You could even say unlucky, as all three No. 13 seeds won. Upsets in some cases were the norm as the 48-team field was whittled in half for this weekend's quarterfinals.

One of the teams joining the list of underdogs charging through was Hurricane, which knocked off No. 6 Elkins 54-30 in a Class AAA at Buckhannon. That earned the No. 11-seed Redskins (8-3) a return engagement with unbeaten George Washington (11-0).

Hurricane and GW, Part II, is set for 1:30 p.m. Saturday at Steve Edwards Sr. Field in South Hills.

"It's a big game,'' said Austin Hensley, Hurricane's sophomore quarterback who threw for three touchdowns and ran for one against Elkins. "We'll just have to contain them. They have the speed. We'll give it our all, and play with heart.''

Technically, it was hard to credit Hurricane with an upset against Elkins, even though the Redskins were the lower-seeded team. The Tigers had never before won a postseason game, and Hurricane is now in the quarterfinals for a second straight year.

But Hurricane wasn't the only double-digit seed advancing to the second round on a weekend full of surprises.

At least one of the top four seeds in each class fell in the opening round and higher-seeded teams went an undistinguished 15-9.

Class AA, in fact, had more lower-seeded teams win than lose, as favorites went 3-5 in the first round.

Some of the victims were No. 3 Westside (losing to No. 14 Keyser), No. 4 Lincoln (falling to No. 13 Chapmanville), No. 5 Greenbrier West (ousted by No. 12 Braxton County) and No. 7 Ravenswood (eliminated by No. 10 River View).

That set up the unlikely quarterfinal pairing of No. 12 Braxton hosting a game against No. 13 Chapmanville at Glenville State at 7:30 p.m. Friday.

Some of the other bracket-busters included:

The quarterfinals haven't been very good to GW in recent years.

Since the Patriots became an annual major player in AAA in 2007, they've fallen in the quarters three times - twice as the No. 1 overall seed.

In 2007 and 2010, top-ranked GW lost at home to the No. 8 team in the second round - East Fairmont and Brooke, respectively. In 2009, the No. 6 Patriots fell at Bridgeport. As the No. 2 seed in 2008, they made it all the way to the Super Six finals in Wheeling before being dropped by South Charleston.

"Like I've said before, it doesn't matter who you're playing in this tournament here,'' said GW coach Steve Edwards Jr. "It's just how you're going to play, and we've just got to keep getting better.

"The kids have been through this. We put the game plan in on Sunday and do the best we can. We'll start working on it Monday, and hope we can work on getting better.''

Senior receiver Malik Hampton, who has been through several of those previous heartbreaks in the quarterfinals, insists the Patriots won't let up - because they've learned their lesson.

"The whole season,'' Hampton said, "we've preached that every time we play, it doesn't matter how much we're up at the half. We just preach the Brooke game from last year. Anyone can come back, anything can happen on a given day. So we've just got to keep pushing after every half. It doesn't matter how well we're playing. We'll just continue to do that.''

Both of Mason County's unbeaten teams kept marching on, as Point Pleasant (11-0) plays Oak Glen at 1:30 p.m. Saturday in the AA quarterfinals, and Wahama (11-0) takes on Fayetteville at 7:30 p.m. Friday in the Class A quarters. Both games are set for Point Pleasant.

Reach Rick Ryan at 304-348-5175 or rickr...@wvgazette.com.