Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com
By Ray Hamill — Five of the the nine local varsity teams have qualified for the North Coast Section football playoffs after the brackets and seeds were announced on Sunday.
Three of them will open with home games next weekend.
After an outstanding regular season that saw them lose just once and share this year’s Little 4 championship, the Arcata Tigers received the top seed in the Division-6 bracket and will kick off the postseason against No. 8 Bethel out of Vallejo on Friday night.
That game will take place at McKinleyville High at 7 p.m.
The Bethel Jaguars, who play in the Tri-County Stone league finished the season 3-7, including a 3-1 mark in league play.
In addition to Arcata, Big 4 champs Del Norte and Little 4 co-champs Ferndale each also received a favorable seed and will open in front of their home fans.
Both schools are included in the eight-team Division-7 field, along with Fortuna and St. Bernard’s, giving the local league a large presence in the bracket.
All four schools, however, have avoided each other in the opening round.
Ferndale, which handed Arcata its first loss of the season on the way to clinching a conference co-championship on Saturday, is seeded No. 2 and will open at home against No. 7 Vallejo on Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m.
The Redhawks, who compete in the Tri-County Stone league, finished the regular season 7-1 and second in league behind Salesian with a record of 4-1.
The Fortuna Huskies are seeded No. 6 in the bracket and will open at No. 3 Piedmont on Friday night at 7.
Piedmont finished the regular season 9-1, including a 6-0 record on the way to clinching the West Alameda-Mission league.
If both Ferndale and Fortuna win their playoff openers, the two local rivals would meet in the section semifinals.
The Del Norte Warriors, who claimed a fifth straight Big 4 championship this year, received the No. 4 seed and will open at home against No. 5 Kelseyville on Friday night at 7.
The Knights are 9-1 and went undefeated in the North Central League I with a record of 8-0.
And rounding out the local contingent of H-DNL teams in the section playoffs, St. Bernard’s is seeded No. 8 in Division 7 and will open on the road at No. 1 Moreau Catholic in Hayward, also on Friday night at 7.
The Mariners are 6-4 and placed second to Bishop O’Dowd in the West Alameda County-Foothill league with a record of 5-1.
If both St. Bernard’s and Del Norte win their playoff openers, then they would face off in the tournament semifinals.
Why is Del Norte and Fortuna playing in the division 7 playoffs? How embarrassing. That is a league for smaller schools. Both should be placed in division 5 or 6.
I can’t figure out how they are doing this. But HDN looks to be very well represented considering the total number of schools in the section. After yesterday’s nail biter, it was awesome to see St Bernards get the nod. Number 1 should not get feeling too cocky.
It is absurd that Fortuna and Del Norte are in Division 7. And with Ferndale’s state win last year, shouldn’t they be moved up to Div 6? Isn’t that what NCS did to St Bernards? Seems that “competitive equity” is skipped for some and applied to others.