Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com

By Ray Hamill — After winning their first North Coast Section football championship in 11 years over the weekend, the Ferndale Wildcats have advanced to the 2023 CIF state playoffs, which kick off this coming weekend.

And the Cats won’t have to travel far for the game.

Ferndale is in the three-team Division 7-AA bracket and will play Portola on Friday night at the Redwood Bowl.

Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m.

The Portola Tigers are 12-0 on the season after defeating Biggs 27-14 in last week’s Division-5 Northern Section championship game.

The Wildcats are 9-4 after getting the better of Willits 14-7 in Friday night’s NCS Division-7 final at Ukiah.

The Wildcats have had to travel out of the county for their first three playoff games, beating the Nos. 1, 2 and 4 seeds — Clear Lake, Willits and St. Helena — on their way to the section championship.

Portola is located 50 miles north west of Reno.

The Tigers like to run the ball and have averaged 274 yards a game on the ground compared to just 63 yards passing.

The winner of Friday’s game will advance to the CIF 7-AA state bowl game, where they will play Fairfax out of Los Angeles, which received a bye this weekend.

Friday’s game is one of two scheduled for the Redwood Bowl this weekend, with College of the Redwoods also hosting Hartnell in the 2023 Grizzly Bowl on Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m.