Unbeaten Princeton leads the Cincinnati-area playoff field as the Ohio High School Athletic Association’s official first-round pairings set the road to Canton for Division I, Region 4 and the rest of Greater Cincinnati’s brackets.
Princeton finished 10-0 to earn the region’s No. 1 seed and a first-round bye. Elder (8-2), Lakota West (9-1) and Moeller (7-3) also earned byes as the region’s other top-four seeds, and each will host a regional quarterfinal on November 6. Under the current format, the top 12 teams in each region qualify and the top four sit out the first round.
The first round is Friday, October 30, with all games at 7 p.m. Lakota East (6-4) travels to Winton Woods (8-2), Fairfield (5-5) visits St. Xavier (5-5), Little Miami (7-3) plays at Springboro (7-3), and Middletown (6-4) goes to Lebanon (7-3). The winners move on to face the bye teams: Princeton draws the Lebanon–Middletown winner, Elder gets Springboro or Little Miami, Lakota West faces St. Xavier or Fairfield, and Moeller meets Winton Woods or Lakota East.
In Division II, Region 8, Anderson and Harrison claimed the top two seeds and first-round byes, joined by Trotwood-Madison and Lima Senior. La Salle (at Talawanda) and Withrow (at Badin) headline the area’s first-round games in that region on Friday.
For the bye teams, the extra week is both a reward and a risk: a chance to heal and prepare, against an opponent that arrives with a playoff win already in hand. Princeton’s perfect regular season gives the Vikings home field through the regional semifinals, while Elder, Lakota West and Moeller — all battle-tested in the region’s toughest leagues — wait to learn their quarterfinal opponents on Friday night.
Higher seeds host through the regional semifinals on November 13. Neutral sites begin with the regional finals on November 20, followed by state semifinals on November 27.
The season ends with the state championship games December 3-5 at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton. Tickets, including all-session passes for the finals, are available through the OHSAA. No first-round game has been played yet — Friday’s winners will be reported as results only after they are final.
Photo: Eugene Kim, CC BY