Teams gear up for soccer playoffs

Many of the stars of tomorrow will be on display as the San Di­ego Section boys and girls soccer playoffs kick off mid-month.

Postseason competition will embrace seven divisions, includ­ing the elite eight-team Open Division that will change for­mat this season to include home and away matches against the same opponent in a revised first-round bracket format.

The opening leg will pit the No. 1 seed at the No. 8 seed. There will be no overtime or kicks-from-the-mark tiebreaker. However, a tiebreaker will be used, if needed, in the return leg when the No. 8 seed visits the No. 1 seed. Advancement will be based on aggregate scor­ing. Division I qualifiers will in­clude 12 teams while 16 teams will qualify in each of the Di­vision II through Division IV brackets. Division V and Divi­sion V-AA will include 12 teams each for boys and eight teams each for girls.

First-round play in the Open Division kicks Feb. 18-19 with first-round opening matches and continues Feb. 20-21 with opening round return legs. Semifinal-round matches in both gender fields are scheduled Feb. 26.

Open Division championship games are slated for March 1 at a site to be determined.

The Division I playoffs kick off Feb. 18 (girls) and Feb. 19 (boys), followed by quarterfi­nals Feb. 20-21 and semifinals on Feb. 26. Both gender finals are scheduled March 1 at TBD.

The Division II and Division III playoffs kick off Feb. 18-19, followed by quarterfinals Feb. 20-21 and semifinals on Feb. 26. The Division II finals are sched­uled March 1 at TBD while the Division III finals are scheduled Feb. 28 at Monte Vista High School.

The Division IV, Division V and Division V-AA playoffs kick off Feb. 18, followed by quarter­finals on Feb. 20 and semifinals on Feb. 25. All three division fi­nals are scheduled Feb. 27: Di­vision IV at Bonita Vista High School, Division V at Orange Glen High School and Division V-AA at Patrick Henry High School.

Pairings will be posted by 1 p.m. on the section website at www.cifsds.org.

POWER RANKINGS

Boys teams to watch? Chris­tian (7-2-3) is No. 1 in Division V while El Capitan (6-8-5) is No. 7, Mountain Empire (8-4-1) is No. 12 and Mt. Miguel (2-12-2) is No. 14; Helix (9-3-2) is No. 4 in Division II while Monte Vista (10-6-4) is No. 7 and Santana (5- 8-3) is No. 13; Grossmont (8-6-2) is No. 12 in Division III while Granite Hills (9-8-2) is No. 14; West Hills (9-2-3) is No. 6 in Di­vision IV while El Cajon Valley is No. 18 (7-9-5); Steele Canyon (3-8-1) is No. 19 in Division I.

Monte Vista won last year’s Division III championship.

Girls teams to watch? Moun­tain Empire (7-3-1) is ranked No. 2 in Division V-AA while Liberty Charter (7-4-2) is ranked No. 5. Helix (9-3-3) is ranked No. 3 in Division III while Foothills Christian (9-4- 2) is ranked No. 8, Christian (6- 5-3) is ranked No. 9 and Monte Vista (5-5-2) is ranked No. 11. Granite Hills (11-3) is ranked eighth in Division I while West Hills (8-5-2) is No. 19. El Capi­tan (7-7-1) is No. 10 in Division II while Steele Canyon (7-5-4) is No. 14 and Valhalla (7-8-2) is No. 17, Grossmont (3-7-1) is No. 18 and Santana (1-10-1) is No. 20. Mt. Miguel (7-8-0) is ranked No. 11 in Division IV while El Cajon Valley (0-9) is ranked No. 12 in Division V.

Granite Hills won last year’s Division II championship.