Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – St. Bernard’s Drew Vizenor

By Ray Hamill — The St. Bernard’s boys have advanced to Saturday’s North Coast Section Division-6 basketball championship game, although it’s not exactly how they envisioned it.

The Crusaders were scheduled to play a semifinal at home to San Francisco Waldorf on Wednesday night, but the Wolverines have been forced to forfeit because of COVID protocols.

“It’s a bummer,” St. Bernard’s head coach Issac Gildea said. “We wanted to play. We were looking forward to it. But it is what it is, and a win is a win, and we’ll take it and move forward.”

The No. 2 seeds will now turn their attention to a championship showdown on Saturday night and next week’s NorCal tournament.

The other Division-6 semifinal will be played at South Fork, with the No. 1 Cubs hosting No. 4 Valley Christian at 7 p.m. on Wednesday.

If the Cubs win, they will host Saturday’s decider, and if Valley Christian wins, the championship game will be played at St. Bernard’s.

This week’s cancellation is the second because of COVID protocols in the Division-6 boys bracket, with Napa Christian also forfeiting against Mendocino last week.

The San Francisco Waldorf girls also were forced to forfeit their semifinal showdown this week at Cornerstone Christian.

Cornerstone Christian now advances to Saturday’s championship game against either Ferndale or South Fork, who play each other in Wednesday’s semifinal round.