Couple scores to report.

1. Ferndale LOST to Justin-Siena-Napa 22-15. Upset city! That means the Division IV title game will be  Friday night at St. Helena HS between No. 3 Salesian and No. 4 Justin-Siena.
2. In Division III, No. 3 Novato defeated No. 11 Fortuna 52-7 and No. 5 Marin Catholic defeated No. 4 Bishop O’Dowd 42-27. That means the semis are now set. No. 1 Encinal hosts Marin Catholic on Friday night and Novato hosts No. 2 Miramonte (Novato was the MCAL champ and gets to host) on Saturday at 1 p.m.

That’s all for this afternoon. See you on the sideline tonight.

So, a little closure to last week’s story in the Sac-Joaquin Section. Placer High made the playoffs when an Alameda County court ruled that their running back, Dalton Dyer, was eligible. That ruling gave Placer a couple wins back, putting it in the playoffs. On Friday, the Hillmen beat defending section champion Oakdale 27-14 in the first round of the SJS Division IV playoffs. Maximum Mitch Stephens of MaxPreps.com, has a story here.

Check out this week’s photo slideshow, courtesy of multimedia guru Ray Saint Germain.

Photo slideshow

I just read a somewhat jarring story from the northeast, as MaxPreps.com and the Bellvue Reporter in Washington reported that a bus carrying 38 members of the Bellevue High football team overturned on Interstate 5 yesterday. There were only injuries, the most serious of which looks like a concussion, and nobody was killed. Bellevue’s game against Capital has been rescheduled for Monday. Bellevue, for those that don’t know, snapped De La Salle’s win streak in 2004 and defeated California earlier this year at Qwest Field in Seattle.

Well, a couple thoughts. First of all, the state Division I title game picture got a bit of a shake-up tonight with Oak Grove losing to Valley Christian. I think the main question is now will Grant run the table and be awarded a spot it lost out on two years ago? Now that the WCAL teams are knocking each other off in the CCS Open Division, it could open the door for a team like Bellarmine to re-emerge as well.

As far as the NCS goes, the East Bay acquitted itself quite well today. Miramonte, Clayton Valley, and Salesian all beat teams from the north. Now, if Novato holds up its end of the bargain, it will set up a big time matchup in Novato next week between the Hornets and Matadors. Also, Clayton Valley gets to host either Rancho Cotate or Las Lomas. Either way, that’ll be a good one. And, in Division IV, a possible final between Salesian and Ferndale looms. I was there a couple years ago when Salesian won its first ever NCS football title at Ferndale’s expense. Something tells me Ferndale will be looking to get revenge.

That’s all from here tonight. Hope you enjoyed it. I’ll be at the Pittsburg-California game covering for print. We’ll have a live blog from the Foothill-Freedom game anchored by Michael Bower on Prep Corner. I’ll be calling in updates, so be sure to check that out. Click the “read this post” link below to see the transcript of the De La Salle-Deer Valley game. See you tomorrow.

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As we have for the last few weeks, the live blog will be up and running tonight at 7 with updates from almost all of the local football games. I’ll have live play by play from the De La Salle-Deer Valley game, and I’ll have updates from our reporters in the field. So, check back here around 7 for all the action.

The Geeks have a special Thanksgiving-week twist on this week’s NCS playoff matchups. Break out the cranberry sauce!

Be sure to join us at 4 p.m. here on the blog for our weekly high school football chat. We’ll cover everything you’d like to know about this week’s playoff games, and Chace will share tales from the Lost Coast after taking in a doubleheader last weekend.

We’ll embed the chat here on the blog, so this is the only page you need to visit.

I hope most of you got a chance to see our football notebook today. The lead story was about Hillcrest High in Idaho, the school that former Northgate coach Darin Owens is now coaching at. Hillcrest won the Idaho 4A State Title last weekend. Hillcrest had a 23-game losing streak before picking up its first win this season in week two.

I wanted to write about Owens and his new team because of the impact he had in just one year at Northgate. Last season I drove over to Tamalpais in Mill Valley to watch Northgate’s first game under Owens and I came away extremely impressed with the Broncos’ new coaching staff. Owens, Justin Lowell, and their entire staff commanded the kids’ respect and they picked up their first win in over a year. Owens told me that he still keeps in contact with the Northgate staff at least once a week, and that he’s confident that good times will return again soon for the Broncos.