The regular season is in the books and the postseason is here as Class 3A and 8-Man DI and DII get the postseason rolling Tuesday night across Kansas with first round action. Between all the classes 13 area teams are in the postseason with 10 of the 13 returning to the postseason after an appearance last year. Below are previews for the area 3A and 8-Man Tuesday first round matchups that involve area teams. 

Tuesday Playoff Games to be Broadcasted: 
103.9 KNZA – Sabetha Maur Hill (click here to listen) (on Sabetha Channel & KAIR 93.7) 
92.1 KMZA – Pleasant Ridge at Nemaha Central (click here to listen)
Sabetha Channel – Sabetha at Maur Hill (click here to watch)

Playoff Games to be Broadcasted Later this Week:
103.9 KNZA & Holton Channel -
       Holton at Baldwin (click here to listen) & (click here to watch) -- on Thursday 
103.9 KNZA & 92.1 KMZA – Valley Heights at Troy  (click here to listen) -- on Friday 
KAIR 93.7 FM – JCN at Washington County (click here to listen) -- on Friday 

Pleasant Ridge (3-6) at Nemaha Central (9-0) 
Both teams are back in the 3A playoff s this year as the Pleasant Ridge Rams return for the second straight year and Nemaha Central is in for the fifth straight season. For the Rams the season started promising with a strong win over Horton but then over the next five weeks the losses racked up and injuries, too for the team. Headed into District play with just one win on the year the Rams still believed they could challenge for a playoff spot and that they did accomplishing the feat by beating ACCHS and Immaculata in the final two games of the regular season and almost beat Maur Hill to open District play losing to the Ravens in the final 16 seconds of the game. Plenty of youngsters are making impacts for Pleasant Ridge. Junior, Breydon Baragary has taken over the quarterback spot and be a strong contributor in rushing attack quite a bit this season while sophomores, Hunter Wagner and Clayton Richter have made solid impacts, too. Seniors like Nic Bridges and Tanner Morris also have been helping guide the Rams all year as they have seven different guys with 170+yards rushing this year. The Rams last year lost in the opening round of the playoffs at home 49-0 versus Silver Lake. 

For the Nemaha Central Thunder it marks the second straight year the team capped a perfect regular season and Big Seven League mark headed into the playoffs at the District champs for the second year in a row, also. The Thunder are one of only five unbeaten teams left in Class 3A and have been an all-around team with top to bottom contributions all year. The defense as suffocated teams giving up just 10 points per game with four shutouts, while the offense is averaging 48.2 points per game and has had three different guys throw a touchdown, nine different guys run for a touchdown and six different guys check at touchdown pass on the year. Quarterback, Ryan Hasenkamp has continued to dazzle all year going for 1,020 yards passing with 10 touchdowns to just two interceptions and running for 500 yards and 11 scores, while Jacob Koelzer leads the team in rushing with 698 yards and 20 touchdowns. Nemaha Central has won a first round playoff game two of the last three years. 

The winner moves into the second round on Saturday and will take on the winner of the Mission Valley versus Silver Lake contest. 

Sabetha (8-1) at Maur Hill Mount Academy (7-2)
It’s the third straight playoff season for the Ravens, who have lost in the first round the past two years and look to take the next step. Maur Hill-Mount Acadmey has won five straight games and is very balanced on offense, led by Jack Caudle (freshman) who has played quarterback all year. Caudle has thrown for 1,137 yards and completed 63 percent of his passes with 16 touchdowns. To balance 134 passing yards per game, the Ravens have ran for 200 yards an outing, paced by Ronald Faulk-Tindal, who has 1,294 yards rushing, averaging 12.7 yards per attempt with 16 touchdowns and another four scores on 256 receiving yards. Luke Ervin has been a beast on defense with 101 tackles, almost double anyone else on the team. Maur Hill has 31 takeaways on defense this year while giving up 23 points per game. Both losses are to undefeated Northeast Kansas League teams JCN and Jackson Heights.  
    
Sabetha is making their eighth consecutive post-season appearance after advancing to into the final eight last year of Class 3A. The Bluejays recovered from their only defeat to start District play against undefeated Big 7 Champ, Nemaha Central 20-14, by whipping Hiawatha and Riverside the past two weeks. The Bluejays have ran the ball all year with 368 of their 385 total yards of offense per game coming on the ground.  A pair of seniors have surpassed 1,000 yards in Blake Plattner (1,105 and 22 TDS) and Trae Snyder (1,072 and 12 TDs). With Christian Meyer at quarterback, Sabetha has committed only four turnovers all year. Sophomore Cauy Rokey leads a spectacular defense with 76 stops on the season and the Jays have given up less than 10 points per game and pitched a trio of shutouts. One shutout was against ACCHS and they allowed just six points to Riverside, as those are the two common opponents in this matchup. The Ravens won both those matchups handily as well but allowed 42 points in the process. It will be the first meeting between these teams since Jermaine Monroe took over as Head Coach at MH-MA five years ago. Sabetha won six straight against the Ravens from 2006-2011 by an average score of 51-10. But that doesn’t mean much in 2016 as only the winner will advance in the 3A Playoffs with a Saturday matchup against the victor or Perry Lecompton at Rossville.  

Perry Lecompton (4-5) at Rossville (8-1) 
After dropping to Class 3A this year, Perry Lecompton clinched a playoff berth with a 49-7 win at Oskaloosa last Thursday. It got the Kaws to a four-win season for the third straight year, but their first playoff appearance since 2011. Although Perry Lecompton has not faced Rossville in more than a decade, they have faired pretty well against fellow Mid-East League foe Silver Lake. The Kaws committed four turnovers a couple weeks ago and could not hold a lead in a 21-19 loss to the #1 ranked and undefeated Eagles after losing to Lake 39-38 a year ago. Perry Lecompton and 16th year Coach Mike Paramore are more reliant on a balanced rushing attack and solid offensive line this season.  Cousins Cole and Michael Kellum have combined for more than 1,600 yards rushing and 20 total touchdowns, while QB Jordan Spreer averages 60 yards passing and 30 rushing per contest. The Kaws defense held Sabetha and Silver Lake to season low scoring totals, led by senior linebacker, Nick Quinlan.  Four of the five Perry Lecompton losses came against undefeated and ranked teams (Troy, Sabetha and Nemaha Central and Silver Lake) and three losses were by less than five points as their defense has kept them close.     

Rossville is the two-time defending Class 3A State Champion with a lone loss this year to Mid-East League rival, Silver Lake (36-28) in week five. Silver Lake is the only common opponent in this Bi-District matchup. Filling in admirably for All State QB Tucker Horak and his 4,900 total offensive yards, Jacob Bradshaw has thrown for more than 1,100 yards in his senior campaign and ran for 1,500 more while accounting for 37 touchdowns and 290 yards per game alone. Dawson Hammes is a senior linebacker who has averaged 16 tackles per game since returning from injury that cost him three games. The Bulldogs have been a staple in the post-season for over 12 years and have an average margin of +24 points in their games this season, even though they are even with 10 takeaways and 10 turnovers in 2016.  

Norton (6-3) at Marysville (7-2) 
Marysville football program has come a long ways in just a few years coming off a State long 32-game losing streak to now going to post a winning record to finish a year for the first time since 2009, which is the last time the team won a playoff game (made State Championship game in 2009). The Bulldogs won their District and are at home in the first round of the playoffs this year after getting a taste of the playoffs last year and enter the postseason on a seven-game winning streak. After a seven-point loss to Rossville and two-point loss to Abilene in the first two weeks Marysville has been on a roll with strong defense and a balanced offense. Hunter Warnick and Jack Blumer have helped lead the offense rushing for over 1,000 yards and passing for over 1,000 yards, respectively as the team averages 28.7 points per game. But the defense might be the story of the season for Marysville giving up just 9.7 points per game this year and only one team has score more than two touchdowns against them this year. 

The Bulldogs draw the same first round opponent as last year this year in the Norton Bluejays but this time it’s in Marysville. Norton won last year easily 37-0 and has plenty of experience being in the playoffs now for three straight years. The Bluejays beat Thomas More Prep to make the playoffs last week and their three losses this year are to unbeaten, Phillipsburg and to playoff  team s in Smith Center and Plainville by three points in overtime and by six points, respectively. The team is balanced with a 149 yards per game passing and 211 yards per game rushing as quarterback, Jace Ruder leads the way with over 1,200 yards passing with 11 touchdowns in the air and 11 more on the ground. Tevin Petrie adds the rushing dynamic to the offense with over 1,000 yards on the year and 11 touchdowns. 

Clifton-Clyde (8-1) at Osborne (9-0) 
All Clifton-Clyde could do was sit back and hope for a positive outcome in their favor in the Burlingame versus Herington game in week nine to see if they would make the playoffs and with the Burlingame win the Eagles made the playoffs for the first time since 2013, when they made a run to the Sub-State round. This year the Eagles have been flying high using the athleticism of Caleb Charbonneau who has ran for 1,376 yards with 23 touchdowns and thrown for 590 yards with 13 touchdowns as the team is averaging 301 yards per game rushing and scoring 51.2 points per game. The development of players around Charbonneau have made Clifton-Clyde the dangerous team they  are as Drake Steinbrock has ran for 708 yards with 13 touchdowns and Christian Seifert has added 401 yards with five scores, while Matt Barnes leads the team in receiving with 228 yards on 12 receptions with five touchdowns. The Eagles have given up 28 points per game this season but more than half their points given up came against Rural Vista and Burlingame. Clifton-Clyde has their running attack but also have a solid kicker that could play a factor in the game as Leon Mercklein can kick field goals and PATs. 

A familiar opponent over the past few years in the Osborne Bulldogs stand in front of Clifton-Clyde in the first round of the 8-Man DI playoffs. Osborne has won all five matchups in the past four seasons against the Eagles including last year 54-6 in the regular season and in 2013 42-34 in the Sub-State round of the playoffs. The Bulldogs have a strong rushing offense like Clifton-Clyde rushing for 332 yards per game as a team and are led by a duo of 1,000+ yard rushers in Cullen Grabast and Denton Schurr who have combined for 2,159 yards and 42 touchdowns. The Bulldogs do one other things well that is hold onto the ball giving it up only five times all year and have a +21 turnover margin on the season. Osborne missed the playoffs last year but have been in the postseason four of the past six years and have experience in postseason play. 

St. John’s-Tipton (7-2) at Hanover (8-0)
Since 2008 the Hanover Wildcats have missed the playoffs only once and every other time made it to the Sub-State game or Championship; the last two years the Wildcats finished State runner-up in 8-Man DI but this year they are in DII and on the prowl for their first State title since 2009. Hanover has rolled their opponents throughout the season outscoring them 342-32 on the year as no opponent as scored more than eight points on them and they’ve only played one full four quarter game with that coming back in week one. The defense has given up the lowest amount of points in the State no matter the classification and held most opponents to 100 yards or less this season. While on offense the Wildcats have used a plethora of playmakers as four or more guys have scored a touchdown in seven of the teams eight games this year. Quarterback, Will Bruna is leading the charge and guys like Adam Zarybnicky, Kevin Diederich, Carter Bruna and more are making big impacts.   

St. John’s-Tipton is back in the playoffs after a year removed from the postseason and has put together a strong season with their two losses to Osborne and Pike Valley. The Bluejays have had no problems scoring on the season with 348 points and have done so with a balanced offense with 166 yards passing and 181 yards rushing per game. Quarterback, Davis Dubbert has thrown for nearly 1,500 yards with 15 touchdowns, while Ty Brummer has ran for over 800 yards with 13 scores to lead the team.  While the defense has given up more points than Hanover they are only giving up 21.5 points per game on the season and have had knack for getting to the quarterback with 25 sacks on the season.