With just one week left in the regular season, several area teams still find themselves on the District 11 playoff bubble.

District 11 conducted a teleconference on Monday to lay out the playoff scenarios in all six classes.

Three area teams — Marian, Northwestern and Lehighton — have already clinched District 11 playoff berths.

Ironically, while both the Colts (4-5) and Indians (4-5) have clinched berths despite having losing records, the two local teams with the best records have yet to secure a berth.

Tamaqua and Jim Thorpe bring 8-1 records into the final weekend of the regular season. But, because they are competing in the highly-competitive 3A Class, neither team has clinched a playoff spot.

The good news for both teams is that they control their own destiny. With wins on Friday, the Raiders and Olympians are in no matter what else happens over the weekend.

The other local team still in contention for a district berth is Palmerton. Like Tamaqua and Jim Thorpe, the Blue Bombers also control their own destiny as they will clinch a berth with a win.

Here’s a breakdown of the playoff possibilities in each of the six classes:

Class 1A

Area team — MARIAN

The four semifinal teams have already been set, and it’s more than likely the seedings won’t change from where they are right now — 1. Williams Valley, 2. Tri-Valley, 3. Nativity, 4. Marian.

• Williams Valley and Tri-Valley could swap spots if the Vikings lose and the Bulldogs win.

• Nativity and Marian appear to be locked into their spots.

Class 2A

Area team — PALMERTON

This is a subregional as District 11 and District 12 (Philadelphia) combine to fill the four playoff spots. District 11 is guaranteed two berths and District 12 one. The other berth goes to the remaining team with the best power rating regardless of district.

• The top three seeds — West Catholic, Bishop McDevitt and Schuylkill Haven — have all clinched playoff berths.

• The top seed will be West Catholic.

• Bishop McDevitt is currently No. 2 and Schuylkill Haven No. 3. Those teams could flip spots if McDevitt losses and Haven wins.

• Palmerton is No. 4. The Bombers will qualify if they beat Northern Lehigh.

• No. 5 Mahanoy Area gets in if it beats winless Shenandoah and Palmerton loses.

• No. 6 Minersville is also still alive. The Miners need to beat Panther Valley and have Palmerton and Mahanoy Area both lose.

• If Palmerton, Mahanoy and Minersville all lose, the Bombers will get the No. 4 seed.

Class 3A

Area teams —

JIM THORPE, TAMAQUA

No class in the district is as top-heavy as Class 3A.

The top four teams — North Schuylkill, Tamaqua, Notre Dame of Green Pond and Jim Thorpe, all have 8-1 records. Current No. 5 seed Palisades is 7-2.

• North Schuylkill is the only team in the class to have clinched a district berth. The Spartans will finish as the No. 1 seed if they beat Pottsville.

• Tamaqua (at Marian), Notre Dame (at Wilson) and Jim Thorpe (at Lehighton) are all in with wins.

• Palisades is in if it beats Saucon Valley and either Tamaqua, Notre Dame or Jim Thorpe loses.

• Tamaqua secures the No. 2 seed and a semifinal home game by beating Marian.

• Jim Thorpe can get as high as the No. 2 seed and earn a semifinal home game, but would need to win and have Tamaqua and Notre Dame lose.

Class 4A

Area teams —

NORTHWESTERN, LEHIGHTON

This is one of two classes in the district (6A is the other) where eight teams qualify for postseason play instead of four.

With just nine Class 4A teams in the district, and with one-win Wilson being one of them, the other eight teams clinched playoffs berths several weeks ago.

• Bethlehem Catholic, Northwestern, Saucon Valley and Pottsville are currently the top four teams. None of them are locked into their current spot, but all of them have secured a spot somewhere in the top four, which guarantees them a home game in the quarterfinal round.

• If Bethehem Catholic loses to Allentown Central Catholic, either Northwestern (at Catasauqua) or Saucon Valley (vs. Palisades) would be the top seed if they won and the other lost. If both win, the two teams would be extremely close.

• Lehighton is currently seventh. The Indians can finish as high as sixth if they beat Jim Thorpe, or as low as eighth if they lose and Blue Mountain beats Schuylkill Haven.

Class 5A

Area teams — None

This is a subregional with District 11 and District 2.

The teams will be seeded by rating points, but if it turns out that two teams from each district qualify, the seedings will not be used in the semifinal round. Instead, the two District 11 teams will meet each other and the two District 2 teams will play.

If three teams qualify from one district and just one team from the other, the semifinal pairing will be determined by seedings. If the final involves two District 11 teams, then the championship game will follow District 11 protocol and be played at a neutral site. If the final pits a D-11 team against a D-2 team, then the final will be at the home field of the higher seeded team.

• Wallenpaupack and East Stroudsburg South have already clinched berths.

• Southern Lehigh is currently seeded third and has almost assuredly qualified.

• Pocono Mountain East controls its own destiny for the final spot. It’s in with a win over Pocono Mountain West or a loss by Wyoming Valley West. WVW needs to win and have PME lose.

Class 6A

Area teams — None

This is also an eight-team bracket. Six teams — Freedom, Emmaus, Parkland, Stroudsburg, Northampton, Easton — are in.

• Nazareth is currently seventh and is almost assuredly in, although there is a slight chance if it loses at Easton that it could get bumped.

• The eighth spot will go to either Pocono Mountain West or Liberty. Liberty controls its own destiny, but it needs to upset powerful Freedom to clinch the spot. Liberty can also get in if it loses, but only if Pocono Mountain West loses to rival Pocono Mountain East. PMW gets the final spot if it wins and Liberty loses.

• Freedom is the top seed if it beats Liberty, and maybe even if it loses.

• Emmaus, Parkland, Stroudsburg, Northampton, Easton and Nazareth all still have a chance to finish in the top four spots and earn a semifinal home game.

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COMEBACK WIN ... Marian trailed Mahanoy Area by an 18-7 score last week before rallying for a 28-25 victory.

Over the last 30 years, the Colts have come back from a 10-point or larger deficit 10 different times.

Bu what’s the largest comeback in the area?

Since 1987, three times a club has rallied from 20-or-more points.

• Jim Thorpe trailed Marian 20-0 on Oct. 30, 2009 before posting a 37-34 win.

• Panther Valley faced a 21-0 hole against West Hazleton on Sept. 22, 1990, but rallied for a 26-21 victory.

• Pleasant Valley faced a 23-0 deficit versus East Stroudsburg South on Oct. 3, 2014 and came back for a 33-30 win.

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WORKHORSE ... Pleasant Valley’s Nasai Moon had quite a game last Friday in a loss at East Stroudsburg South.

The senior carried an incredible 43 times for 263 yards in the contest.

Over the past 25 seasons, no PV player has had that many rushing attempts in one game (Austyn Borre had 35 carries on Sept. 6, 2013).

In the Times News area, Moon’s 43 attempts are tied for the second most since 1992. Lehighton’s Robbie Frey also had 43 in a game on Oct. 14, 2005, while Northern Lehigh’s Cody Remaley had 49 back on Oct. 16, 2009.

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AIR ATTACK ... While it didn’t translate into a win, the Tamaqua connection of Brayden Knoblauch to Matt Kistler was very successful last week against Jim Thorpe.

Knoblauch completed 16 passes in last Friday’s contest, with eight of them going to Kistler.

The last time the Blue Raiders had a quarterback complete at least 16 passes and had a receiver catch at least eight passes occurred in the same game. The date was Sept. 26, 1997 (224 games ago) when Adam Knoblauch (Brayden’s uncle) connected on 18 of his passes, with 10 of them being caught by Vince Boyer.


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LONG TD PASS ... Lehighton’s Chris Whiteman and Zach Crum connected for a 78-yard touchdown pass in last week’s loss to North Schuylkill.

In the last 25 years, the Indians have had only three TD tosses longer than the one on Friday.

The others were a 90-yarder from Tyler Cann to Tyler Crum on Oct. 24, 2014, an 88-yarder from Josh Agosto to Jacen Nalesnik on Oct. 21, 2011, and an 81-yarder from Jason Laviolette to Jeremy Schoenberger on Sept. 16, 1994.

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LUGGING THE BALL ... In Jim Thorpe’s win over Tamaqua last Friday, the Olympians ran the ball 61 times.

That total is an area-high this season, topping the 57 Northwestern had in the first week of the season.

In the past 25 years, Thorpe has never had that many carries in a single game. The program did reach 60 on two occasions — once on Nov. 4, 2005 (with Philip Redline collecting 20 carries, Craig Zurn 18, and Tyler O’Shura 15) and another on Oct. 7, 1995 (with Jared Schrantz running 25 times and Mike Monteleone 15).