Frontier Regional School, Greenfield High School and Pioneer Valley Regional School are all in the western Massachusetts postseason hunt through five weeks of the eight-week regular season.
The WMass Football Committee released its first Power Rankings of the season Monday and, with three weeks remaining before the playoff field is set, the three local teams are squarely in the hunt.
Frontier is firmly entrenched in the Division VII field, which has only nine teams vying for the four spots. Wahconah Regional High School and Frontier lead the field as the top two teams in the Walker System, and both teams nearly seem assured of a playoff spot based on the rest of the Division VII field. Wahconah is 5-0 and has a 119.21 Walker rating, while Frontier is 4-1 and comes in at 104.07. Monument Mountain Regional High School is third at 3-1 with a 91.40, and Palmer High School of the Tri-County League is the only other team currently qualified for the playoffs (teams must be above .500) and has a 85.32 Walker rating.
Four teams still remain eligible in Division VII, where Chicopee High School and South Hadley High School are 2-3, while Pittsfield High School and Taconic High School are 1-4 and theoretically have a chance to qualify. South Hadley appears to have a chance to get in with games against Pittsfield, Taconic and Chicopee remaining. Going 2-1 in those games would qualify the Tigers and likely give them a higher Walker number than Palmer, a two-loss team out of the TCL. Palmer also has some difficult games remaining (Smith Voke, Pioneer and Mohawk) and could very well lose another game, further hurting the Panthers’ chances. Chicopee has unbeaten Hoosac Valley Regional School, High School of Commerce and South Hadley remaining, and very well could go 1-2 in those games and fail to qualify for the postseason. That means that Frontier is very likely in, assuming it doesn’t lose its final three games.
The Division VIII field is much more murky and difficult to predict. The field consists of 15 teams (easily the largest in WMass), of which six are currently eligible. Four of those teams are likely to end up in the playoffs (there are five teams currently at 2-3 but none thought to be in the postseason hunt).
Hoosac Valley is a lock to make the field at 5-0 and a 125.70 Walker rating. Mt. Greylock Regional High School is second with a 4-1 record and 104.12 Walker, and Ware High School at 5-0 is third with a 100.21 Walker.
The fourth spot is interesting because Greenfield at 3-2 is currently in fourth place with a 96.82 Walker, while Lee at 4-1 is in fifth at 92.78. Pioneer, at 4-1 in the TCL, is currently sixth with a 80.37 rating.
Lee has some tough opponents remaining that should help the Wildcats boost their rating, especially if they win. Lee has Belchertown, Amherst and Monument, the final two of which are over .500 and should only help Lee’s ranking. If Lee wins out and Greenfield wins its final two games (the Green Wave has a bye this week followed by games with Athol and Belchertown), it appears very possible that Lee would overtake the Wave in the Walker rating. Pioneer will have to win its remaining two regular-season games (Pathfinder this week and Palmer next Friday, followed by a Week 8 bye) and get some help in order to make the postseason. But the Panthers have a chance.
It should be an interesting month of October as the push for the playoffs continues.