When the opening round of the South Dakota high school football playoffs kick off this evening 17 area teams in the three 9-Man classes and Class 11B will start competing for spots in the state football championships at the DakotaDome in Vermillion on November 9-11. The Faulkton Trojans are one of the favorites to play for the Class 9B title. The Trojans are led by quarterback Layne Cotton and have a host of playmakers around him. Faulkton is 7-1 entering the postseason, with its lone loss coming at the hands of Warner, 27-20, on Sept. 22 at Dacotah Bank Stadium. The Trojan offense averages 38.8 points per game, while the defense gives up just 8.4 points per game. Faulkton enters the postseason as the second-seed and hosts Jones County in the opening round. The Class 9B defending state champions from Hitchcock-Tulare enter the playoffs as the eight-seed. The Patriots have had an up-and-down season, finishing the regular season 4-4, including dropping three of their last four game