The CIF-SS girls soccer playoffs have a way of testing every team with hopes of winning a championship.
The most fearsome challenges usually come in Division 1, and this season figures to be no different.
The CIF-SS pairings were released Monday, and Orange County has 19 teams in the 32-team Division 1 field, including the top two seeds, JSerra and Aliso Niguel, respectively.
Eight teams ranked in the Register’s top 10 are in the Division 1 bracket.
Edison (12-7-3), which won the Sunset League title, is a good example of the difficult road ahead in Division 1. The Chargers’ opponent for Thursday’s first-round game is Tesoro. The Titans were the runner-up in Division 1 and the Southern California Regionals last season.
The winner of the Edison-Tesoro match will face the winner of Mater Dei, ranked No. 10 in the county, and Cypress, which won the Empire League title, in the second round.
Los Alamitos (20-4-3) also opens the Division 1 playoffs in an all-county matchup, facing Northwood, the Division 2 runner-up a year ago.
If the seedings hold, Los Alamitos would face JSerra (14-1-3) in the quarterfinals.
Aliso Niguel opens the playoffs Thursday at home against Oaks Christian, and could end up facing Santa Margarita (13-3-4), the reigning Division 1 champs, in the second round.
Corona del Mar (20-0-3), which won the Pacific Coast League title, is the top seed in Division 2.
In Division 4, Laguna Beach (18-3-2) is the No. 2 seed. The Breakers won the Orange Coast League title.
Los Amigos is the No. 3 seed in Division 6. The Lobos (19-3-1) were co-champs in the Garden Grove League.
Second-round games will be played Feb. 21, the quarterfinals on Feb. 24, the semifinals on Feb. 28 and the championships on March 3-4.
