Published: October 22, 2009 06:09 am      

Postseason bids on line for Sabers, Comets

By Jon Gremmels

Herald Sports Editor

CLINTON — Success on the football field this fall has taken most of the suspense out of the playoff picture for area high school teams in Illinois and Iowa.

Clinton, Preston and Morrison enter the final week of the season with 8-0 records, while Maquoketa and Northeast also have locked up postseason bids.

But, while those teams await only word of their substate or first-round opponent, Central DeWitt and Bellevue have a lot riding on their outcomes Friday night.

“We haven’t really looked at the scenarios,” Central DeWitt coach Kurt Kreiter said. “The common denominator is we have to win.”

Central DeWitt kept its hopes alive last Friday when it handed La Porte City Union its second loss of the season.

“It was perfect (timing),” Kreiter said. “We’re still not a sure bet, but staying in the postseason hunt and getting a little momentum, the timing is perfect.”

The Sabers (5-3, 3-3 district) enter Friday’s game at Vinton-Shellsburg tied with Benton Community for fourth place in Class 3A District 4, with the top four teams advancing to next Wednesday’s substate round. The bad news for the Sabers is that Benton has the tiebreaker edge on DeWitt. The good news: Benton plays unbeaten Marion on Friday.

“I think even Vinton-Shellsburg (3-5, 2-4) has a chance of getting in if they beat us and Benton Community loses,” Kreiter said of a scenario that would create a three-way tie for fourth place. “Somebody told me they’re the team that goes then.”

Bellevue (5-3) enters its game Friday at winless Alburnett tied for fourth place in Class 1A District 4, but the Comets will get in with a win because they have the head-to-head tiebreaker edge over North Linn, also 3-3 in the district. They might get in with a loss, too, because they also beat Maquoketa Valley (2-4 district) this season.

Even for the teams that don’t have to sweat it out Friday night, they still want to end the regular season on a positive note.

“We were in that situation last year and didn’t get it done,” Maquoketa coach Kevin Bowman said of being one the teams that stayed home after finishing in a three-way tie for fourth place in the district. “It’s nice not to have that, but we don’t want to go into playoffs with two losses.”