For weeks, the UHSAA’s prep football RPI ranking showed a possible first-round 6A playoff matchup between Roy High and Fremont, a particularly spicy prospect given the heated nature of the rivalry.

Weber County football fans will indeed get a rivalry matchup in the first round of the playoffs, just not the one they thought.

Roy learned Saturday it will host Weber this Friday in the first round of the 6A playoffs.

The UHSAA released its football state tournament brackets Saturday morning and the 7-3 Royals finished the regular season as the No. 12 seed, hosting the 2-8 Warriors who are the No. 21 seed.

Roy and Weber didn’t play this year or last year since they were in different regions and their schedules didn’t work out.

Roy sat as the No. 13 seed and Weber was No. 21 in the RPI on Friday morning, meaning they weren’t matched up with each other, but a football game 54 miles away in Herriman assured the schools of a postseason edition of the Shield Game.

The previously 3-6 Herriman Mustangs upset 6-3 Mountain Ridge 37-17. Mountain Ridge dropped from No. 12 to No. 13 with the loss and allowed Roy to move up from 13 to 12.

Below is a rundown of where Northern Utah teams landed in the bracket for each classification. Full tournament brackets are available online at www.uhsaa.org/tournaments.

MORE 6A MATCHUPS

In 6A, No. 16 Layton and No. 18 Fremont are the only other Region 1 teams playing in the first round as No. 5 Farmington, No. 6 Syracuse and No. 7 Davis received first-round byes.

The Lancers (5-4), fresh off a bye week, host No. 17 Herriman. Fremont (3-7), fresh off a rivalry win over Weber, goes to No. 15 Granger.

The Layton-Herriman winner goes to No. 1 Corner Canyon in the second round. No. 2 Skyridge awaits either Fremont or Granger.

Clearfield (0-10) missed the playoffs as the No. 25 team in the RPI (the top 24 get in).

Farmington (8-2) is the No. 5 seed and will host the Roy-Weber winner in the second round on Oct. 28. The Phoenix beat Roy 45-15 and Weber 35-7 this year.

Region 1 champion Syracuse (8-2) vaulted four spots from No. 10 to No. 6 after beating the Phoenix on Thursday; the Titans gets either No. 11 Lone Peak or No. 22 Copper Hills in the second round, the former of which would be a brutal second-round matchup.

Resurgent Davis (7-3) is the No. 7 seed and hosts either Riverton or Kearns in the second round. The Darts haven’t played Kearns since 2012 and haven’t played Riverton since 2008.

The 6A teams have tough draws again. Should Farmington advance to the quarterfinals, it would travel to American Fork, which has won its last 11 games against Weber and Davis County schools going back to 2011.

Should Syracuse get out of the second round, it would likely head to No. 3 Bingham, coached by Roy alums and former Roy coaches Eric Jones and Fred Fernandes.

And if Davis gets out of the second round, the Darts would probably go to No. 2 Skyridge.

5A MATCHUPS

In 5A, Region 5 champion Bountiful (7-2) is the No. 6 seed, earning a first-round bye. Bountiful will host Orem or Uintah in the second round. The Redhawks didn’t play a Week 10 game so they’ll go three weeks between games by the time Oct. 28 comes.

Orem knocked Bountiful out of last year’s playoffs in a 40-33 shootout. Should the Redhawks advance, they could see a rematch with No. 3 Springville in the quarters.

Box Elder (7-3) is the No. 9 seed hosting No. 24 Highland in the first round. Should the Bees win, they’d be off to face No. 8 Provo on the road, a rematch of the Bulldogs’ 44-38 overtime home win on Aug. 19.

Bonneville (6-3) earned the No. 14 seed and will host No. 19 Alta, which comes in with a 4-5 record, part of which has come against a vaunted Region 8 schedule against the likes of Lehi (No. 1 seed in 5A), Timpview (No. 2) and Orem (No. 11).

In 2020, No. 14 Alta thumped No. 3 and Region 5-champion Bonneville 29-9 in Washington Terrace.

No. 20 Viewmont hits the road to face Cedar Valley (Eagle Mountain) for the first time in school history.

Northridge finished 2-8 and by virtue of losing Friday against Higley (Arizona), and the Knights missed the playoffs.

4A MATCHUPS

In 4A, No. 11 Bear River (3-7) will face No. 6 Mountain Crest on the road. The Bears beat Salem Hills in their regular-season finale, which moved them up from No. 12 to No. 11 and moved them into a road game in Hyrum instead of in Santa Clara against Snow Canyon.

3A MATCHUPS

In 3A, unbeaten Morgan High is the No. 2 seed and earned a first-round bye. The Trojans will host the Juan Diego-Union winner in the 3A quarterfinals. Morgan beat both teams in 3A North region play by a combined score of 90-9.

Should Morgan win its quarterfinal, a likely semifinal at Southern Utah University against No. 3 Grantsville, a rematch of this year’s 38-20 Morgan win that secured the outright 3A North title, would likely be in store.

The Trojans’ path to a 3A championship starts with Juan Diego or Union, then likely Grantsville, before possibly seeing No. 1 and fellow unbeaten Juab in the finals.

Ogden and Ben Lomond both hit the road in 3A. The No. 9 Tigers go to No. 8 Manti and No. 11 Ben Lomond visits No. 6 North Sanpete, both of which are rematches of last year’s first-round games (Ogden won last year and BL lost).

1A MATCHUPS

In 1A, Layton Christian is the No. 1 seed after going 7-3 in the regular season. The Eagles host No. 8 Parowan in the first round, which is scheduled for Oct. 28 as the semifinals are scheduled for Nov. 4 at SUU and the finals are at Utah Tech on Nov. 11.

LCA won the 1A North region crown this season, its first football region title in school history. Should the Eagles beat Parowan, they’d face either Milford or North Sevier in the semis at SUU.

No. 2 Enterprise and No. 3 Kanab could possibly meet in the other 1A semifinal.

Connect with reporter Patrick Carr via email at pcarr@standard.net, Twitter @patrickcarr_ and Instagram @standardexaminersports.

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