Photo by Kenneth Tinkham – Arcata’s Luke Lemke scores what would turn out to be the game-winning touchdown in the fourth quarter of Saturday’s NCS championship game.

By Ray Hamill — Fresh off their historic North Coast Section championship this weekend, the Arcata Tigers will hit the road for the remainder of the playoffs.

The Tigers, who won a closely-fought matchup against Miramonte by a score of 28-21 in the Division-6 championship game at McKinleyville High School on Saturday, will now turn their attention to next weekend’s CIF Northern Regional championship game.

The Tigers will face off against Northern Section Division-4 champion Winters High in the Division 6-AA bracket on Friday night at 7:30 p.m., it was announced on Sunday.

The winner of that game will then play for the 6-AA state championship the following weekend, which will be held at Fullerton Union High School in SoCal.

Winters High is located about 30 miles west of Sacramento.

The Warriors are 12-0 on the season and went 6-0 on their way to winning the Sacramento Valley League.

Last week, they defeated East Nicolas 45-7 in the Northern Section D-4 championship game game.

They had a bye this weekend.

Winters is a high school of approximately 430 students.

The Tigers, who are 12-1 on the season after their victory on Saturday, will be playing in the state playoffs for the first time in school history.

Four of the six H-DNL teams to advance to the state playoffs over the past eight postseasons have gone on to win a state title, including Ferndale last year.

The winner of Friday’s game will then play for the state title against the winner of the SoCal 6-AA championship game between Portola, Irvine and King Drew.

The state final will be played on either Dec. 13 or 14.

Photo by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – Action from Saturday’s NCS championship game.