The NJSIAA will announce the official football pairings tomorrow, but it appears as if the Vikings are in.

The teams with the top eight power ratings in each group qualified, provided that there were eight teams with the necessary .500 or better record.

In The Inquirer's unofficial projections, Eastern would be the No. 8 seed in Group 4. The Vikings lost Friday, 28-21, to Winslow Township to drop to 5-3, but it was that defeat that provided the slim margin.

In this year's new format of calculating power ratings, teams for the first time receive points for losses. A team gets one point for each loss, minus the game it lost to that team.

In falling to a 4-4 Winslow Township team, Eastern received three points for the loss. That gave Eastern an unofficial total of 103, one ahead of Mainland, the defending South Jersey Group 4 champion, which just missed qualifying.

Winslow Township unofficially has the No. 8 seed in Group 3 by beating Eastern.

With one of the most dangerous quarterbacks in South Jersey in junior Bill Belton, Winslow Township is not a typical No. 8 seed.

Still, the Eagles have their work cut out in facing top-seeded Hammonton.

The other unofficial top public school seeds are Cherokee in S.J. Group 4, and defending sectional champions Delsea and Glassboro in Groups 2 and 1, respectively.

There is one South Jersey qualifier in Central Jersey Group 1, where Florence unofficially has the No. 6 seed and will face Highland Park.

The first-round games will be played either Friday or Saturday.

Football Pairings

Here are the unofficial pairings for the NJSIAA football playoffs. The official pairings will be released tomorrow.

SJ Group 4

(8) Eastern vs. (1) Cherokee

(5) Toms River North vs. (4) Williamstown

(6) Washington Township vs. (3) Toms River East

(7) Shawnee vs. (2) Egg Harbor Township

SJ Group 3