By Ray Hamill — The North Coast Section girls soccer playoffs kicked off on Wednesday, and it was a good start for the Little 4 schools.

The Ferndale Wildcats, who are seeded No. 1 in the Division-1 bracket, opened at home against No. 8 Technology and won comfortably 10-0.

Also in Division 1, No. 6 Del Norte knocked off No. 3 Arcata 1-0 in overtime, No. 4 St. Bernard’s edged No. 5 Fortuna 2-0, and No. 7 Eureka won 3-2 in overtime at No. 2 Kelseyville.

The game at Crusader Field was called with two minutes remaining after a fight broke out between the two teams, with players on both sides involved.

The ugly scenes marred a good afternoon of soccer here on the North Coast.

At Ferndale, meanwhile, the Wildcats returned to winning ways after an upset loss at Del Norte in their final regular season game.

And they did so in style, with a dominating performance and a good afternoon on set piece plays that saw them net four times from corner kicks.

“Overall it was a great team performance,” Ferndale head coach Bailey Davy said. “We took care of business.”

Freshman Madison Hagemann scored four goals in the win as she carried her very impressive regular-season form into the postseason.

“She’s just an incredible player,” Davy said. “She’s just out there to play soccer.”

The always dangerous Teresa Catana added a hat trick of goals, with Gianna Regli and McKenzie Chambers each also netting and an own goal by Technology rounding out the scoring.

Check out the first-half Ferndale goals above …

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

Action from Wednesday’s game at St. Bernard’s.

The corner kick goals were all set up by sophomore Macie Hagemann, who has been every big as influential as her younger sister in the Cats’ charge to a league title and top seed for the playoffs.

“Macie has a beautiful corner kick,” Davy said.

The win sets up a semifinal showdown against St. Bernard’s in Ferndale on Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m.

The Crusaders scored a goal in each half against the Huskies, all but ending the game on an Alyssa Boham goal just seven minutes from time.

That late goal came against the run of play in a hard-fought showdown, with the Huskies pushing hard for the equalizer.

Kaitlyn Amis made a big stop in goal for the home team just four minutes from time to help preserve the two-goal advantage.

The game was called early by the officials just two minutes later after the late fight broke out on the sideline, with multiple players on both teams involved.

Check out Alyssa Boham’s goal for St. Bernard’s below …

The fleet-footed Eliana Sellars assisted on both of St. Bernard’s goals, with CJ Figas netting the first in the opening half to give her team the narrowest of leads at the break.

“The team played a tough game in very difficult wet and muddy conditions,” SB head coach Jeff Sellars.

At. McKinleyville High School, meanwhile, the Warriors got the better of the Big 5 champs and higher seeds.

The game was played at Mack because the new Arcata field was deemed unplayable, and there was little to separate the teams for much of the afternoon.

Jaden Bennett got the breakthrough goal just three minutes into the extra period, jumping on a loose ball in the penalty area and slotting home to end the game and send her team on to the weekend semifinals.

The goal was set up by freshman Sydney Moerke’s long throw in, which was deflected into the path of the opportunistic Bennett.

The higher-seeded Tigers dominated possession for much of the game but were unable to break down a disciplined Del Norte defense, which was anchored by impressive senior Teexeeshe Scott.

Del Norte holding midfielders Aurora Mitchell and Hollyn Wakefield also were hugely influential with their play.

And that’s not all.

Wakefield, one of the team captains, gave an inspirational speech to her teammates just ahead of the overtime period and it appeared to work.

“They really felt they could do it,” Del Norte head coach Shawn Eckart said of his players heading into overtime.

Del Norte goalkeeper Avery Ritter also had a good game and posted the clean sheet against a dangerous Arcata team that had scored in all nine of its conference games this fall on the way to clinching the Big 4 championship.

The win sets up a semifinal showdown against Eureka in Crescent City this weekend.

All four remaining teams in the D-I bracket are from the H-DNL.