Five area teams qualify for grid playoffs
The football season continues for five Times News area teams this weekend when District 11 and Eastern Conference playoffs take place.
Lehighton, Northwestern Lehigh and Marian will all be vying for District 11 gold, while Pleasant Valley and Jim Thorpe will take a shot at Eastern Conference titles.The Indians are the No. 1 seed in Class 3A and will host No. 4 seed Blue Mountain on Friday at 7 p.m. In the other 3A semifinals, No. 2 seed Bethlehem Catholic will host No. 3 seed Saucon Valley at 1 p.m. at Bethlehem School District Stadium. The 3A championship will be played on Saturday, Nov. 21 at 7 p.m. at a site to be determined.Northwestern Lehigh finished as the No. 2 seed and will host No. 3 seed Salisbury on Friday at 7 p.m. No. 1 seed Notre Dame of Green Pond will host No. 4 seed North Schuylkill on Friday night. The championship will be Friday, Nov. 20 at 7 p.m. at a site to be determined.In Class A, No. 3 seed Marian travels to No. 2 seed Mahanoy Area for a 7 p.m. kickoff on Friday. No. 1 seed Tri-Valley will host arch-rival Williams Valley on Friday night, also at 7 o'clock. The championship will be played on Friday, Nov. 20 at 7 p.m. at a site to be determined.In District 2/11 4A Subregional action, No. 7 Delaware Valley visits No. 2 Parkland on Friday night at 7, while No. 6 Easton travels to No. 3 Freedom on Friday at 7, No. 8 Nazareth is at No. 1 Wyoming Valley West on Friday at 7 and No. 5 Stroudsburg travels to No. 4 Liberty on Saturday at 7. Semifinals are on Friday, Nov. 20 and the championship is scheduled for Friday, Nov. 27.In the Eastern Conference, Division IV matchups are South No. 2 Reading at North No. 1 Pleasant Valley on Friday at 7 p.m. and North No. 2 Williamsport at South No. 1 Emmaus on Friday, also at 7.In EC Division III, No. 4 Southern Lehigh is at No. 1 Jim Thorpe on Friday at 7 p.m. In the other No. 3 Allentown Central Catholic is at No. 2 Valley View on Saturday at 1 p.m.In EC Division II, No. 4 Palisades is at No. 1 Wilkes-Barre Meyers and No. 3 Riverside is at No. 2 Mount Carmel on Friday at 7 p.m.In EC Division I, No. 4 Line Mountain is at No. 1 Schuylkill Haven and No. 3 Halifax travels to No. 2 Bloomsburg on Friday at 7 .The Marian girls begin Class A state volleyball action on Tuesday night when they travel to Shamokin to take on District 4 champion Towanda at 6 p.m.The Northwestern Lehigh boys soccer team heads south to West Chester Henderson for a first round Class 2A game against District 1 champion Pottsgrove at 7 p.m.