Sometimes parity can be a good thing.

Early in the season, the possible 8-man outcome appeared pretty cut-and-dry. Mound City looked incredible during beatdowns against St. Joseph Christian and Stanberry and appeared likely to extend its win streak into next season. Then Worth County changed everything.

The Tigers then sat atop the standings — until Stanberry pulled one of the biggest upsets against Worth County in the last stretch of the season. And in typical Mark Juhl fashion, the Lions look more dangerous than ever.

All that to say this: Your guess is as good as mine at this point. In recent years, the list of state title contenders has been short, like one-or-two teams short. This time around, you could easily envision any number of teams fighting their way to St. Louis. In a sport where blowouts are the norm and more than half the games never go past halftime, expect a handful of nail-biters in one of the most competitive 8-man seasons in recent memory.

Here are this week's games:

Hardin-Central (6-4) at St. Joseph Christian (8-2) — Ross: Christian. Andy: Christian.

DeKalb (7-3) at Miami (Amoret) (7-1) — Ross: Miami. Andy: DeKalb.

Worth County (9-1) at Mound City (9-1) — Ross: Mound City. Andy: Mound City.

Nodaway-Holt (5-5) at Stanberry (9-1) — Ross: Stanberry. Andy: Stanberry.