Raiders clinch playoff berth with win over Knoxville

After missing the postseason a year ago, the Williamsburg football team clinched a playoff appearance with a 48-17 win over Knoxville on Friday.

The Raiders, now on a 3-game win streak after back-to-back shutout losses at Xavier Catholic and Des Moines Christian, are locked in as the two seed in District 3A-5 as they head into their matchup with 1-7 Saydel.

“It’s definitely a big blanket of security,” senior wide receiver Kale Bailey said. “It’s really helpful knowing that we’re in, that we can kind of start to prepare, and that even if the scoreboard is a little lopsided, we can still nitpick things that we need to improve on for tougher opponents.”

Currently 11th and behind the 2nd-ranked teams in both district 3 and district 4 in RPI, the strength of record metric the IHSAA uses for football seedings in classes 3A and above, Williamsburg will likely be on the road for the first round of the playoffs.

“We really have to focus in and buckle down even more,” Bailey said of the likelihood of playing on the road. “You know that the opposing crowd is always going to be big, they’re always going to be excited. You really have to make sure you can show up and tune them all out.”

Playoff site assignments for the round of 16 are scheduled to be released at 10 a.m. on Saturday.