Pine Creek, Pueblo East head the fields in 4A and 3A football playoffs

Pine Creek is the No. 1 seed in the Class 4A football playoffs. (Josh Watt/CHSAANow.com

AURORA — The state playoff brackets for Class 4A and 3A football were released on Sunday, with Pine Creek and Pueblo East each earning No. 1 overall seeds.

Both teams are defending champions.

Pine Creek, which went 10-0 during the regular season, is a two-time defending champion which enters the postseason on a 35-game winning streak. That mark is tied for the ninth-longest in state history.

The Eagles’ schedule was anything but easy. According to the CHSAA RPI, which will be used for postseason qualification beginning next season, it was the second-toughest schedule in 4A. They have wins over five ranked opponents, including four who were ranked in the top-5 at the time. In those games, Pine Creek’s average margin of victory was 26.8 points.

Pine Creek has been to the 4A title game in three of the past four seasons.

Longmont, the team Pine Creek beat to win 4A last year, is the No. 2 seed. The Trojans also went 10-0 in the regular season.

Those teams sit atop the 16-team field in 4A which is comprised of seven league champions and nine Wild Card spots. As it turned out, the field is comprised entirely of the top 16 teams in the final Wild Card points standings.

Other top seeds who will host first round games include No. 3 Windsor, No. 4 Vista Ridge, No. 5 Durango, No. 6 Dakota Ridge, No. 7 Ponderosa and No. 8 Wheat Ridge.

Find the complete 4A bracket here.

Pueblo East is the No. 1 seed in 3A football. (Mark Adams

In 3A, Pueblo East went 9-1, with the lone loss coming in a cross-classification showdown with Longmont in Zero Week. The Eagles won their final nine games by an average of 31.8 points.

Their schedule, too, was a tough one. Five opponents eventually made their postseason field in the class they play in. Pueblo East went 4-1 in those games.

Also seeded highly in 3A are No. 2 Roosevelt, No. 3 Delta, No. 4 Fort Morgan, No. 5 Palisade, No. 6 The Classical Academy, No. 7 Evergreen, No. 8 Discovery Canyon. Rifle, last season’s runner-up, is No. 9.

The 16-team 3A field is made up of six automatic qualifiers via league champions, and then 10 Wild Card teams. Like 4A, the final field turned out to be the top 16 in the Wild Card points standings.

Find the full 3A bracket here.

The playoff fields for classes 5A, 2A, 1A, 8-man and 6-man were released last week. Those classes just completed their first round this past weekend.