Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – The Fortuna Huskies open the NorCal tournament at home to Liberty Ranch on Tuesday.

By Ray Hamill — Don’t let the seeding fool you.

Nor the fact the Fortuna Huskies have been bumped up a division for the NorCal tournament.

Because of the open division, most teams get bumped up for the NorCals. At least the good teams do.

And that includes Fortuna, which will go into Tuesday’s opener at home to Liberty Ranch as one of the most dangerous teams in their bracket.

According to MaxPreps, in fact, they are actually the second most dangerous team in their bracket, in spite of the No 7 seeding.

Of the 16 teams included, only No. 4 Stuart Hall is actually ranked higher than the Huskies, coming in at No. 50 in California, seven spots ahead of Fortuna.

And if MaxPreps is to be believed, the Knights and Huskies are not just the best two teams in their NorCal bracket, but the top two by some distance.

In fact, only one other team — No 6 Central Catholic — even breaks the top 100 in the state rankings at No. 92, while No. 1 seed Redwoods is 115th, and No. 2 Las Lomas the lowest ranked team in the bracket at No. 266.

That’s good news for the Huskies, whose only loss in their last 17 games came in Friday’s NCS championship against a very strong Branson, which is the No. 2 seed in Division I.

The rankings, of course, only mean so much, but the electrifying Huskies have got to like their chances, and no team in the bracket will relish a showdown with them.

Don’t let the seeding or bracket fool you, the Huskies have every chance to make it to a state championship.