Westmont Hilltop's 29-26 win over Cambria Heights this afternoon combined with United's victory over Cambridge Springs has created a three-team logjam for seventh place in the District 6 Class A high school football standings.
As a result, it appears Glendale will be the eighth seed, while McCort slips into the seventh spot.
There will be a meeting of coaches and athletic directors from teams entering the 6-A playoffs Sunday morning at Altoona Area High School, where everything will be made official.
Glendale, United and McCort each finished with 760 points, the defending 6-A champion Crimson Crushers receiving 10 crucial power points by virtue of Westmont, a team it had beaten, coming out on top of Heights.
According to the District 6 handbook, the first tiebreaker applicable between the three schools is opponents' winning percentage. McCort's opponents this year have gone 47-34, while Glendale's are 41-40 and United's 39-41.
If all the eligible teams enter, Glendale will host United, Moshannon Valley will be at McCort, sixth-seeded Portage hosts Marion Center and Southern Huntingdon would travel to Homer-Center -- the Stingers are the 11th seed over Southern Huntingdon based on the opponents' winning percentage tiebreaker -- in the opening round. All those games would be Friday night.
However, Southern Huntingdon has indicated it would not enter the playoffs, and Marion Center, late in the week, was uncertain whether it would, meaning Homer-Center and/or Portage could have byes, as will the top four seeds: No. 1 Penns Manor, No. 2 Bellwood-Antis, No. 3 Juniata Valley and No. 4 Bishop Carroll.
The District 5 Class A bracket also came into focus with Meyersdale securing the final spot by virtue of beating Rockwood. Second-seeded Northern Bedford will host the Red Raiders next weekend.
In the other 5-A quarterfinal games, Tussey Mountain is at North Star and Windber heads to Conemaugh Township, while Berlin Brothersvalley has a first-round bye. The dates for the opening-round games will be determined in a meeting at Chestnut Ridge High School early Sunday afternoon.
For full pairings, please see Monday's Mirror.
