Felt's Facts: Utah high school football, Week 9

For Felt’s facts region-by-region, concerning the teams that have clinched, the number of open playoff berths, projections for which teams will fill those spots and a look at some of the region championship possibilities, see the accompanying links.

Region championships

The next two weeks will be crammed with meaningful games for postseason qualifying and seeding and for determining region champions.

Only Diamond Ranch (1A South) has claimed an outright region title — its first — this year.

Seven teams, all undefeated in their respective regions, have at least a share of a league championship: Syracuse (Region 1), Mountain Crest (Region 5), East (Region 6), Skyline (Region 7), Manti (2A North), San Juan (2A South) and Duchesne (1A North).

All but Duchesne, which has a non-region game, can grab region honors outright with victories this week.

Seven others can at least snare a share of their league crown with wins this week: Hunter (Region 2), Jordan (Region 3), Timpview (Region 8), Hurricane (Region 9), Juan Diego (Region 10), Stansbury (Region 11) and Spanish Fork (Region 12).

All of those teams are favored this week and next, and barring upsets, will win outright titles. Region 4, notably absent from the above-mentioned regions, will provide the most drama in Week 10.

A Boon for Stat Freaks

DeseretNews.com has upgraded its statistics section of high school sports. Categories are selectable, so you can choose to view just rushing or passing leaders or all categories at once. Even nicer, the columns within categories are sortable. For example, the leading passers can be sorted alphabetically, by total yards, attempts, completions, yards-per-game, etc. (From the high school page, select a specific sport and click “leaders.”)

Playoff Fever

Of the 102 football teams, eight have already been booted from postseason contention (69 will eventually qualify). Another 15 could be eliminated this week. Class 5A has filled just three spots. In 4A, 12 of 17 berths are taken and in 3A, three more are filled.

Class 2A teams have locked up 10 of 12 spots and this week’s games will determine the final two and seedings for next week’s first round games. In 1A, three of eight berths have been filled.

For a region-by-region run down with the teams that have clinched, the number of open berths, projections for which teams will fill those spots and a look at some of the region championship possibilities, see Felt’s divisional facts.

Consecutive Playoffs

Delta qualifies for its state-high 38th consecutive postseason appearance (since 1975) by defeating Juab. San Juan is in for its 36th straight time, Highland, its 30th and Rich and Skyline, their 27th.

Hot Starts

After eight weeks, Stansbury and Syracuse, both 8-0, continue with their best-ever starts and longest win streaks.

Maple Mountain hopes to improve its playoff position and win eight games in a season for the first time when the Golden Eagles visit Orem.

Granger (6-2, hosting West) has matched its six-win season of 2011, but the Lancers haven’t won seven games since 2001. Timpanogos (6-2, at Provo) won six games in 2010, but hasn’t won more since 2002 when the Timberwolves captured a school-high nine contests.