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

By Ray Hamill — After an outstanding start to the North Coast Section fall soccer playoffs for the H-DNL teams on Wednesday, dates, times and venues have been finalized for the next round of games this weekend.

All six local teams involved in the midweek, opening-round games won their matchups, meaning all 11 H-DNL teams in this year’s playoffs are still alive going into the penultimate weekend of the season.

Five of them will play on Friday and six more will play on Saturday, including a doubleheader of games at Fortuna’s Husky Field.

Five of the 11 teams will play their games in Humboldt County.

The action gets under way with four games on Friday afternoon.

In the Division-1 girls bracket, the top-seeded Eureka girls will kick off their postseason campaign against No. 9 Upper lake, which defeated Middletown 1-0 on Wednesday.

The game will take place at Washington Elementary with kick off set for 2:30 p.m.

In Division-3 girls action, South Fork and St. Bernard’s will play their semifinals on the road, as they look to set up a second straight all-local NCS final.

The Crusaders, who fell to Ferndale in last season’s section decider, are seeded No. 3 and will play at No. 2 Technology in Rohnert Park at 2:30 p.m.

The Cubs, who turned in an outstanding performance on their way to winning their quarterfinal at Calistoga on Wednesday, are seeded No. 5 and will play at No. 1 Mendocino, also at 2:30 p.m.

If both Little 4 teams are victorious, they will meet in the final next Wednesday, a game that most likely would be played at St. Bernard’s.

Both Del Norte teams also will be in action on Friday.

The Del Norte boys, who defeated Lower Lake 7-3 in Wednesday’s playoff opener, are seeded No. 5 in the Division-1 tournament and will play at No. 4 International in San Francisco at 3:30 p.m.

The Del Norte girls, who are enjoying a breakthrough season after winning the programs’ first-ever conference championship this fall, are seeded No. 6 in the Division-1 tournament and will play on the road at No. 3 Credo at 7 p.m.

Most league champions get to host their playoff openers, but because the Credo girls are also a league champion and a higher seed they get to host.

The playoff action continues on Saturday with two big games at Fortuna High.

The Fortuna girls get things started at 5, when the No. 2 seeds in Division 1 match up against No. 7 Clear Lake.

Both teams had opening-round byes.

The Fortuna boys, who won their playoff opener by forfeit after Summit Tamalpais opted not to travel north for the game, are seeded No. 2 in the bracket and will take on No. 7 McKinleyville at 7 p.m.

The Panthers turned in one of their best performances of the season in their playoff opener against Gateway and won 2-0.

Also in Division-1 boys action, No. 9 Eureka will play at No. 1 Head-Royce in Oakland at 2 p.m., while No. 6 Arcata will play at No. 3 Making Waves Academy, also at 7 p.m.

Interestingly, five of the eight remaining teams in the boys D-1 tournament are H-DNL schools and we could see a pair of all-local semifinals if results go their way this weekend.

And rounding out a busy weekend for the local contingent of teams, the Arcata girls will open their postseason when they host Willits at Arcata High at 2 p.m. on Saturday.

The Tigers are seeded No. 4, while the Wolverines are No. 5.