Staff report

SALISBURY — The NCHSAA playoff brackets were released on Saturday.

North Rowan (1A), Salisbury (2A) and West Rowan (3A) are the Rowan County teams that made the field.

A lot of teams of area interest, including A.L. Brown, Mooresville and Davie County are in the 4A West bracket.

1A

Central Carolina Conference runner-up North Rowan (8-2) is seeded fourth in 1A and got a favorable draw.

The Cavaliers will be home on Friday against Elkin. Elkin is 3-7 and has been outscored 104-0 the last two weeks, so the Cavaliers will be heavily favored to win that one.

North’s second-round game also would be at home against the winner of the Draughn-Corvian Community game. Seeded 13th, Draughn (8-2) will be favored to beat Corvian (5-5).

Thomasville (11) and South Davidson (27), the other two 1A teams in the Central Carolina Conference, made the  playoffs.

Thomasville hosts Andrews, the mountain Andrews, not the one in High Point, in the first round. South Davidson has a tough first-game at No. 6 seed Albemarle.

The top three seeds in the 1A West bracket are Robbinsville (9-1), Mount Airy (10-0) and Eastern Randolph (9-1).

2A

Central Carolina Conference champ Salisbury (10-0) got the No. 2 seed in the 2A West bracket.

The top teams in the bracket, in order, are Reidsville (9-1), Salisbury, Community School of Davidson (9-1), Bunker Hill (10-0), Monroe (9-1), Randleman (9-1) and Shelby (7-3).

Shelby is the No. 7 seed, but you always find the Golden Lions first when you’re looking at a 2A bracket. Shelby crushed SalisburyBurns 58-27 on Friday, so Shelby isn’t going to be easy to knock out.

Salisbury’s first playoff opponent is a CCC team — East Davidson. The Hornets beat East Davidson 57-6 on Oct. 6, so Hornet fans aren’t going to lose any sleep worrying about that one. It will be played on Friday at Ludwig Stadium.

Salisbury’s second-round matchup would be at home and would be against the winner of Maiden and East Gaston. Maiden (7-3) is seeded 15th and beat the Hornets in the playoffs two years ago. East Gaston (8-2) is seeded 18th.

Lexington made the playoffs as the No. 30 seed and goes to Community School of Davidson in the first round.

Mount Pleasant, coached by South Rowan grad and former Carson coach Daniel Crosby, is the 26 seed and goes to Shelby in the first round.

Randleman was 9-0 and headed to a better seed but lost to Eastern Randolph 22-21 on Friday.

Monroe lost to West Charlotte early but has won eight in a row and will be team to be reckoned with.

3A

The top four seeds in the 3A West bracket are Crest,  Hickory, West Henderson and Dudley.

Undefeated Robinson (10-0) is seeded fifth.

West Rowan got a higher seed than expected (No. 21), but did not get a favorable draw.

West (5-5) plays at No. 12 Northwest Cabarrus (9-1), another South Piedmont Conference team, this Friday. Northwest smashed the Falcons 49-9 on Sept. 29.

The SPC was dealt a pretty miserable hand. The winner of Northwest-West will get a trip to SPC champ Robinson.

Fifth-seeded Robinson, the only team to beat Northwest this season, will be favored by 40 or so in the first round against North Davidson, but the three SPC teams in the field are in one four-team group. Only one of them can come out of there.

Carson came close to making the bracket, but the 30-27 loss to Central Cabarrus late in the season killed the Cougars’ chances.

Concord also didn’t make it. Concord couldn’t make the bracket ahead of Carson.

4A

There are lots of teams from the same conference playing each other in the first round.

In the 4A West bracket, No. 30 A.L. Brown (5-5) plays at No. 3 Mooresville (10-0). The Greater Metro Conference rivals played on Oct. 20, with Mooresville building a 30-7 lead and winning 30-20.

Davie (7-3) is seeded 14th and hosts 19th-seeded Mount Tabor (6-4).

That’s a Central Piedmont Conference rematch that Davie can get excited about. Davie lost 35-34 at Mount Tabor on Oct. 6.

The top four seeds in 4A West are Weddington, Watauga, Mooresville and Grimsley.

Lake Norman, seeded 10th, hosts 23 seed Independence.

Cox Mill is seeded 20th and plays at No. 13 Sun Valley.

Hickory Ridge is seeded 31st and plays at Watauga.

No. 7 East Forsyth hosts 26 seed Page.

No. 11 West Forsyth hosts 22 seed Ardrey Kell.

Reagan is the 25 seed and plays at 8 seed TC Roberson.