The IHSAA announced the sectional pairings for its 50th annual football tournament on Sunday afternoon.
Sectional games start this year on Friday, Oct. 21, although the majority of Hamilton County’s teams won’t be playing that day. All of the Class 6A (and 5A) schools will have that week off; the county had five teams playing in 6A.
The county’s three smaller schools will all be playing first-round games on Oct. 21, including two in Class 3A Sectional 28. Both teams go on the road: Hamilton Heights will play at Maconaquah, while Guerin Catholic will travel to Oak Hill.
The Heights-Maconaquah winner will take on the winner of Bishop Chatard-Northwestern in the Oct. 28 semi-finals. The Guerin Catholic-Oak Hill winner will play the winner of the Tippecanoe Valley-Peru game.
In Class 1A, Sheridan is playing in Sectional 45. The Blackhawks will host Union City on Oct. 21. Whoever wins that game will host Monroe Central; the Golden Bears received a bye into the semi-finals. (IHSAA rules stipulate that any team that receives a first-round bye will be the away team in its semi-final game.) In the bottom half of the bracket, Indiana Deaf plays at Tindley, while Wes-Del travels to Hagerstown.
The big schools will begin their tournament play on Oct. 28. In 6A Sectional 3, Fishers travels to Fort Wayne Northrop for the first semi-final, while Hamilton Southeastern will host Homestead in the other game.
Class 6A Sectional 4 has three Hamilton County teams, so two must play each other. Those teams will be Westfield and Carmel: The Shamrocks will travel to Carmel Stadium on Oct. 28. In the other semi-final game, Zionsville will head to Noblesville for the first-ever sectional game at Beaver Stadium.
All semi-final winners will play for their respective sectional championships on Nov. 4.