Clinching its first postseason berth in five years, the South Whidbey High School football team won 19-14 at Granite Falls Friday, Oct. 19.

The win upped the Falcons’ North Sound Conference record to 4-1 (6-2 overall) and into a tie for second place with King’s (3-1, 3-5).

The two clubs square off in the regular season finale at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 26, in Langley.

The winner will earn the No. 2 seed out of the conference and a home game in the first round of the playoffs against the No. 2 1A team from the Northwest Conference Friday, Nov. 2.

The loser will have to travel to the top-seeded Northwest Conference school.

The games are loser-out; the winners receive one of the 16 state tournament slots.

The Northwest Conference seeding will be determined by this Friday’s games. Three teams are still in the running for first place: Meridian (4-1, 6-2), Lynden Christian (3-2, 6-2) and Mount Baker (3-2, 5-3).

Cedar Park Christian (4-1, 6-1) has wrapped up the North Sound Conference title.

South Whidbey’s climb into the playoffs came after several years of futility. The Falcons won only four games from 2014-2016. That prompted South Whidbey to play an independent schedule last year against smaller schools to re-build its program. The Falcons went 7-2, storing up confidence and momentum for this season.

South Whidbey 19, Granite Falls 14

The Falcons spotted the Tigers seven first-quarter points and then evened the score in the second period on a 42-yard pass from Kody Newman to Aiden Coleman. Kole Nelson kicked the extra point.

Newman and Coleman connected again in the third quarter, this time from 17-yards out, to give South Whidbey a 13-7 lead.

Caden Spear ran in from the 2-yard line to make it 19-7 heading into the final period.

Granite Falls cut into the lead with a fourth-quarter score but couldn’t come all the way back.

Clay O’Brien led the Falcon offense with 130 yards rushing on 31 carries.

Brayden Counsellor ran for 88 yards and passed for 66 for the Tigers.