Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – Madison Hagemann and the Ferndale Wildcats will host St. Bernard’s in their NCS semifinal on Saturday afternoon.

By Ray Hamill — The H-DNL’s dominance in girls Fall soccer is guaranteed to continue this year after the league teams secured all four semifinal spots in the Division-1 bracket.

Since most of the North Coast Section schools switched to a winter season in 2017, HDN teams have won six of the seven Division -1 girls tournaments and five straight Division-3 girls tournaments.

That impressive run in Division 3 will end this fall, with all of the HDN girls teams to qualify for the postseason included in the D-1 bracket.

But the success in Division 1 is now guaranteed to continue after four of the six league teams to qualify won their playoff openers on Wednesday, and the two who lost both fell to league opponents.

All four remaining girls teams will play their semifinals this weekend, while the three HDN boys teams still in action will play their quarterfinals.

And it was an exciting start to the playoffs for the local contingent with six of the eight games involving HDN boys and girls teams decided by the narrowest of margins, including all four boys’ games.

In Division-1 boys action, Arcata defeated Cristo Rey De La Salle 2-1, Del Norte fell to International 2-1 and Fortuna had a bye, while McKinleyville fell 5-4 at Credo in Division 2 and South Fork won 4-3 at Contra Costa Christian in Division 3.

The three remaining HDN boys teams still involved will play their quarterfinals this weekend.

On Friday afternoon, No. 6 Arcata will play at No. 3 College Prep in a Division-1 matchup in Berkeley, while No. 9 South Fork will play at No. 1 Quarry Lane in a Division-3 showdown in Danville.

Both of those games are set for 2:30 p.m.

Also in Division 1, No. 2 Fortuna will host No. 10 Drew under the lights at Husky Field on Saturday night at 7.

If both Arcata and Fortuna win their quarterfinals, they would face off in the semifinals.

The boys semifinals will take place next Wednesday, with the championship games the following weekend.

The two Division-1 girls semifinals, meanwhile, will take place this Saturday at Ferndale and Del Norte high schools.

The No. 1 Wildcats, who have lost just twice all year, will host Little 4 rival and No. 4 seed St. Bernard’s, while No. 7 Eureka will travel to Crescent City to play the No. 6 Warriors.

The Del Norte girls are unbeaten in seven of their last eight games, including a 1-1 tie with Eureka in the schools’ only previous matchup this year.

The Cats and Crusaders have faced off four times this season, with Ferndale taking all four games, three of them by just one goal.

In the opening round of the girls playoffs on Wednesday, Ferndale defeated Technology 10-0, Eureka won 3-2 at No. 2 Kelseyville, Del Norte knocked off No. 3 Arcata 1-0 and St. Bernard’s defeated No. 5 Fortuna 2-0.

Both of Saturday’s semifinals are set for 2 in the afternoon, with the championship game taking place next Wednesday at either Ferndale or St. Bernard’s.

Interestingly, seven of the eight HDN schools that play soccer will be represented this weekend.