end the regular season, has the No. 20 seed.
Southern made the deepest playoff run of any Alamance County team last year with three victories before falling to eventual state runner-up Fayetteville Seventy-First. Now it’s back to Fayetteville to face a different foe.
No. 13 seed Cape Fear (9-1) has won four straight since a 43-3 loss to Fayetteville Seventy-First. Last year, Cape Fear beat visiting Western Alamance in the first round.
Eastern Alamance at Pikeville Aycock
No. 29 seed Eastern Alamance (3-7) will be on the road for a playoff game for the first time since the 2021 spring season.
Last year, Eastern’s streak of 15 seasons with at least one playoff victory ended.
The closest result for fourth-seeded Pikeville Aycock (10-0) is a 32-12 victory at Wilson Fike.
Class 1-A
Eastern Randolph (10-0) is the No. 4 seed in the West Region with a game against No. 29 seed Swain County (1-9) to begin the playoffs. Graham resident Burton Cates is Eastern Randolph’s coach.
