Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – Action from Wednesday’s NCS playoff game at McKinleyville High School.

Here we go again.

The McKinleyville Panthers and Fortuna Huskies will face off for a fifth time this season in the North Coast Section Division-1 quarterfinals after both successfully navigated their playoff openers on Wednesday, albeit in very different circumstances.

The No. 2 seeded Huskies won their opener by forfeit after No. 15 Summit Tamaplais backed out of the game, while the No. 7 Panthers got the better of Gateway 2-0 at McKinleyville High.

The two H-DNL rivals will now meet with a place in this year’s semifinal round on the line at Fortuna High on Saturday night.

Also in action on Wednesday, the Del Norte boys won their playoff opener against Lower Lake in Crescent City 7-3 and the No. 5 Warriors will now play No. 4 International in the quarterfinals.

The No. 9 Eureka boys also were in action and had to travel to San Francisco to play No. 8 The Bay School in San Francisco and came away with a 2-0 win to set up a quarterfinal showdown at No. 1 Head-Royce in Oakland on Friday night.

In the same bracket, No. 6 Arcata played at No. 11 Fort Bragg and won 4-1 to set up a quarterfinal showdown at No. 3 Making Waves Academy on Saturday night, while in Division-3 girls action, the No. 5 South Fork Cubs played No. 4 Calistoga at St. Helena and won 1-0 with one of their best performances of the season.

The Panthers also played one of their best games of the season and broke a 0-0 tie with two goals early in the second half.

Rylee Collart broke the deadlock five minutes after the interval and Jake Gardner would add a second goal less than 10 minutes later.

And that was all the Panthers would need, with the team defense holding a dangerous Gateway attack at bay all night.

“We played an amazing game,” McKinleyville head coach Ryne Deppe said. “We were moving the ball around, we made the right passes. It came together at the right time.”

A busy Gardner had a big night for the home team and “was always in the right spot,” according to his coach, while the return of influential defender Gaelen Creighton, who had missed the past three game through injury, made a big difference on the back line.

But overall, it was an impressive team performance.

“It’s hard to single out anybody,” Deppe said. “When the whole team plays like that and you’re able to link passes, that’s a team game.”

This was the first playoff win for McKinleyville in a few years and it was a particular gratifying performance for the seniors.

“They deserved it,” Deppe added. “They’ve put in the hard work.”

Del Norte 7, Lower Lake 3

Deken Hanks scored a first-half hat trick as the host Warriors took control of the game to lead 3-1 at halftime.

And in a high-scoring showdown they would add four more goals in the second half to advance to the weekend quarterfinals.

Mario Ledezma and Juan Ramirez each netted twice in the second half as the host team began to pull away even further.

“It was a commanding performance form my boys with good progressive passes and movement,” Del Norte head coach David Sanyaolu said. 

The Warriors, who finished second to Fortuna in this year’s H-DNL, will now play International in San Francisco on Friday at 3:30 p.m.

Eureka 2, The Bay School 0

The Loggers are having so much fun in the Bay Area, they’ve decided to stay there for a couple of more days.

On Wednesday night, they took control of their game quickly and never allowed the home team and higher seeds back into it.

Isaiah Herbst opened Eureka’s account just 10 minutes in and senior Makai Dennon would add an insurance goal just five minutes later.

And that was the end of the scoring for the game and all the Loggers would need.

“We played a really good game,” head coach Tommy Learmouth said. “It’s always difficult getting out of the car and traveling to play, but we played a good game.”

The Bay School players were technically sound, but they could not match the Loggers’ physicality and it showed as the game went on.

It was also an impressive performance for the Eureka boys after an up-and-down league campaign that saw them place fifth in the H-DNL.

“(What impressed me was) their mentality,” Learmouth said of his players. “It’s been a rough season, finishing 6-6 in league and 8-9 overall, and it was probably easier to say we weren’t going to win our first-round game.”

But the Loggers prevailed against the higher seeds and have advanced to play No. 1 Head-Royce in Friday’s quarterfinal round.

Several players rose to the occasion, including Herbst, Lucas Ask, Trenton Gerber, Will Mooney and Luis Rodriguez, among others.

“They’ve been working so hard for us,” Learmouth said. “And tonight they really did not want their season to end. They wanted to keep playing.”

The Loggers will stay in the Bay Area for the next two days before playing in Oakland against a Head-Royce team that had an opening-round bye in the 15-team bracket.

“I’m proud of them, they earned it,” Learmouth said of his players.

Girls

South Fork 1, Calistoga 0

The South Fork girls returned to the playoffs in style with a well-deserved victory against Calistoga at St. Helena High School on Wednesday night.

Hannah Savio scored the only goal of the game with an assist from Elizabeth Chivington, but this was a performance that saw several players step up.

“It was the best game we’ve played all year,” head coach Ann Constantino said. “Everything gelled. Our spacing was great, our passing was great, and we had several scoring opportunities.”

The impressive Aubrey Young turned in a commanding performance anchoring the defensive midfield, alongside the equally impressive Kara Worswick and Genesis Medrano, and the “whole middle was really good,” the coach said.

At the back, Gage Bates and the always consistent Molly Perkins led an impressive performance by the team defense.

“It was such an exciting game, and a beautiful team effort and an honor to the game of soccer,” the head coach added.

Starting goalkeeper Aurora Galaz missed the game after breaking a finger in a recent game, but junior Makenzie Brewer took over between the posts and turned in a very good performance.

“She played a great game,” Constantino said. “She only had one difficult save to make, but it was world class.”

The Cubs will now play at No. 1 seed Mendocino on Friday afternoon at 2:30 p.m.

Mendocino had a first-round bye and the winner of Friday’s game will meet either No. 2 Technology or No. 3 St. Bernard’s in next week’s championship game.