It’s high school football playoff time, with new teams in the mix

For the first time in years, the Southern Section and City Section football playoffs will begin with a hint of uncertainty as to which team will finish as champion in the top divisions.

Since 2016, St. John Bosco, or Mater Dei, has won every game in the Southern Section tournament. This season, Mater Dei has suffered losses to Corona Centennial and Santa Margarita. St. John Bosco’s resilience was punctured with a 35-31 loss in the regular season finale to Mater Dei.

“We have to pick ourselves up. We’re still a good football team,” St. John Bosco coach Jason Nigro said.

Then there’s Sierra Canyon, which is 10-0, has the best defense anywhere with five shutouts and is still ranked No. 4 by a computer that decides the Southern Section playoff pairings. Do you think the Trail Blazers have something to prove?

“We’re kind of the new kids on the block,” coach John Ellinghouse said. “We have gained some valuable experience. We have a team that belongs to the theater.”

Sierra Canyon opens the playoffs in two weeks, hosting Santa Margarita as part of a group of eight Division I teams released on Sunday.. St. John Bosco is No. 1 seed, Corona Centennial No. 2, Mater Dei No. 3. The championship game is scheduled for Friday, Nov. 28 at the Rose Bowl.

Sierra Canyon will face a significant challenge from Trinity League teams, something it has prepared for the past two seasons by playing Trinity teams in non-league and playoff games. The Santa Margarita game features perhaps the best two defenses in the Southland and six of the players in the game are USC players.

Don’t forget that the best quarterback in Southern California comes from No. 6-ranked Mission Viejo. Ohio State commit Luke Vahey had a school-record 569 rushing yards last week against Los Alamitos. The Diablos have beaten Santa Margarita and San Diego Lincoln as part of a 9-1 record, but injury issues on defense will make Mater Dei’s title defense difficult.

And Centennial coach Matt Logan, who has surpassed the 300-win plateau, has his team ready for the big games ahead with an offense that has scored 59 and 60 points, respectively, in the past two weeks. His team plays Servette at home, a team they beat 42-14 in August. St. John Bosco hosts Orange Lutheran, which they beat 48-0.

In the City Division, Birmingham will go on a 54-game unbeaten streak against City opponents in the Open Division playoffs as the No. 2 seed, but Carson is the No. 1 seed after winning the Marine League and posting weekly improvement behind junior midfielder Chris Fields III.

There are a lot of interesting storylines in the city section. Palisades won 10-0 after the campus was shut down due to the Palisades fire, with coach Dylen Smith having to scramble to field a team without a weight room or home court and players losing their homes. The team won a series of close games with a dynamic passing attack that included quarterback Jack Thomas, who had 42 touchdown passes.

Crenshaw won the Coliseum League title even though its veteran coach, Robert Garrett, was on administrative leave all season. He has 298 career victories. Interim coach Terrance Whitehead will send his team to play San Pedro.

The 11-time champion City Colts will open the opener against King/Drew, which lost to Crenshaw in the deciding game for the Coliseum League title but wanted to play in the Open Division. Be careful what you wish for.

Birmingham coach Jim Rose is so busy coaching his team and the school’s football team in next week’s Division II playoffs that he’s teaching everyone how to multitask. Last week, after the flag team won a game, they wanted to stop the bus at Chick-fil-A.

“No, the boys are training,” Rose said.

It was a strange season in which more than 40 players were declared ineligible for transfers for two years for violating CIF Rule 202, which prohibits providing false information to the Southern Section on transfer paperwork. Last week, Norco forfeited six wins when an investigation found a violation of CIF Rule 510, which prohibits undue influence with prior contact before multiple players are registered. San Juan Hills lost nine games but earned an at-large berth in the Division II playoffs. Long Beach Poly, which declared six players ineligible, decided not to enter the playoffs despite finishing second in the Moore League.

Then, on Saturday, JSerra announced that it is parting ways with third-year coach Victor Santa Cruz, after going 0-5 in the Trinity League. JSerra’s season ended after not earning a senior spot.

It’s been a season full of extraordinary events, so get ready for the postseason itself.