A busy night for the H-DNL schools in the North Coast Section playoffs saw two of the three teams in action advance to the semifinals.
But it was a night of mixed results for the two No. 1 seeds playing.
The Ferndale Wildcats, who are the No. 1 seeds in Division 5, opened on the road at Montgomery in Santa Rosa and won a hard-fought battle 28-21.
The victory sets up a semifinal showdown against either No. 4 St. Vincent de Paul or No. 5 Middletown next weekend.
But unlike Friday night, when they were facing a league champion, as the higher seeds next week Ferndale won’t have to travel for that game.
Also in action on Friday night, McKinleyville lost 21-18 to Kelseyville at Mack High.
The Panthers, who were the No. 1 seeds in the Division-7 bracket, rallied from a two-touchdown deficit with three unanswered TDs, but the visitors would respond late and upset the odds to advance to next weekend’s bracket semifinals.
Rounding out a busy night for the local teams, Del Norte turned in the most impressive performance of the night in their Division-6 game against San Rafael.
The Warriors cruised to a 37-0 win and moved above .500 for the first time all year.
Senior Max Borges scored four of his team’s five TDs in the win.
The Warriors will find out on Saturday whether or not they will get to host their semifinal next weekend.
A busy opening weekend continues on Saturday.
In Division 5, No. 2 Fortuna opens on the road at No. 7 Salesian, while No. 3 St. Bernard’s opens at home against No. 6 Concord.
In NCS eight-player playoff action, South Fork plays at Priory.
College of the Redwoods will also play on Saturday, traveling to Visalia to play College of the Sequoias in the 2026 Sequoia Bowl.
All of Saturday’s game involving local teams kick off at 1 p.m.
