Blue Devils Burst into State Tournament
The Drury High School football team got a treat on Monday morning as it was rewarded for its undefeated regular season with a berth in the state tournament.
The trick: The Blue Devils (6-0) now have to play a defending state championship in the first round of the tourney.
Drury, which was on the bubble heading into the final weekend of the regular season, did its job with a convincing win on Friday in Great Barrington and made the field of 16 with room to spare when the brackets were released on Monday morning.
The Blue Devils are seeded No. 15 in Division 7 and head on the road this weekend to face No. 2 Cohasset.
Drury ended up with the highest average margin of victory in the 16-team D7 field after beating each of its opponents by at least 14 points (the maximum margin of victory counted for seeding purposes).
But its opponents also had the lowest rating of those of any team in the D7 tourney. Drury’s schedule had a rating of minus-20.9. The next lowest in the field was No. 10 Ayer-Shirley at minus-9.9. Cohasset’s opponents had a rating of minus-1.6.
A team’s power rating is determined by adding its average margin of victory to its opponents’ aggregate rating, giving Drury a power rating value of minus-6.97; Cohasset’s is 7.78.
The Skippers won the state title last fall at Gillette Stadium with a victory over Wahconah, 27-12.
Wahconah also is in the state tournament fields announced on Monday morning and grabbed the only home game in Berkshire County in this weekend’s first round.
No. 8 Wahconah (6-2, 4.5 power rating) will open the D7 tournament in Dalton against No. 9 West Bridgewater (6-2, 1.6) after Friday’s win at West Springfield secured home field for the 2021 runners-up.
Just four Berkshire County teams made the 16-team state tournaments in their respective brackets.
The other two are in Division 8, where Lee and Taconic each will be on the road in the first round.
No. 10 Lee (6-2, minus-4.5) makes the long drive to Lynn to face No. 7 Kipp Academy (4-4, minus-2.4).
No. 14 Taconic (4-4, minus-8.5) will travel to No. 3 Oxford (7-1, .78) for a shot at the state quarter-finals.
Pittsfield (5-3), which won its last five games and its league, finished No. 22 in the last Division 5 state power rankings that were released on Monday morning. The Generals ended up with a power rating of minus-3.5; the last team in the D5 field, No. 16 Dedham, had a power rating of minus-1.4.
As with all MIAA tournament brackets, there is technically a 24-hour period before they become official to allow schools to make appeals based on corrections to their records.