BOECK: A look at the Section VI Football Playoff Picture heading to the final week

Francis Boeck
2 hours ago
9 min read

CLASS AA

(All seven teams in AA get into the Playoffs – No. 1 seed gets first-round bye)

Bennett and Orchard Park will square off Friday night with the victor getting the No. 1 seed in Class AA and a bye in the first round.

Bennett is undefeated in league play and would only slide down to No. 2 with a loss.

Orchard Park is 4-1, their lone league loss coming in a Week 2 game against Lancaster. OP would likely get the No. 2 seed with a loss, but could fall to No. 3.

Lancaster ended league play on a low note last week, falling to Bennett 36-7. The Legends could end up with the No. 2 or No. 4 seed depending on how the remaining Class AA games play out.

Jamestown dominated Niagara Falls Saturday, 49-6, to clinch a home game in the first round of the playoffs.

With the loss, Niagara Falls cannot end up with any higher than the No. 5 seed and could fall to last place with a loss to Hutch Tech this week.

This week, if Jamestown beats Lockport and Bennett beats OP, then Jamestown, OP and Lancaster would all be tied with a 4-2 record for the No. 2 seed, and no team beating all the others.

The tiebreaker in this scenario is Point differential in the games played amongst the three teams (not the overall or adjusted points differential on the standings page of sectionvifootball.com).

Important note for using point differential in tiebreakers: No more than a 20-point difference in a single game will be counted. Meaning, if Team A beats Team B 50-0, it only counts as +20 for Team A and -20 for Team B.

Here’s a breakdown:

-Lancaster beat Orchard Park 41-33

-Jamestown beat Lancaster 33-26

-Orchard Park beat Jamestown 30-19

Therefore:

OP (-8 + 11) = +3

LAN (+8 - 7) = +1

Jamestown (+7 -11) = -4

The team with the highest point differential wins the three-way tiebreaker. Once the winner of the three-way tiebreaker has been determined, we revert to the head-to-head to decide between the final remaining teams.

Therefore Orchard Park gets the No. 2 seed, Jamestown gets the No. 3 seed and Lancaster gets the No. 4 seed.

Here’s a look at how the top four seeds could end up:

IF BEN & JT WIN	IF BEN & LOCK WIN	IF OP & JT WIN	IF OP & LOCK WIN
1. Bennett 2. Orchard Park 3. Jamestown 4. Lancaster	1. Bennett 2. Lancaster 3. Orchard Park 4. Jamestown	1. Orchard Park 2. Bennett 3. Jamestown 4. Lancaster	1. Orchard Park 2. Bennett 3. Lancaster 4. Jamestown

Class A

(Two Divisions, Top 4 from each division get into playoffs)

Class A1

As expected, the top seed in Class A1 will come down the Week 8 matchup between Williamsville North and Clarence.

Last week, Williamsville North defeated Sweet Home to move to 5-0 in league play. Meanwhile, Clarence also took care of business, shutting out Frontier to improve to 4-1.

The Spartans will capture the Class A1 crown with the victory.

But things aren’t quite as simple for Clarence.

You see, West Seneca West beat Clarence and if the Red Devils beat Williamsville North all three would end up with a 5-1 record - and no team beating all the others.

The tiebreaker in this scenario is Point differential in the games played amongst the three teams (not the overall or adjusted points differential on the standings page of sectionvifootball.com).

Here’s a breakdown:

West Seneca West beat Clarence 21-14

Williamsville North beat West Seneca West 30-18

Point Differential:

WSW +7 - 12 = -5

CLR -7*

WN +12*

*Incomplete because Clarence and Williamsville North haven’t played one another yet

Clarence needs to win by at least 10 points against Williamsville North to get the No. 1 seed. Any smaller margin of victory - or a loss - they end up with the No. 3 seed.

That’s because if Williamsville North loses by 9 points or less, the Spartans will still end up with the highest point differential of the three.

Since West Seneca West beat Clarence head-to-head, the Warhawks get the No. 2 seed.

West Seneca West also ends up with the No. 2 seed in the event of Williamsville North winning.

Kenmore West clinched the No. 4 seed in Class A2 – even though they lost to Niagara-Wheatfield last Thursday.

The Blue Devils, the Falcons and Sweet Home are tied with a with a 2-4 record - and no team beating all the others.

So it came down to point differential.

Kenmore West beat Sweet Home 28-6

Sweet Home beat Niagara-Wheatfield 14-12

Niagara-Wheatfield beat Kenmore West 27-20

Therefore:

KW (+20 – 7) = +14

NW (-2 + 7) = +5

SH (-20 + 2) = -18

Once again, the team with the highest point differential wins the three-way tiebreaker. Once the winner of the three-way tiebreaker has been determined, we revert to the head-to-head to decide between the final remaining teams.

Niagara-Wheatfield needed to beat the Blue Devils by at least 12 points to get the No. 4 seed.

Sweet Home would have gotten the No. 4 seed if it had beaten Williamsville North Friday.

Class A2

Health Sciences, McKinley, Williamsville East and Grand Island will make the playoffs out of Class A2 – with that in all likelihood being the order.

Simply put, Health Sciences gets the top seed with a win over Williamsville East. But they still have a good shot of getting it even if they lose.

Williamsville East can get the top seed with a win, but they also need some help from Grand Island who takes on McKinley this week.

Similar to Class A1, you could see a three-way tie for the No. 1 seed.

However, Williamsville East doesn’t control as much of its destiny as Clarence does in A1.

Health Sciences has been taking care of business all season long – not only winning but beating opponents by 20 points or more.

So we’ll take a look at what a three-way of Will East, Health Sciences and McKinley (we’re saying for the moment McKinley beats GI).

Health Sciences beat McKinley 44-20

McKinley beat Williamsville East 28-0

Therefore:

McKinley (+20 – 20) = 0

Will East -20*

Health Sciences +20*

*Incomplete because Will East and Health Sciences haven’t played one another yet

A blowout win for Will East only ties all three teams with a 0 point differential.

The next tiebreaker, Win/loss versus common divisional opponents, is moot since all three beat the rest of the teams in Class A2.

So then we go to point differential versus common divisional opponents;

Health Sciences, in this scenario drops from +120 to +100

McKinley is at +80 but would have to go up to at least +81 and can get to +100.

Will East is at +49 and could only get up to a +69.

The fifth and final tiebreaker is least number of points allowed in league schedule – a category Health Sciences leads but a big margin.

Again the only way for Will East to get the top seed is to win and have McKinley lose.

Not only potentially helping Will East, a Grand Island victory over McKinley would also move them to the No. 3 seed, pushing McKinley to the No. 4 seed.

If Will East outright loses (or loses a tiebreaker) to Health Sciences, they get the No. 3 seed.

Class B

(Two Divisions, Top 4 from each division get into playoffs)

Class B1

Class B1 is all set.

1. Williamsville South

2. West Seneca East

3. Pioneer

4. South Park

Class B2

Iroquois has clinched the top seed in Class B2.

Lackawanna, Depew and Olean will be the other three teams – the order is to be determined.

This past Saturday, Lackawanna held off Depew, 18-13.

This week, Lackawanna will travel all the way down to Cattaraugus County to take on Olean. A win for Lackawanna means they get the No. 2 seed. Depew gets the No. 3 seed and Olean would get the final playoff spot.

If Olean wins – the Huskies, Lackawanna and Depew would all have a 4-2 record - with no team beating all the others.

The tiebreaker in this scenario is Point differential in the games played amongst the three teams (not the overall or adjusted points differential on the standings page of sectionvifootball.com).

Here’s a breakdown:

Depew beat Olean 28-26

Lackawanna beat Depew 18-13

Point Differential:

DEP +2 - 5 = -3

LACK +5*

OLN -2*

*Incomplete because Lackawanna and Olean haven’t played one another yet

Olean needs to win by at least four points to get the No. 2 seed. In that case, Lackawanna gets the No. 3 seed and Depew falls to the No. 4 seed.

Class C

(Two Divisions, Top 4 from each division get into playoffs)

Class C North

Barker/Roy-Hart, whose only loss is a 34-15 decision to Class D’s Newfane, has clinched the No. 1 seed.

They beat both one loss teams (Eden/North Collins and Akron) in Class C North and therefore cannot fall below them.

Eden/North Collins and Akron have each clinched playoff berths.

Medina and Maritime/Tapestry are both in the hunt for the No. 4 seed.

Two games to keep an eye on in Class C North; Eden/North Collins versus Alden and Maritime/Tapestry versus Barker/Roy-Hart.

If Eden/North Collins wins they move to 5-1, the same record as Akron who has finished up league play.

Because C North has nine teams not all of the teams will play each other – as is the case with these two teams.

In these cases, tiebreaking procedures go to win/loss versus common divisional opponents.

Eden/North Collins and Akron have each played or about to play Barker/Roy-Hart, Alden*, Tonawanda, Maritime/Tapestry and JFK.

Akron went 3-2 against those teams and Eden/North Collins is 3-1 as they prepare to take on Alden.

So if Eden/North Collins wins they get the No. 2 seed, Akron gets the No. 3 seed. If Eden/North Collins loses, they end up with a lower overall divisional record (4-2) and Akron gets the No. 2 seed.

In the case of Eden/North Collins losing, Medina and Maritime/Tapestry could all end up with a 4-2 overall record. Luckily for Eden/North Collins, they beat both of those teams - winning any kind of tiebreaker with them.

Thus Eden/North Collins cannot fall any lower than the No. 3 seed.

Now let’s look at the final playoff spot.

Medina sits at 4-2 with their league play wrapped up. Maritime/Tapestry is 3-2 as they get ready to take on Roy-Hart/Barker.

If Maritime/Tapestry wins they would move to 4-2 tied with Medina having not played each other.

So once again we go to win/loss versus common divisional opponents. Maritime/Tapestry and Medina have each played or about to play Alden, Barker/Roy-Hart*, Eden/North Collins, Tonawanda and Cleveland Hill.

Medina went 3-2 in these games. Maritime/Tapestry is 3-1 as they get ready to take on Barker/Roy-Hart.

However if Maritime/Tapestry loses, they end up 3-3 overall divisional record thus meaning there would be no tie to break against Medina.

Therefore Maritime/Tapestry needs to beat Barker/Roy-Hart in order to get into the playoffs, otherwise Medina gets in.

If E/NC & M/T both win	If E/NC wins & M/T loses	If E/NC loses & M/T wins	If E/NC loses & M/T loses
1. Barker/Roy-Hart 2. Eden/North Collins 3. Akron 4. Maritime/Tapestry	1. Barker/Roy-Hart 2. Eden/North Collins 3. Akron 4. Medina	1. Barker/Roy-Hart 2. Akron 3. Eden/North Collins 4. Maritime/Tapestry	1. Barker/Roy-Hart 2. Akron 3. Eden/North Collins 4. Medina

Class C South

Southwestern/Frewsburg clinched the top seed in Class C South.

Four other teams are jockeying for the next three final playoff spots.

Chautauqua Lake/Westfield/Brocton and Salamanca have clinched postseason berths. Their Week 8 matchup will decide who gets an opening round home game.

With a loss, the worst CL/W/B can fall to is No. 3.

Salamanca could fall to the No. 4 seed if they lose and Portville beats CSP.

CSP needs to win and can only get as high as the No. 4 seed.

IF CL/W/B & CSP win	IF CL/W/B & PORT win	IF SAL & CSP win	IF SAL & Portville win
1. SW/F 2. CL/W/B 3. SAL 4. CSP	1. SW/F 2. CL/W/B 3. PORT 4. SAL	1. SW/F 2. SAL 3. CL/W/B 4. CSP	1. SW/F 2. SAL 3. CL/W/B 4. PORT

Class D

(All eight teams in D get into the Playoffs)

1. Wilson-Newfane winner

2. Wilson-Newfane loser

3. Gowanda/PV-Randolph winner

4. Gowanda/PV-Randolph loser

5. Franklinville/Ellicottville-Silver Creek/Forestville winner

6. Franklinville/Ellicottville-Silver Creek/Forestville loser

7. Allegany-Limestone/Hinsdale-Catt Little Valley winner

8. Allegany-Limestone/Hinsdale-Catt Little Valley loser