Servite and Kennedy are top-seeded teams in their divisions for the CIF Southern Section boys soccer playoffs.

Servite (16-2-2), champion of the Trinity League, is seeded No. 1 in Division 1.

The Friars lost to Loyola in the Division 1 semifinals last season. Servite’s first-round opponent Friday at Servite is Downey, which the Friars defeated 5-2 on Dec. 7. The Friars beat Downey 2-0 in last season’s Division 1 quarterfinals.

Orange League champion Santa Ana Valley (21-4-1) is seeded third in Division 1. Huntington Beach (14-2-5) is seeded fourth in Division 1.

Valley plays its first-round game against University on Friday, when Huntington Beach is home against Long Beach Millikan.

Kennedy (14-2-3) is seeded No. 1 in Division 4. The Fighting Irish, who finished second to Valencia in the Empire League, play at home Friday against Schurr/Montebello. Kennedy did not qualify for the playoffs last season.

Aliso Niguel was the only Orange County team to win a CIF-SS boys soccer championship last season. The Wolverines, who won the Division 2 title, are in Division 1 this season as the power-points method of placing teams in playoff divisions moved them to Division 1. They play a home game Friday against Mater Dei.

The playoffs schedule: wild-card round, Wednesday; first round, Friday; second round, Feb. 15, quarterfinals, Feb. 18; semifinals, Feb. 22; finals, Feb. 26.

All CIF-SS soccer playoffs will be played at host school sites. The CIF-SS office stipulates that all boys soccer playoff games will start at 3 p.m. or 5 p.m.

The CIF Southern Section has seven playoff divisions for boys soccer. All seven divisions have 32-team brackets.

If a division has more than 32 automatic qualifiers – an automatic qualifier is a team that finished high enough in its league’s final standings to receive a guaranteed playoff berth – wild card round games are played to reduce the field to 32 teams for the first round. Loara, in Division 4, and Capistrano Valley in Division 7 will play wild card games Wednesday.

Division 2 did not have 32 automatic qualifiers. It had only 30, so No. 1-seeded Moorpark and second-seeded Norwalk have first-round byes and advanced to the second round.

The Division 1 first-round has several games in which both teams are Orange County teams. In addition to Mater Dei at Aliso Niguel, they are: Capistrano Valley at Godinez; San Clemente at Los Alamitos; University at Santa Ana Valley; Edison at Villa Park; JSerra at Valencia; and Newport Harbor at Fullerton.

Related Articles

Division 2 also has first-round games in which two county teams play each other, including area rivals Tustin at Foothill, Beckman at San Juan Hills and Saddleback at El Dorado.

The CIF Southern California Regionals playoffs follow the CIF-SS finals. Regionals dates are March 1, 3 and 5.