Richmond Senior football will enter next week’s state playoffs as the No. 1 seed in the 4AA West region according to the official brackets released by N.C. High School Athletic Association on Saturday.
Richmond (11-0, 7-0 SAC) ripped through the regular season like very few teams have in the history of its storied program. The Raiders wrapped up this year’s campaign with a convincing win over rival Scotland on Friday and finished undefeated for the first time since 2006. They outscored the competition 491-112 in the process.
“We’re going to have a bye, so that gives us a little more time to kind of enjoy this and get prepared for a run, hopefully,” said Richmond coach Bryan Till shortly after Friday’s win.
Standout receiver Jakolbe Baldwin gave a similarly focused response when asked about the group’s upcoming postseason prospects.
“We’re just taking it as another game to prepare for and get ready throughout the week,” he said after grabbing 108 yards receiving and two touchdowns in the win over Scotland.
The NCHSAA uses a detailed method to decide the 48-team field and relies heavily on each squad’s Adjusted MaxPreps Ranking that is intended to remove margin of victory from the formula.
From there, a 24-team bracket subdivided into 4A or 4AA, and regions are based on the longitudinal location of all schools that qualify for the state playoffs.
The western-most half will go to the West region, while the eastern-most half will go to the East region.
Richmond will be idle for next Friday’s first-round action and awaits the winner of No. 8 Hough and No. 9 Olympic.