Friday night scores: Bunkie, Marksville win; Avoyelles falls to Red River

Bunkie and Marksville teams will apparently enter the playoffs, having answered the call in must-win contests Friday night to avoid sitting home for the next few weeks, but the Avoyelles Mustangs threw a shoe against Red River that could mean a rematch with the defending state 2A champion would be sooner than Coach Andy Boone had hoped.

The top 32 teams in each size classification advance to the playoffs. That placing is determined by a mathematical formula that looks at the number of wins a team has and the strength of its opponents. This is called the "power ranking."

Bunkie defeated Menard, 16-14, and is ranked No. 29 in Class 2A, according to Geauxpreps.com. The official LHSAA ranking will be released Tuesday, but Geauxpreps' math is considered an accurate indicator of the final result.

Marksville defeated Caldwell Parish, 28-14, and is ranked No. 28 in Class 3A by Geauxpreps.

Avoyelles fell to Red River, 50-32. The loss could have been enough to drop the 8-2 Mustangs to No. 4 in Class 2A. Avoyelles had been sitting at No. 2 and 3 for most of the season, with Many at No. 1.

Under the two-bracket playoff format, No. 1 and No. 4 are the top two teams in the 16-team top bracket while No. 2 and No. 3 lead the 16 teams in the bottom bracket.

Assuming there are no upsets of lower-rated teams over higher-ranked ones -- and there usually are -- the top bracket would create a District 3-AA rematch between Many and the No. 9 Red River in the quarterfinals and allow the Mustangs to avenge their 34-30 last-minute loss to the Many Tigers in the semi-finals. The winner of the top bracket semi faces the bottom bracket winner for the state championship.