Don’t look now, but we stand a very good chance of having the season end in a three-way tie for the championship of the Northeastern Conference/South.This isn’t an outside shot, either. It’s a very real – almost plausible – possibility.As for today, Marblehead stands alone atop the NEC/South with a 3-0 record. Swampscott is 2-1 and Beverly is 3-1 (Beverly’s Thanksgiving game is against nonleague Salem).We have Beverly to thank for this. And I mean that only in a good way. Anything that stirs up positive excitement in high school sports is a wonderful thing.Beverly defeated Swampscott Saturday, creating a free-for-all situation in the NEC/South.Now it’s true that all Marblehead has to do is win out and there’s no controversy. No tie. Victories over Saugus Saturday and Swampscott put Marblehead in the postseason.But as we’ve seen this fall, there are no givens. I doubt if there’s anyone who thought, in September, that Marblehead would be in this position. Most people figured Swampscott would be, with Beverly as an outside possibility. But Marblehead? No way.And I say that with no disrespect toward coach Doug Chernovetz and the Magician team. This has been a great story. When we last checked in on the Marblehead football team, Chernovetz was in court defending himself against various charges brought forth by the family of a former player. You wondered, considering everything, if the guy was ever going to be an effective coach in the town.But here he is ? possibly one win away from clinching a postseason spot.I say “possibly” because the stars have to line up in the right order for this to happen.Before we get into any of that, let’s go over the Northeastern Conference landscape. The NEC/North race is over. Gloucester clinched the postseason spot Friday with its win over English. The Fishermen only have one league game left (Friday against Salem) and even if they lose, it’ll be their only league loss (nonleague losses, even against crossover NEC teams, aren’t factored into the tiebreaking procedures, so the Fish don’t have to worry about that defeat to Swampscott).Conversely, the best English can do, even if it wins its last two games over Peabody and Classical, is 4-1 in the league. If that scenario unfolds, the first tiebreaker is head-to-head competition, giving the title to Gloucester.Now, let’s go over the whole tiebreaker procedure. The NEC follows the MIAA tiebreaking process, the order of which is as follows: head-to-head, fewest league losses; most league wins; and the elimination of the most recent participants in postseason play.Each time you eliminate a team, you have to go back and redo the process from the beginning.First, for there to be a three-way tie for the championship, all three teams have to win this weekend – Beverly over Winthrop and Swampscott over Danvers Friday; and Marblehead over Saugus Saturday morning.Since Beverly plays NEC/North team Salem on Thanksgiving, the Panthers’ league schedule ends Friday night. A win would leave them at 4-1 in the league.So, Beverly could forfeit on Thanksgiving and it wouldn’t make a bit of difference. Swampscott would then have to beat Marblehead on Turkey Day, creating the logjam.Now, let’s look at the tiebreakers. A three-way tie, in the aforementioned manner, would leave all three teams 1-1 against each other, moving the process along to the next steps. Fewest league losses/most league wins would also be a push, as they’d all be 4-1.This brings it to the final tiebreaker. And here’s where never having played a postseason game in the modern (Super Bowl) era really helps Marblehead. Both Beverly and Swampscott have played (this would really be tough on Beverly, as the Panthers last played in a Super Bowl 20 years ago).As a result, a win by Marblehead Saturday, coupled with a win by Beverly over Winthrop Friday, would clinch a postseason spot for the Magicians.But that’s only one scenario. There are others. If Beverly wins Friday, and Marblehead drops its last two games