FIRST AND SHORT

Links of interest: Kimberly has a milestone

JR Radcliffe

jr.radcliffe@jrn.com

Appleton West’s Blake Pahlow (left) tries to bring down Tyler Verstegen of Kimberly during a Valley Football Association-North game Friday at Ron Roberts Field at the Banta Bowl. See more photos from the game at postcrescent.com.

Ricardo Arguello of the Post-Crescent takes a look at Kimberly's historic streak, which achieved a state-record 49th consecutive victory Friday against Appleton West. The Papermakers remain the favorite to win the Division 1 state title -- it would be the program's fourth straight gold ball if it can pull it off.

Travis Wilson took a stab at imagining the outcomes for the rest of the year and put together a projected playoff field, including divisional cutoffs and implementing the tiebreakers to arrive at the field of 224 teams. At the moment, four teams with sub-.500 records make the field, though none are from the Milwaukee area.

The North Shore has had its share of surprises this season, and the best game of the year might have come between Cedarburg and Germnatown last week, when the Bulldogs emerged with a thrilling win that could easily mean the difference between a playoff berth or not.