Check out driving directions and remember to dress warm if hitting the road Friday for state semifinals high school football

Be prepared, it’s only a high school football game within the state, but it’s also wintertime and time when it gets colder and when snow will fall, and don’t forget the ice.

That’s right prepare for Friday night when 4th-seeded St. Michael’s travels to play at top-seed Socorro. Kickoff time scheduled for 6 o’clock, so from the City Different, hit the road to I-25 South early for what is about a 2-hour, 140-mile drive. The later you wait, the traffic will be heavier Friday in Albuquerque, day or night. To arrive before the opening kickoff, it’s best to leave home around 2:30-3 o’clock. That should put you in the Duke City about maybe 3:30-4 o’clock.

From there you will find some traffic at entrances and exits, and once you get near Socorro, people who like to get off early on Fridays, will be stop and go. I even checked driving directions on my computer, but once they became a confusing mass of roads, I quit. So the best I can offer are the interested readers also checking out some of the driving directions and take it from there. If you print out the drive, it usually doesn’t have what you are looking for. If you go with pen and paper, it might come up short on this road, this drive, this exit, that exit, etc.

And when you finally reach the school, if you don’t have a ticket you’re best hope is it’s not sold out. And you don’t want to listen to the game on your radio in the car.

Oh, the Socorro High address is 1200 Michigan Avenue, but there won’t be any Wolverines there, only Warriors.

Write this down. Dress warm. Remember sitting in the stands, it gets colder and colder in the nighttime. The forecast for Friday is a low of 20 and it drops from 33 late in the day. I had nothing to do with these weather reports, I just copy what the internet says.

The Warriors are unbeaten in 11 overall starts. The Horsemen are 10-1. Socorro has pitched seven shutouts, St. Michael’s three. If the Warriors might have played a softer schedule, they did head up to Raton and win 27-14 over the Horsemen’s District 2-3A rival — the 5th-seed that plays at home Saturday in the other semifinals against 4th-seeded Ruidoso. One catch, Raton played that game without its starting quarterback and its offense wasn’t quite the same.

These school must like the trip, for St. Michael’s also went there and left with a 28-21 victory. The Tigers get home field advantage now because the last time they played Ruidoso in the state playoffs, it was at Ruidoso.

Elsewhere in the Land of Enchantment, 6A will play Friday night at 7 o’clock. It has No. 1 seed Rio Rancho Cleveland playing at fourth-seeded Albuquerque Volcano Vista and No. 2 Albuquerque La Cueva playing 3rd-seeded Centennial at Field of Dreams in Las Cruces.

In 5A, it’s No. 1 seed Artesia, the program with the most state football championships, at 5th-seeded Deming Friday night, and on Saturday in a 1 p.m.start, 2nd-seeded Roswell is facing Piedra Vista at Hutchinson Stadium in Farmington.

In 4A, No. 1 Silver gets a visit from 4th-seed Lovington Saturday afternoon, with the Wildcats, with the second most football titles, working their way back after losing their first four starts. The other semis has 3rd-seeded Tasos playing at No. 2 Bloomfield in a 1-2-3-4 semis.

In 2A, Jal, the other unbeaten team, heads for No. 2 seed Texico on Friday night at 7.