Mystery over, intrigue begins with CIF playoffs

LOS ALAMITOS - Every football coaching staff loves trying to predict playoff brackets and guessing who their teams will play in the first round.

Well, almost every coaching staff.

"We pretty much gave that up," said La Habra coach Frank Mazzotta, laughing. "We used to try to figure it out, but that's not going to make a difference. You're going to play who you're going to play."

Mazzotta and every other football coach found out who they are going to play when CIF-Southern Section football playoff seedings and first-round matchups were announced Sunday.

La Habra is going to play Kennedy at La Habra on Friday as the Highlanders try for a third consecutive Southwest Division championship.

St. Margaret's, going for what would be a county-record fourth consecutive CIF football championship, plays host to Santa Paula in an East Valley Division first-round game. Laguna Hills, 2008 Southern Division champion, plays a first-round home game Friday against Estancia.

La Habra and St. Margaret's were seeded No. 1 in their divisions, as were Edison in the Pac-5 Division and Garden Grove in the Southern.

Guaranteed playoff berths are awarded to teams that finish third or higher in five- and six-team leagues, second or higher in four-team leagues and fourth or higher in seven- and eight-team leagues. Two county teams that did not get guaranteed berths still got into the playoffs by qualifying as at-large teams: the Sunset League's Newport Harbor, in the Pac-5 Division; and the Empire League's Kennedy, in the Southwest.

Most coaches still like trying to predict the brackets.

"We were kind of guessing Dana Hills or Fountain Valley," Orange Lutheran coach Jim Kunau said. "But we weren't sure."

Lutheran (6-4) will be playing at Dana Hills (8-2) in a Pac-5 game Friday. It will be a battle of top 10 teams. Dana Hills entered Week 10's games at No. 4 in Orange County, and Lutheran was No. 7.

In another all-county matchup in the Pac-5, San Clemente (6-4) will play Servite (9-1) at Cerritos College on Friday. Those teams met in a wild first-round game in 2007, when Servite beat San Clemente, 54-43.

An intriguing first-round game in that division is Long Beach Poly-Los Alamitos, at Veterans Stadium in Long Beach. Los Alamitos starting quarterback Dylan Lagarde was Poly's starting quarterback during the first half of the season before transferring to Los Alamitos.

The Southwest Division is an all-county division. After top-seeded La Habra, other seeded teams there are second-seeded Tustin (9-1), third-seeded Trabuco Hills (9-1) and fourth-seeded Cypress (9-1).

Three county teams go into the playoffs undefeated. Edison, Garden Grove and Mission Viejo are 10-0.

Football playoffs are played over four rounds. Championship games in the Pac-5 and Southwest Divisions are at Angel Stadium on Dec. 12.

Edison coach Dave White correctly predicted Long Beach Millikan (6-4) would be the Chargers' first-round opponent.

"It was a pretty easy one," White said. "But we've been wrong in the past."

Valencia plays at Tustin in a Southwest first-round game, which Tustin coach Myron Miller said will be the fifth time the two have played each other in the playoffs since Miller became the Tustin coach in 1995. Valencia coach Mike Marrujo was not so sure about that.

"I don't remember things like I used to," said Marrujo, smiling. "But I think the last time we played Tustin in the playoffs was 2004. We went for two points at the end of the game and didn't make it."

Marrujo's memory is just fine. It was 2004, and it was Tustin 15, Valencia 13.