Southeast Sports : 18 Area Teams Enter First Round of Football Playoffs : Prep sports: Poly, St. Paul, Lakewood and Wilson have games in Division I competition. In Division II, the Dominguez-Saugus game matches two strong second-place league finishers.

Eighteen area teams will open first-round play at 7:30 p.m. Friday in the CIF Southern Section divisional football playoffs.

Sixth-ranked Poly High of Long Beach, which has won or shared nine of the last 10 Moore League titles, plays host to St. Paul of Santa Fe Springs, the third-place team in the Del Rey League, in a Division I matchup. The Jackrabbits, who swept to a 5-0 league mark, are 7-3 overall. St. Paul is 5-5.

In other Division I games, Lakewood (7-3), which tied Wilson for second place in the Moore League, plays at fourth-ranked Rialto Eisenhower (8-1-1), the second-place team in the Citrus Belt League. Wilson of Long Beach (6-3-1), ranked 10th, travels to eighth-ranked Antelope Valley (7-3), the Golden League champion.

One of the better Division II games pits No. 7 Dominguez (8-2) of the San Gabriel Valley League at No. 8 Saugus (7-2-1) of the Foothill League. Both finished second in their league races. Other local teams in Division II action include Warren (7-3), the San Gabriel Valley League champion, which plays host to 10th-ranked Fountain Valley (6-3-1), the third-place team from the Sunset League, and Downey (7-2), which finished third in the San Gabriel Valley League, playing in Burbank against third-rated Hart (10-0), champion of the Foothill League.

Second-ranked Bell Gardens (9-1), champion of the Almont League, plays host to Agoura (6-4), an at-large team, in a first-round playoff game in Division III. Schurr (6-4), which upset Montebello, 28-14, last week to finish second in the Almont, will play host to Hawthorne (8-2), the second-place team from the Bay League. Montebello (8-2) plays at Baldwin Park (9-0-1), a second-place team from the Sierra League.

Whittier High (9-1), rated fourth, has its best chance in more than two decades of advancing past first-round play. The Cardinals play host to at-large opponent Wilson of Hacienda Heights (5-5) at California High in a Division VI game. The resurgent Whitmont League champions have advanced to the playoffs three of the last four years, but not since 1969 has Whittier gotten by the first round.

In other games, second-place Santa Fe (8-2) plays at sixth-ranked Los Altos of Hacienda Heights (5-5) of the Miramonte League. El Rancho (3-7), which wound up third in the Whitmont League, plays at top-ranked Charter Oak (10-0), the Miramonte League champion.

In Division VIII games, Suburban League co-champion Artesia (6-4), ranked 10th, plays host to the South Coast League’s Laguna Hills (8-2), which is headed by former Lakewood Coach Steve Bresnahan. Laguna Hills is rated fifth. Co-champion La Mirada (6-4), which was defeated by Artesia last week, 25-17, plays host to sixth-ranked Pasadena Blair (6-4) of the Rio Hondo League. Third-place Bellflower (7-3), ranked eighth, plays at ninth-ranked Gardena Serra (6-2-2), the Camino Real League champion.

In Division X, Valley Christian (8-2), which finished third in the Olympic League and tied for sixth in the weekly Southern Section poll, plays at L.A. Baptist (5-5), the second-place team in the Alpha League.

Life Christian (6-4), an independent school in Downey, received an at-large berth and plays a Division XI game at Templeton (8-2), champion of the Tri-County League.

Bell (9-1), the top-seeded team in the CIF City Section 3-A Division, begins playoff action by hosting Monroe (2-8) at 7:30 p.m.