Staff report

SALISBURY — The NCHSAA released the soccer final RPI rankings, seeds and pairings on Thursday.

First-round games are scheduled to be played on Saturday, although they can be played on Friday if both teams agree to it.

Salisbury will be at home for the first round. Carson, North Rowan and A.L. Brown will be on the road.

The seasons are over for South Rowan, East Rowan and West Rowan.

The soccer playoffs move quickly. More rounds are scheduled for Nov. 12, 14 and 16. Regionals are on Nov. 19. State championship matches will be played in Matthews on Nov. 22-23.

1A — North Rowan is seeded 25th in the 1A West bracket. The Cavaliers (5-8-5) will travel to Monroe to play eighth-seeded Union Academy (13-6-2). Union Academy went 10-0 in the 1A/2A Yadkin Valley Conference.

Gray Stone got a home game as the No. 16 seed in the 1A West bracket and will host No. 17 Murphy. Thomasville is the No. 10 seed and will host No. 23 Jackson Day, a Charlotte charter school.

2A — Salisbury was ninth in the final 2A West RPI rankings but moved up to the 8 seed for the state playoffs. Newton-Conover had a higher RPI ranking than the Hornets but was not a conference champion, so the Hornets moved up a spot in the playoff seeds. That could be meaningful. If Salisbury can win its first playoff game, it would be at home again in the second round against No. 9 Shelby or No. 24 Hendersonville.

The Hornets (19-2-3) will open the playoffs at Ludwig Stadium against No. 25 seed Bandys (13-9-1), the fourth-place finisher in the Catawba Valley Conference, a strong soccer league that includes West Caldwell, Newton-Conover and Lincolnton.

East Davidson is seeded 21st and plays at No. 12 Newton-Conover. No. 30 Lexington is at No. 3 West Stokes.

3A — South Rowan finished 35th in the final 3A West RPI rankings. East Rowan was 46th and West Rowan was 50th out of 59 teams.

Seeded 29th, Carson (8-7-6) will go to Lenoir to play No. 4 seed Hibriten on Saturday. Carson had to make a strong push in the second half of the South Piedmont Conference season to finish fifth.

Hibriten (15-6-2) plays in a split 3A/4A conference. The Panthers finished second in their conference behind 4A Watauga. As the league’s top 3A team, Hibriten was seeded as a conference champion for the playoffs.

Carson has reported a 6:30 p.m. start time for that game.

Four more SPC teams made the 3A West playoffs. No. 6 Concord hosts No. 27 East Henderson. No. 15 Robinson hosts No. 18 Dudley. No. 16 Northwest Cabarrus hosts No. 17 Tuscola. No. 23 Central Cabarrus is at No. 10 Enka.

4A — A.L. Brown (9-12-3) made the 4A West playoff bracket. The Wonders finished fifth in the Greater Metro Conference. Seeded 30th, the Wonders will play against No. 3 Lake Norman (19-2-1), the GMC champ.

Six of the seven GMC teams made the playoffs. No. 11 Cox Mill hosts No. 22 Providence. No. 23 Mooresville plays at No. 10 Reagan. No. 15 Hickory Ridge is home against No. 18 Weddington. No. 31 West Cabarrus is at No. 2 Myers Park.