WOODLAWN - Since it’s playoff time, it must mean that Brinkley and Woodlawn will be squaring off again.
That will certainly be the case this Friday when the Bears host the Tigers in the first round of the Class 2A eight-man playoffs at 7 p.m. at the Carl Jones Sports Campus.
This is the second consecutive season that Brinkley and Woodlawn have met in the first round of the playoffs, but the roles are reversed this year with the Bears playing host this time around.
Woodlawn comes in as the no. 2 seed from the South Conference after wrapping up the regular season with an 8-1 record overall and a 5-1 mark in league play. Brinkley is the no. 3 seed from the North Conference, having finished 5-3 overall and 3-2 in conference.
The winner of Friday night’s game will face the winner between Izard County, the no. 1 seed from the North, and Spring Hill, the no. 4 seed from the south.
Woodlawn will be hosting a playoff for the first time since 2014 when the Bears entertained - you guessed it - Brinkley in a second round matchup at the Carl Jones Sports Complex. Both teams were playing 11man football then, and both had pulled off first-round upsets to advance. The Tigers came out on top in that one, 27-14.
Since joining the eight-man ranks, Brinkley and Woodlawn have made it a habit to meet up with one another in either the playoffs or with a conference seeding on the line. And the Tigers have had the upper hand in each of those meetings.
In 2019, Brinkley had handed Woodlawn its first-ever loss in eight-man football when the Tigers upended the Bears, 50-20, in an early season nonconference game between the schools.
Woodlawn had a chance to win or share part of the conference championship with a victory in the seasone finale that season at Brinkley. The Bears took a two-score lead early in that one before mounting injuries and untimely turnovers led to the Tigers coming back for a 50-34 win....
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