Knights open at home Tuesday while Middletown travels for Division 4 opener Wednesday
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LAKE COUNTY >> The Division 4 Kelseyville Knights are playing the Division 1 San Leandro Pirates in the opening round of the North Coast Section Division 3 playoffs Tuesday night at Kelseyville beginning at 7 p.m.
Welcome to the new pairing system for the sectional playoffs, instituted just this season. While teams are placed in divisions reflecting their enrollment at the beginning of each school year, they can now be moved up or down as many as two divisions when the postseason arrives. No. 6 seed Kelseyville (16-6), champion of the North Central League I and with school enrollment of 539, will take on No. 11 San Leandro (16-10), champion of the West Alameda County-Shoreline League, enrollment 2,513, in Tuesday’s opener. The winner advances to the Division 3 quarterfinals Saturday at 7 p.m. against the winner of a first-round match between St. Joseph Notre Dame (25-6) of Alameda, the No. 3 seed, and No. 14 Mt. Eden (10-9) of Hayward. The highest surviving seed will host.
Mt. Eden is another Division 1 school while St. Joseph-Notre Dame is Division 5.
The Division 3 semifinals are Wednesday, Nov. 6 and the Division 3 finals Saturday, Nov. 9.
Among the five teams seeded about Kelseyville in the Division 3 field, other than No. 3 St. Joseph Notre Dame, are No. 1 Berean Christian (14-6) of Walnut Creek, which has a first-round bye; No. 2 St. Patrick-St. Vincent (24-8) of Vallejo, which has a first-round bye; No. 4 Bethel (20-6) of Vallejo; and No. 5 Roseland University Prep (22-5) of Santa Rosa.
Kelseyville has a 1-2 record against other teams in the Division 3 playoff field. The Knights beat Bethel and lost to both Roseland University Prep and St. Patrick-St. Vincent during the Rancho Cotate Tournament in early October in Rohnert Park.
Middletown
Middletown (20-9), the third-place finisher in the NCL I behind Kelseyville and Cloverdale, hits the road as the No. 9 seed Wednesday to play No. 8 Urban (12-12) of San Francisco in the opening round of the Division 4 playoffs at 7 p.m.
Middletown will be facing the Blues, the fifth-place team out of the Bay Counties League West. Both teams are Division 4 by enrollment.
The Middletown-Urban winner hits the road Saturday at 7 p.m. to play No. 1 seed Vintage (13-16) of Napa, which has a first-round bye. Vintage placed third in the Vine Valley Athletic League, placing behind champion Petaluma and runner-up American Canyon.
Vintage is a Division 2 team by enrollment and drops down two divisions for the playoffs.
The Division 4 semifinals are Wednesday, Nov. 6 and the finals Saturday, Nov. 9.
Of the other teams in the Division 4 field, Middletown faces only Cloverdale during the regular season, winning at home against the Eagles and losing on the road.
The top five Division 4 seeds are No. 1 Vintage, No. 2 Arcata (19-6), No. 3 Cloverdale, No. 4 Montgomery (11-11) of Santa Rosa, and No. 5 Sonoma Academy (20-5) of Santa Rosa.
If Kelseyville or Middletown advance deep into their respective playoffs divisions, they could be awarded an at-large berth in the upcoming NorCal playoffs, part of the tournament for the state championship.
Other NCL I teams
Kelseyville and Middletown are two of five NCL I teams competing in the sectional playoffs. Cloverdale (20-9) is the No. 3 seed in the Division 4 playoffs and opens Wednesday at home against No. 14 Richmond (13-12) at 7 p.m.
St. Helena, fourth in the NCL I standings this season, and Fort Bragg, fifth in the NCL I standings, both drop down into the Division 5 playoffs. Both schools are Division 4 by enrollment. In fact, St. Helena (18-11) earned the No. 1 seed in Division 5 and has a first-round bye. Fort Bragg (10-10) is the No. 5 seed and hosts Holy Names (10-12) of Oakland on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
