POWER RANKINGS

By Ray Hamill — No surprise to see all five of our ranked teams in the North Coast Section playoffs.

The postseason gets under way on Friday, with three games involving local teams on opening night and three more of them in action the following afternoon.

And all five ranked teams to make this year’s postseason received favorable seeds and will like their chances of winning a section championship and making a run in the state playoffs.

Four of the five also closed out the regular season with wins over the weekend, giving them some added momentum heading into a pivotal few weeks.

From now on, there is no room for error and a loss will end a season.

Of the six area teams in the playoffs — a group that also includes South Fork in eight-player football — all of them received top-three seeds in their brackets, meaning the league could compete for as many as three or possibly four NCS titles.

With the H-DNL receiving the top three seeds in Division 5, at this stage anything less than a section crown in that division will seem like a disappointment for the league, while an all-local semifinal and championship game is on the cards.

McKinleyville is also seeded No. 1 in Division 7 and Del Norte is No. 3 in Division 6, as is South Fork in eight-player D-1, although the eight-player brackets have just four teams.

As for our final Power Rankings of the year, there is no change at the top this week, as Ferndale and St. Bernard’s remain tied for No. 1 for the second straight week.

These two great rivals could very well meet in the D-5 section championship game in two weeks time, and that would be a matchup no local fan would want to miss.

The Wildcats have held the top spot in our rankings in all but one week over the past two seasons, including going wire to wire in 2025.

A surprise loss at McKinleyville a few weeks ago saw them slip out of No. 1 for one week, but the Ferndale players responded with two bigs wins over their final two regular-season games to quickly rediscover their swagger heading into the playoffs.

This is an experienced team that will be hoping to make a fourth straight NCS championship game appearance and take home a third section crown in four years.

The Crusaders have also rediscovered their swagger in recent weeks after dropping back-to-back games with a shorthanded roster in early October.

Since then, with a full complement of players, they have won four straight games, and this is a team that no one will want to face in the coming weeks with size in the trenches and several young playmakers at the skill positions peaking at the right time.

Another team playing its best football of the year at an opportune time is Del Norte.

The Warriors are coming off their two most impressive wins of the year — at home against McKinleyville and at Fortuna — and a young roster is gaining confidence and learning how to win tough games.

And that should make them a tough proposition heading into the postseason.

Their win at Fortuna on Friday sees them move up to a season-high No. 3 in our Power Rankings.

Fortuna, meanwhile, drops one spot to No. 4 after losing back-to-back games against Ferndale and Del Norte to close out the regular season.

However, the Huskies remain a dangerous team heading into this weekend’s playoff openers, and the No. 2 seeds in Division 5 are well capable of going on a run and winning a first section crown since 2018.

Rounding out the final Power Rankings of the year are the McKinleyville Panthers, who have been one of the best stories of the year here on the North Coast.

The Panthers are also well positioned to make a deep playoff run, and the good news for the No. 1 seeds in Division 7 is that they won’t have to travel very far for any of their NCS games, as long as they keep winning.

The Panthers’ only previous section title came all the way back in 1989, but if they continue to play with the same confidence and limit their mistakes they could end that long wait this month.