Falcons' Football Hunting for League Title Friday Night

The Danvers High Falcons' football squad needs to beat Salem on Friday to ensure its spot in the playoffs as well as its first conference title since 2004.

The Falcons have racked up a 4-1 season so far against conference opponents, which is a long way from the struggling, young team the Falcons were a few years ago. They now have just two more games -- Friday's contest with Salem and Oct. 25 on the road versus Winthrop -- before the playoffs begin five weeks before Thanksgiving.

Under the new statewide tournament format, which was adopted by the MIAA last fall, playoffs now start at the beginning of November and only six Super Bowl games will ultimately be played Dec. 7 at Gillette Stadium. 

Teams also find themselves in different brackets -- Danvers is Division 3 Northeast. Playoff seedings, which are based on league champions and power ratings, will be announced by the MIAA Oct. 27. The top two teams in each league are assured a spot.

The Boston Globe has a good breakdown here of how the playoff alignments are setup and how power ratings are calculated.

Teams that don’t make the playoffs will play other non-playoff teams in the weeks leading up to the annual Thanksgiving game as wildcard teams for a possible tournament berth.

Right now, the top two teams in the Northeastern Conference are Marblehead (North Division) at 5-1 and Danvers (South Division) at 4-1.