By Ray Hamill — St. Bernard’s will be without five starters for Saturday’s football scrimmage against McKinleyville because of COVID contact tracing.

“It’s just an unfortunate situation,” St. Bernard’s head coach Matt Tomlin said. “None of our players have COVID, none of the students at St. Bernard’s have COVID, yet we’ve lost five starters.”

The head coach is hoping to have the five players cleared in time for their season opener against crosstown rivals Eureka a week from Saturday, but says he won’t know for sure until next week.

“It’s just the reality of what this five-week season is going to be,” Tomlin said.

The preseason scrimmage will take place at McKinleyville on Saturday at 2 p.m.

St. Bernard’s has a roster of 25 players.