Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – Eureka’s Zach Reed reacts during Friday night’s win at Fortuna.

By Ray Hamill — Eight of the nine local high schools have been included in the North Coast Section football playoffs, including Eureka, which was given the No. 2 seed in Division III.

After storming through the regular season undefeated, the Loggers will now have a first-round playoff bye before opening at home to either De Anza or Tennyson in two weeks.

As expected, Cardinal Newman received the top seed in the bracket.

The Humboldt-Del Norte League also had three teams qualify for the playoffs in each of the Division-IV and Division-V brackets.

Little 4 champion Arcata was handed the No. 9 seed in Division-V and is scheduled to open against No. 8 Cloverdale at the Redwood Bowl on Saturday night.

Hoopa Valley and Ferndale also were included in the Division-V bracket, and will each open on the road.

The No. 10 Warriors will play their first postseason game since 2011 at No. 7 St. Helena on Saturday night, while the No. 11 Wildcats will play at No. 6 Berean Christian on Saturday afternoon.

Fresh off their big victory over St. Bernard’s this weekend, the Del Norte Warriors were given the No. 2 seed in Division-IV and will have a first-round bye before opening at home in two weeks against either No. 7 Piedmont or No. 11 Justin-Siena.

Also in Division IV, both St. Bernard’s and Fortuna will host games, giving home fans three big playoff games to choose from locally next weekend.

The Crusaders were seeded fifth and will play No. 12 Albany on Saturday at a time TBA, while the Huskies were seeded sixth and will host No. 11 El Molino at Husky Field on Friday night.

Rounding out the playoff field, in eight-man football the defending NCS champion South Fork Cubs received the No. 2 seed in their bracket and will open in two weeks against No. 3 Rincon Valley Christian.

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