Servite, Kennedy receive No. 1 seed in CIF-SS men’s football knockout – Orange County Register

Servite and Kennedy were the top seeded teams in their divisions for the CIF Southern Section men’s soccer knockout round.

Servite (16-2-2), the champions of the Trinity League, was seeded #1 in Division 1.

The brothers lost to Loyola in the Division 1 semi-finals last season. Servite’s first-round opponent on Friday at Servite is Downey, which the Friars defeated 5-2 on December 7. The Friars defeated Downey 2-0 in the quarter-finals of Division 1 of the Servite. previous season.

Orange League Champion Santa Ana Valley (21-4-1) was placed third in Division 1. Huntington Beach (14-2-5) was placed fourth in Division 1.

Valley plays its first game against the University on Friday, when Huntington Beach plays at home against Long Beach Millikan.

Kennedy (14-2-3) is seeded No. 1 in Division 4. Fighting Irish, who are second to Valencia in the Empire League, play at home on Friday against Schurr/Montebello. Kennedy didn’t make it past the knockout stages last season.

Aliso Niguel is the only Orange County team to win the CIF-SS men’s soccer championship last season. The Wolverines, who won the Division 2 championship, were in Division 1 this season when the power point method of placing teams in knockout groups moved them to Division 1. They played one game. home on Friday against Mater Dei.

Playoffs schedule: Wild-card round, Wednesday; first round, sixth; second round, February 15, quarterfinals, February 18; semi-finals, February 22; Finals, February 26.

All CIF-SS knockout matches will be held at the host sites. The CIF-SS office stipulates that all men’s soccer playoffs will begin at 3 p.m. or 5 p.m.

The CIF Southern Section has seven knockout divisions for men’s soccer. All seven leagues have 32 teams.

If a division has more than 32 auto-qualifiers – the auto-qualifier is the team that finishes high enough in the final standings of the tournament to receive a guaranteed playoff spot – group matches are took place to reduce the pitch to 32 teams for the first round. Loara, in Division 4, and Capistrano Valley in Division 7 will play wild card matches on Wednesday.

Division 2 does not have 32 automatic qualifiers. It only had 30, so first seed Moorpark and second seed Norwalk said their goodbyes to round one and advanced to round two.

The first round of Division 1 featured several matches where both teams were teams from Orange County. In addition to Mater Dei at Aliso Niguel, they also have: Capistrano Valley at Godinez; San Clemente at Los Alamitos; College in the Santa Ana Valley; Edison at Villa Park; JSerra in Valencia; and the Port of Newport at Fullerton.