Football Playoffs: A breakdown of who the area teams open up against

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The section football playoffs are set and ready to kick off next Tuesday night all over the state of Minnesota.

Here is a look at where all the teams in our coverage area will open up.

Section 8AAAAA

Alexandria will take the fifth seed in the Section 8AAAAA playoffs on the road to battle St. Cloud Tech at Husky Stadium on the campus of St. Cloud State University. Kickoff is set for 8:15 p.m. These two teams met in the season opener on August 31, where the Tigers came away with a 28-13 win.

Both Tech and Alexandria are trying to snap four-game losing streaks in this game. Both are also dealing with re-cent injuries as the Cardinals lost Mitchell Thompson and Chase Duwenhoegger for the season in the Brainerd game on Wednesday and Tech lost star running back Jacob Peterson to a fractured fibula on the same night.

Section 6AA

Osakis will have to open up on the road as well after earning the No. 5 seed in the Section 6AA tournament.

The Silverstreaks will be in Swanville on Tuesday for a 6 p.m. kickoff against the Patriots. Upsala-Swanville Area is a tes-tament to the strength of this section after earning the fourth seed despite an impressive 7-1 record.

The Patriots have averaged 41.5 points per game during a four-game winning streak to end the season. Included in that stretch was a 37-14 win over Osakis that started a three-game losing streak for the Silverstreaks.

Section 4 9-Man

Brandon-Evansville and Ashby will both open up on the road in the 9-Man Section 4 playoffs.

The Chargers are the seventh seed after finishing the regular season with a 3-5 record. They will take on the Onamia Panthers at 7 p.m. on Tuesday. The Panthers are 7-1 and average almost 48 points per game out of the Great Northern Conference. Their only loss came against an 8-0 Nevis team on October 12.

Ashby will enter the playoffs as the sixth seed after finishing the regular season 4-4. The Ar-rows will travel to Wheaton to take on the third-seeded War-riors with a 7 p.m. kickoff. Wheaton-Herman-Norcross finished with a 6-2 record and beat the Arrows 52-28 when they met on September 14.

Section 8AA

A 5-2 Prairie Valley team will open up on the road against Pelican Rapids with a 6 p.m. kickoff. The Nighthawks are the sixth seed despite that solid record.

They will take on a third-seeded Vikings team that fin-ished the season 6-2 out of the Heart O’ Lakes Conference. Pelican Rapids has won five straight games after starting the season 1-2 with losses to Perham and Hawley, two teams with a combined 15-1 record.

Section 5AA

Minnewaska will host an opening round game in the 5AA playoffs after earning the se-cond seed by winning its final four games of the regular sea-son.

The Lakers finished 4-4 and will host seventh-seeded Yellow Medicine East for a 7 p.m. kickoff in Glenwood. The Sting finished 0-8 and gave up at least 35 points in every game this season. Teams are averaging 49.5 points per game against them.

Section 6A

West Central Area will also open the playoffs on the road against top-seeded Pillager. The Knights are the eighth seed after going 2-6 through the regular season.

Pillager has been dominant on offense through a seven-game winning streak. The Huskies are averaging 50 points per game during that stretch and are coming off a 54-50 win over Lake Park-Audubon on Wednesday.

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