We promised more of a glance at the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association's football standings in an earlier post, and one of the oddities involves No.2 River Hill.

The Hawks (5-0), though the best public school team in the Baltimore area, are second in the 2A South region, and may have to make an hour bus ride to play the regional final on the road at Patuxent of Calvert County, if the current standings hold. River Hill trails the Panthers (5-0), ranked 18th in this week's Washington Post poll by nearly 1.5 points in the MPSSAA complicated system, which awards more points for beating schools with larger enrollments.

Patuxent still has games against 4A Thomas Stone and 3A Great Mills, which have a combined 1-9 record. River Hill, meanwhile, plays its entire schedule within Howard County, which is the only Baltimore area county that doesn't have a 4A school. Unless the Hawks run the table and the Panthers stumble, River Hill will likely only play at home once in the 2A playoffs. Howard County hasn't produced a state champion since 1998, perhaps, in part, because its teams play an insular schedule. Perhaps if the scheduling formula could be tweaked to allow Howard teams to play one game per year against outside competition, they might fare better at the tournament's later stages.

Also in the 2A South region, Marriott's Ridge (3-2) will need some help to vault Douglass of Prince George's County and Gwynn Park for the last spot, while Southern of Anne Arundel (3-2) looks solid for the No. 3 seed and a first-round game on the road at River Hill.