Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – Eureka’s Type Mullins (3) and Trevor Bell (2) react after a win this season.

By Ray Hamill — The Loggers appear ready to go.

It’s been a long wait for the Eureka players, who have now been idle for three weeks due to the North Coast Section scheduling delays, but on Saturday they’ll return to action when they host Las Lomas at Albee Stadium in the Division-III football semifinal.

And Eureka head coach Jason White has no doubt his players will be ready to go and up for the occasion.

“We’re chomping at the bit,” White said.

The Eureka players took some time off last week, practicing just twice, but were back at it full steam again this week after finally finding out who their semifinal opponent would be.

The Loggers are seeded No. 2 in Division III and comfortably won their postseason opener at home to De Anza three weeks ago in one of the few NCS games to go ahead that weekend due to poor air quality throughout most of the section caused by the recent wildfires.

Since then, with subsequent delays the following week as well, the Loggers (11-0) have been playing the waiting game, although White admits he and his staff have been preparing for No. 3 Las Lomas (12-0), which, as expected, beat No. 11 Terra Linda last weekend.

And all the waiting around has the players eager to get going again.

White, however, has no concerns his veteran team will show any signs of rustiness after the long layoff.

“Honestly, I kind of think it’s going to be the opposite,” he said. “They’re raring to play right now. We’ve had so much time, the kids are sick of waiting at this point.”

The waiting around is not the only thing that has the players fired up.

According to the head coach, the players have also taken exception to Prep2Prep’s playoff prediction of a Las Lomas/Cardinal Newman championship matchup.

For a more in-depth preview of Saturday’s big showdown, which is set for 7 p.m., log onto HumboldtSports.com on Friday.