CROWLEY – The Notre Dame Pioneers got just what they expected Sunday when the Louisiana High School Athletic Association announced its 2010 Class AAA football pairings – the No. 1 seed.

The defending Class AAA champions, who finished up their fourth-straight undefeated regular season last Friday with a 35-7 rout of Kaplan, earned the top seed for the third straight year and will be at home Friday hosting No. 32 seed Plaquemine.

Across town, the Crowley Gents earned the No. 25 seed when the pairings were announced. They will travel to Shreveport Friday to take on No. 8 Loyola Prep.

Should both teams win their first two games, they would meet in the third round of the playoffs.

“For the kids, just to go undefeated for the fourth straight year...” said Notre Dame coach Lewis Cook. “You have to give credit to the kids that have been here during that stretch. It just doesn’t happen very often; there are not that many teams that have done that. Four times in a row in the regular season, that’s pretty impressive.”

Even with all that success, Cook knows that anything can happen when the playoffs begin.

“We drew Plaquemine as the No. 32 seed and they’re better than a whole ton of teams that we’ve played in the past in the second and third rounds,” he said. “They are really talented and it’s a tough draw for us.”

Crowley also received a difficult draw, but CHS coach Tommy Tate said he looks forward to the challenge that No. 8 Loyola presents.

“It’s always exciting when you have a chance to extend your season,” said Tate. “We’re going to try and have some fun with it, hopefully prepare well for it this week and, hopefully, go up there and play well.

“Loyola is 9-1 and they’ve played some good football. You don’t just stumble into the No. 8 seed. They’ve done some really good things and we have a lot of respect for what they do.”

The Pios and the Gents, the only parish teams to make the postseason, will be joined by a number of their league counterparts in the playoffs.

Notre Dame, the District 5-AAA champion, will be joined by No. 10 Kaplan, No. 26 Abbeville and No. 27 North Vermilion.

Crowley is one of three teams to get in out of District 4-AAA along with No. 20 Westlake and No. 23 Eunice.

Kaplan and Eunice will square off in the bi-district round while North Vermilion travels to No. 6 Holy Cross in New Orleans and Abbeville will be at No. 7 Patterson. Westlake will also be on the road at No. 13 E.D. White in Thibodeaux.