NEAH BAY — Both the Neah Bay and Quilcene football teams will have to make long road trips well east of the Cascades this weekend to play in the first round of the 1B state playoffs.
Neah Bay will have an especially long 8½-hour drive to Colfax, only a few miles from the Idaho state line, to play Garfield-Palouse. That game will be played at 1 p.m. Saturday.
This game appears to be evenly matched. The Red Devils (7-2) are a No. 9 seed and Garfield-Palouse (6-4) the No. 8 seed. The Red Devils qualified for state by crushing Oakville 76-18 last week in the Quad-District playoffs, while Garfield-Palouse beat Inchelium 82-38 in a district playoff game.
Despite two more losses than Neah Bay, Garfield-Palouse is ranked slightly higher in Ratings Percentage Index at No. 9 in the state. Neah Bay with a weaker schedule is ranked No. 12.
The winner of this game will likely have to face the No. 1 seed DeSales (9-0) on Nov. 22.
Quilcene won its Quad-District game in a bit of an upset, gaining nearly 500 yards of offense to get past Northwest Christian 40-34. The Rangers went into that game with a record of 2-6 while Northwest Christian was 5-3.
The Rangers are a No. 15 seed and will have their own long drive (about five hours) to Richland to play the No. 2 seed Liberty Christian (8-1). Liberty Christian is ranked No. 1 in the state in RPI. That game will be played at 3 p.m. Saturday.
Both teams may get lucky with the eastern Washington weather with temperatures forecast to be in the 50s for both games, with rain possible in Colfax. There are snow showers forecast Friday and Saturday morning on Snoqualmie Pass for the drive over, however.
