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The Wildcats are getting set for the biggest challenge of their season after defeating Calistoga 51-45 in the opening round of the North Coast Section basketball playoffs.

The Ferndale boys are the No. 8 seeds in the Division-6 bracket and will now travel to play No. 1 seed Cornerstone Christian — the No. 2 Division-6 team in the state — in Saturday’s quarterfinals.

The Cats are one of three local teams that will play on the road against the top seeds in their bracket this weekend, along with the St. Bernard’s and Fortuna boys.

All three of those teams successfully navigated the normally tricky 8 vs. 9 seed matchups in their playoff openers.

SB won on the road in the Division-5 bracket at John Swett 70-67 and will play at No. 1 Urban on Friday night, while Fortuna beat Healdsburg 68-56 at home in Division 4 and will now play at No. 1 University on Saturday.

Kannon Christiansen led the way for the Cats against Calistoga with an outstanding all-around performance and finished with 20 points.

“I thought Kannon was a monster tonight,” head coach Tristan Waters said. “He was our guy that we leaned on in the second half. He was doing everything for us. Amazing game by him.”

Jack Westfall and Thomas Fergison each also were instrumental in the win, with 13 and 11 points, respectively.

Freshman Tanner Pidgeon also had a big game after just being called from the JV team, especially on defense.

“Tanner Pidgeon impressed me in his first varsity game,” Waters said. “He’s a great defensive player. It’s not easy to just jump into varsity so the credit is due to him.”

Waters admitted the Cats did not play as well as they’re capable of, something they can ill-afford a repeat of this weekend.

“Even though we won, we weren’t playing our game,” the head coach said. “We let them play theirs and acted like we just wanted to sneak away with a win. Calistoga is well-coached and they play together.”

The Ferndale players appeared to grow into the game.

“I thought we played well when we switched our defense and ran the floor,” said the coach, who added “We are excited to get back to playing basketball at a high level. I’m sure the (No. 2) team in the state will make us do that.”

The Cougars are 22-5 on the season and have won eight straight games.

Saturday’s game in Antioch tips off at 7 p.m.