The Watsonville Wildcatz boy’s soccer team won’t get a chance to defend its Central Coast Section Open Division title but it will have a shot at its 12th section championship.
The Wildcatz (11-6-3), winners of their last five games and the second-place finishers in the Monterey Bay League Gabilan division, received the No. 2 seed in the Division I bracket of the CCS playoffs.
They are one of three local teams which advanced to the postseason.
They will host No. 15 Gunn today at 7 p.m. at Emmett M. Geiser Field.
The Titans (10-6-3) were third-place finishers in the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League El Camino division behind Fremont and Saratoga.
Watsonville’s longtime rivals, the Bellarmine Bells, are the No. 1 seed in the D-I bracket and will host No. 16 Alvarez, which took third in the MBL-G, on Wednesday.
San Benito, who the Wildcatz beat on Thursday to secure second place in the MBL-G, was given the No. 10 seed in D-I.
The Wildcatz’ girls will also have a shot at a CCS title after qualifying for the postseason by winning the Monterey Bay League Pacific division title, which was their first league championship since 2012.
Watsonville (11-4-4), which will be looking for its first-ever playoff win, received the No. 12 seed but will host No. 5 Woodside on Wednesday at 7 p.m.
The Wildcatz are unbeaten over their last seven contests but have not met a team like Woodside (10-6-2) this season.
Woodside finished in second place of the Peninsula Athletic League Bay division this season and won the inaugural CCS Open Division championship last year, beating a pair of nationally ranked teams en route to the title.
The Aptos girls, meanwhile, will be off until Saturday, when the first round of the CCS Open Division playoffs begin.
The No. 7-seeded Mariners (15-2-1), who won their fourth straight Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League championship this season, will travel to Mountain View to play the nationally ranked Spartans (16-1-3), who received the No. 2 seed.
Mountain View, which won the SCVAL De Anza division, is ranked seventh in the nation and second in California, according to maxpreps.com.
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CCS SCHEDULE
Boys
Tuesday
• D-I: No. 2 Watsonville vs No. 15 Gunn, 7 p.m.
Girls
Wednesday
• D-I: No. 12 Watsonville vs No. 5 Woodside; Wednesday, 7 p.m.
Saturday
• Open Division: No. 7 Aptos at No. 2 Mountain View, 3 p.m.
