DAVID MUNDEE
With more teams entered this year, the 2nd Annual NFL Flag High School Tournament in Dothan has moved locations.
A year after playing at the flag football fields at the former Grandview Elementary School, this year’s event, set for this Saturday, is being played on soccer fields at the Westgate Complex in Dothan, including two across from the Miracle Field.
Overall, 15 teams, including three from the Wiregrass, are competing in the tournament, which starts at 9 a.m. and runs through championship matches at 4 p.m. Initially 20 teams committed to the tournament, but five dropped out. Still, the 15 teams are an increase from last year’s field of nine teams.
The local teams entered are Dothan, Enterprise and Northside Methodist Academy.
Dothan returns after finishing runner-up at last year’s tournament and Northside Methodist is also back after going 2-2 and winning the third-place bracket last year. Enterprise did not play in last year’s event.
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A new champion will be crowned this year as last year’s winner, Wenonah, is not in this year’s field.
Defending Class 1A-5A state champion Montgomery Catholic highlights the list of other teams competing this year outside the three local schools. The Knights reached the semifinals at last year’s tournament before losing to Dothan.
Other teams in this year’s field include Albertville, Brewbaker Tech, Elberta, Greene County, Helena, Murphy, Opelika, Prattville, Robertsdale, Russell County and Vestavia Hills.
Seven of the 15 teams competed in the state playoffs last year with Prattville and Vestavia Hills reaching the quarterfinals and Dothan, Enterprise, Northside Methodist and Elberta all reaching the second round.
Each team at this year’s tourney will play two pool games then be seeded for bracket play. The top six teams after pool play will play for the championship in the A Bracket. The seven through 11th place teams play from pool play compete in the B Bracket with the 12 through 15th finishing teams playing in the C Bracket.
Seeding will be based off: least games lost, most games won, head-to-head (two teams only), fewest points allowed and then total points scored.
There are four pools – three with four teams and one with three.
Pool A teams are Elberta, Enterprise, Helena and Russell County. Pool B teams are Greene County, Murphy, Northside Methodist and Vestavia Hills. Pool C teams are Brewbaker Tech, Dothan, Robertsdale and Prattville. Pool D features Albertville, Montgomery Catholic and Opelika.
The pool play schedule for local teams include: Enterprise vs. Elberta, 9 a.m. (Field 1 in main soccer complex), Dothan vs. Brewbaker Tech, 9 a.m. (Field 4 across from Miracle Field), Enterprise vs. Helena, 10:15 a.m. (Field 1 in main soccer complex), Northside Methodist vs. Vestavia Hills, 10:15 a.m. (Field 3 in main soccer complex), Northside Methodist vs. Greene County, 11:30 p.m. (Field 3 in main soccer complex), Dothan vs. Prattville, 11:30 a.m. (Field 2 in main soccer complex).
A Bracket games, starting at 1:30 p.m., will be played on fields 1 and 2 in the main soccer complex with B Bracket games on field 3 in the main soccer complex and field 4 across from the Miracle Field. C Bracket games are on field 5 across from the Miracle Field.
All games will be four 12-minute quarters will a running clock, except for the final two minutes of each half. Games will be called on the mercy rule if a team is ahead by 17 points with two minutes to go or with a 34-point margin at anytime in the fourth quarter.
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