Woodbridge, Orange Lutheran Receive Top Billing

Woodbridge and Orange Lutheran were top seeded in their divisions in high school football playoff pairings, announced Sunday by the Southern Section office. Competition starts Thursday but the majority of games are Friday.

Woodbridge (9-0-1) tied with Irvine (8-1-1) for the Sea View League title and got the top spot by winning a coin flip.

The Warriors are seeded first in Division VI, which is composed entirely of Orange County teams. Irvine is seeded second, followed by Aliso Niguel (5-5) and Villa Park (4-5-1), which forfeited three victories because of an ineligible player.

Warrior Coach Rick Gibson was pleased to be in the top spot but said he doesn’t put that much stock in the rankings.

“Our division is wide open this year,” Gibson said. “Everyone’s pretty much on the same page. Just look at the records. There’s quite a bit of parity.”

Orange Lutheran (8-1) is top seeded in Division XI, followed by Ventura St. Bonaventure (7-3), Cerritos Valley Christian (7-3) and Playa Del Rey St. Bernard (6-3).

“It’s a nice reward for the season,” Lancer Coach Jim Kunau said. “The best thing is it guarantees you a home game in the first round.”

County teams were seeded in other divisions as well.

Los Alamitos (10-0), the top-ranked team in Orange County, is seeded second and Mater Dei (9-1) third in Division I. Long Beach Poly (10-0), the defending champion, is the top-seeded team and La Puente Bishop Amat (9-0-1) is seeded fourth.

In Division IX: Brea Olinda (9-1) is second seeded, and Pacifica (7-3) is fourth. Seeded first is La Mirada (10-0) and La Verne Bonita (9-1) is third.

Mater Dei will face Fountain Valley (7-3) in a first-round game at Santa Ana Stadium, a matchup the section pairings committee tried to avoid, according to assistant commissioner Bill Clark.

Clark said the committee was sensitive to the September transfer of receiver Kelvin Millhouse from Fountain Valley to Mater Dei, a transfer Fountain Valley officials tried unsuccessfully to halt.

“One problem is you had four Sunset League teams get in,” Clark said. “We had to send each of them to a different quarter of the bracket, and we could not give Fountain Valley a harder draw than Huntington Beach.”

A total of 37 Orange County teams will compete for championships in five divisions.