Teams Battle for Play-off Spots
With one round to go in the regular season, area Firelands Challenge teams competed this week to earn coveted spots in the upcoming Play-off Round. Edison High School continues to lead in the standings and Perkins extended its hold on second place. The first two place finishers automatically advance to the Championship Round.
Bellevue, although losing by two points to South Central in their Thursday match, continues to hold onto third place. South Central with its victory moves into fourth place.
In a close match with St. Mary Central Catholic, only seven points separated the three teams going into the final Lightning category, with South Central and Bellevue in a tie. South Central scored two points to finish with 36. Bellevue finished with 34 and St. Mary with 30 points.
In another tight match on Tuesday, Willard High School held a one point lead over Huron going into the final Lightning category. Willard gained a point to finish with 36 points and Huron lost a point to finish with 34. The third team in the match, Lakota, finished with 16 points.
Huron won an appeal of an answer from its fourth round match. As a result of the appeal and Tuesday’s score, Huron currently holds the fifth spot in the standings.
The third-, fourth- and fifth-place teams earn spots in the Play-off Round.
In other fourth-round matches, Edison (47 points) defeated teams from St. Paul (41) and Norwalk (26). Edison was behind in the match until the final quarter. It pulled ahead by answering its American History question and stayed in the lead for the rest of the match.
Sandusky pulled out a one-point victory over Margaretta in their match with Port Clinton. The final scores were Sandusky 34, Margaretta 33, and Port Clinton 16.
Perkins had an easy time in its match with New London and Monroeville. It led from the start and finished with 42 points. New London’s team was short-handed due to isolations for Covid. It finished with 16 points and Monroeville had 23.
Teams from Danbury and Western Reserve had byes in the fifth round.
The top five teams and their cumulative scores after Round V are:
Edison 285
Perkins 215
Bellevue 191
South Central 170
Huron 168
Round VI matches are scheduled for January 18 and 19. Buckeye Broadband will be taping these matches.
