Playoff eve in Richwood comes with everything confirmed and nothing left to arrange. The No. 9 seed North Union Wildcats (7-3) travel to the No. 8 seed Vermilion Sailors (7-3) on Friday night for an Ohio High School Athletic Association Division V, Region 18 first-round game, and Friday Night Lights LIVE will be in the Vermilion press box to carry it — broadcast credentials are confirmed and the press box is set, one day out from kickoff.
The weather will not be part of the story. The National Weather Service forecasts a sunny Friday in Vermilion with a high near 59, turning partly cloudy Friday night with a low around 43. At the 7 p.m. kickoff, the National Weather Service hourly forecast calls for mostly clear skies and about 53 degrees, with a light north wind and no chance of rain, cooling into the upper 40s by the final whistle. It is a night for blankets in the stands, not ponchos.
The stakes need no dressing up. This is win-or-go-home football: the winner advances to the regional quarterfinal on Friday, November 6, at No. 1 seed LaGrange Keystone, and the loser’s season ends Friday night on the Lake Erie shore. For two 7-3 teams that spent ten weeks earning a place in the bracket, one night decides who practices next week.
On paper it is as even as a first-round draw gets — a nine seed and an eight seed with identical 7-3 records. Vermilion earned the home game and defends its own field; North Union takes the bus ride north out of Union County knowing the road to round two runs through somebody else’s crowd. Home field is the only edge the bracket hands either team, and Friday night settles the rest.
Friday Night Lights LIVE has every snap. Pregame coverage begins at 6:45 p.m. Friday, with kickoff at 7 p.m., and Big Z and Bryson have the call from the Vermilion press box.
Friday’s broadcast is presented by Van Java Hibachi of Marion. The Van Java Hibachi pregame and halftime presentations lead the coverage, with hibachi and more made fresh at 526 W Center St in Marion — a fitting partner for the biggest Friday night of North Union’s season so far.
Fans can listen live free in The NewsForce247.com App at app.newsforce247.com, in the Listen Live player at NewsForce247.com, on TuneIn, and in the other streaming directories carrying NewsForce Radio.
Photo: JonRidinger, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons