It isn’t as if the high school football playoffs are never chaotic.
But to offer this much delirium, and to do so this early in the docket — well, that’s certainly a change of pace.
No. 5, No. 7, No. 8, No. 9 and No. 14 from last week’s Top 20 were eliminated from the playoffs. And it wasn’t just that they were eliminated: it was that Quince Orchard, the top-ranked Maryland public school, fell to rival Northwest, which had historically tested the Cougars but entered the week unranked; that St. John’s, last year’s Washington Catholic Athletic Conference champion, bowed out in the semifinals at a 21-3 margin; that South Lakes, Virginia’s second-best public school entering the week, lost in the first round to Yorktown on a last-second touchdown; and that Gonzaga, with quality wins on its schedule, suffered an 18-point loss, even against top-ranked Good Counsel.
