BLANCHARD —  The 256-team MHSAA football tournament field was announced on Sunday night. Yesterday, locations at times were given to first round matchups, which, for most teams will take place on Friday.
The Montabella Mustangs — the area’s only team to qualify for the postseason — will be one of the games on Saturday. Despite, finishing the regular season 8-1 the Mustangs will travel to the Flint area for a showdown with the Burton Bendle Tigers on Saturday at 1 p.m.
After a 4-5 season a year ago, the Mustangs set a school record with eight wins this season. Their only loss was to defending Division 8 state champion Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart in week four by a score of 35-6. The Irish, playing a difficult schedule this year, qualified for the playoffs with a 5-4 record.
The Mustangs closed out the regular season Friday with a 40-7 win at St. Louis for their fifth consecutive win.
Montabella —  in the playoffs for the third time in four years —  is again playing in Division 7.
The Tigers play in the Genesee Area Blue Conference and also went 8-1. The Tigers lost their season opener 63-13 to New Lothrop (9-0) and won their final eight games. That includes four shutouts in their final five games.
Three teams from the Genesee Area conference qualified for the postseason including New Lothrop and the Byron Eagles. Burton Bendle is in the post season for the second consecutive year after finishing 7-3 overall in 2010.
The Coleman Comets (7-2) will travel to face Saginaw Nouvel (8-0) in the other region 2 district game. The winners will meet in the district final next week.
Both teams score plenty of points. Montabella averages 35.4 points and Burton Bendle 43.7. Defensively, the Mustangs give up 19.4 points per game and the Tigers 16.4 points per game.
Burton Bendle is nearly 100 miles away, located southeast of Flint.

R1-D1: Ironwood (5-4) 42.000 at Iron River West Iron County (8-1) 66.653
R1-D1: Ishpeming Westwood (6-2) 49.181 at Ishpeming (7-1) 64.653
R1-D2: Lake City (8-1) 63.000 at Traverse City St Francis (8-1) 74.653
R1-D2: Whittemore-Prescott (8-1) 69.556 at Mancelona (9-0) 70.222
R2-D1: Coleman (7-2) 54.556 at Saginaw Nouvel (8-0) 101.683
R2-D1: Blanchard Montabella (8-1) 61.778 at Burton Bendle (8-1) 66.667
R2-D2: Brown City (6-3) 43.889 at Harbor Beach (9-0) 81.667
R2-D2: Sandusky (6-3) 50.222 at Reese (7-1) 63.333
R3-D1: Decatur (6-3) 51.000 at Watervliet (8-1) 64.000
R3-D1: Gobles (8-1) 55.111 at Lawton (7-2) 59.333
R3-D2: Ravenna (5-4) 47.778 at Pewamo-Westphalia (9-0) 74.667
R3-D2: Springport (7-2) 50.556 at Saranac (8-1) 63.111
R4-D1: Reading (8-1) 64.889 at Hudson (9-0) 88.889
R4-D1: Sand Creek (8-1) 69.111 at Union City (9-0) 75.111
R4-D2: Britton Deerfield Schools (6-3) 48.667 at Detroit Loyola (9-0) 89.556
R4-D2: Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett (9-0) 65.000 at Royal Oak Shrine Catholic (8-1) 75.111