By Ray Hamill — Let the fun begin.
The North Coast Section fall soccer playoffs kick off on Wednesday, with seven of the 11 H-DNL teams that qualified in action, including four schools that will host midweek opening games.
Five of the eight league girls teams are included in the two playoff brackets, as the H-DNL schools look to continue their recent dominance in the fall playoffs, which do not include many of the section schools.
League teams have accounted for nine of the past 10 NCS girls championships combined in Division 1 and Division 3, including five straight and seven of eight in Division 1 dating back to 2017.
The Eureka girls have been the most successful of the local programs, taking home four consecutive Division-1 titles from 2021 to 2024.
Eureka also won the section crown in 2018, one year after Fortuna took home a first girls section crown for the league.
The St. Bernard’s girls have been almost as impressive local program in Division 3, winning four of five section championships between 2019 and 2024.
(There were no NCS playoffs in 2020 because of COVID 19, and this year the NCS has renamed Division 3 to Division 2.)
More recently, the Ferndale Wildcats have been setting the standard.
The Cats claimed a first-ever NCS title in Division 3 in 2023 and followed that with a Division-1 championship last year, joining Middletown as the only school to win both a Division-1 and Division-3 title in NCS history.
The history of the league’s boys teams in the section has not been quite as prolific, although there is a far larger pool of teams competing in fall boys soccer.
There are approximately 50 boys teams in the section that compete in fall soccer, compared to approximately half that number in girls soccer.
Still, the league teams have enjoyed some postseason success, at least at the Division-1 level, although it’s been a few years.
The Fortuna Huskies are the only local boys team to have won a section championship, with three winning pennants to their name.
The last one came in 2019, which was head coach Daniel Holmes and his players’ second straight and third in four years.
In 2018, the Huskies got the better of Del Norte in the only-ever all-local NCS boys soccer final.
Other H-DNL teams, however, have come close in recent years.
Last year, the Arcata boys reached their first-ever NCS final but lost 4-0 to Head-Royce, while two years ago the McKinleyville boys enjoyed their best-ever postseason run and made it to the semifinals, where they would fall 3-1 to eventual champion Making Waves Academy.
The league teams will be hoping to end their eight-year wait for another NCS crown in the coming weeks, and there’s a feeling that a competitive league this year might have better prepared the teams for a postseason run.
H-DNL champion Arcata received the highest local seed and is No. 4 in Division 1, giving head coach John Davidson and his players a first-round bye.
They could end up hosting Fortuna in the quarterfinals this weekend, if the No. 12 Huskies can get a road win at No. 5 Calistoga on Wednesday night.
Also in Division 1, No. 7 McKinleyville will open at home against No. 10 College Prep at 2:30 p.m.
No. 2 Sonoma Academy awaits the winner of that game.
The H-DNL schools are also well represented in the Division-2 and Division-3 fields.
The No. 10 seeded South Fork Cubs are included in Division 3 and open on the road at No. 7 Brave Christian on Wednesday afternoon.
The league’s best chance for a boys section championship this year could be in Division 2.
Two H-DNL teams are included in the top seven seeds in a field that won’t be as competitive as Division 1, and both local teams open at home on Wednesday.
The Eureka Loggers are seeded No. 6 and will kick off against No. 11 Trinity Prep under the lights on the new Albee Stadium all-turf field, the first-ever playoff game on the new surface.
Kick off it set for 7.
Earlier in the day, No. 7 Del Norte will host No. 10 Kelseyville at 2:30 p.m.
The Loggers and Warriors could face each other in the bracket semifinals next week, if they can both win their opening two postseason games.
Del Norte would also have to win at No. 2 Cristo Rey De La Salle this weekend, while Eureka would have to win at No. 3 Credo.
The Nos. 2 and 3 seeds each have an opening-round bye.
The H-DNL girls teams are more likely to win a championship or two in the coming weeks, based on seeds, and three of the five league teams to qualify for the playoffs are seeded either 1 or 2 in their brackets.
In Division 2, the Del Norte girls received the top seed and will open at home against either No. 4 Lower Lake or No. 5 Cloverdale in the weekend semifinals, while Ferndale is seeded No. 2 and will open at home against either No. 3 Credo or No. 6 Tomales in the weekend semifinals.
While Ferndale has won two section titles in the past three years, Del Norte will be playing for a first-ever section crown.
And this could be the Warriors’ best-ever chance at ending that drought.
The team defense has been exceptional this fall and the Warriors are riding a 12-game unbeaten run heading into the playoffs.
Remarkably, they have given up just six goals in that impressive run and never more than one a game.
An all-local final next Wednesday appears a distinct possibility.
In Division 1, meanwhile, Pacific League champion Eureka is seeded No. 2 and also has a first-round bye.
No. 3 Fortuna and No. 5 St. Bernard’s also made the six-team bracket and will open on Wednesday.
The Huskies will host Clear Lake under the lights at Husky Field, with kickoff set for 7 p.m., and the winner of that game will play at Eureka in the weekend semifinals.
The Crusaders will open open the road in an always-challenging 4 vs. 5 matchup against Technology in Rohnert Park, with the winner of that game playing their semifinal at No. 1 Kelseyville.
The SB girls kick off Wednesday’s game at 2:30 p.m.
