Sacred Heart Cathedral thriving

Sacred Heart Cathedral no longer has a juniorvarsity football program — attrition forced the school to drop it during this season — but it still has a shot of making the state tournament.

The Irish (6-4), coming off a 35-25 win over Mitty on Friday, are seeded fourth in the wide-open Central Coast Section Division 3 Open Division, it was announced Sunday.

SHC begins with a home game at Kezar Stadium 7 p.m. Friday against Live Oak-Morgan Hill (6-4). The winner will play the winner of No. 8 Burlingame (6-4) at No. 1 Half Moon Bay (10-0).

Five teams — the champions and two at-large teams — from the section’s three open divisions advance to the state tournament.

“We’re not thinking about state at all at this point, but getting to open a playoff game at home at Kezar is pretty special,” said SHC first-year head coach Barry McLaughlin.

The Irish started the season with three nonleague wins. Meanwhile, the JV roster had dwindled to 15 healthy players, and McLaughlin decided to drop the JV program.

All those players joined the varsity — the roster is at 45 — and many helped during a 41-21 win over Riordan on Nov. 4 before Friday’s wire-to-wire win over Mitty. Anthony Heard rushed for 195 yards and four touchdowns in that game, which was SHC’s first win over a South Bay team since 2008.

The CCS Division 2 Open bracket is dominated by the WCAL, including top-seeded Serra (8-2), which opens with Mitty. The winner of that game plays the Oak Grove-San Jose (6-4) at Valley Christian (8-2) winner.

On the other side of the bracket are second-seeded Aragon-San Mateo (9-1) and No. 3 St. Francis (7-3).

Open Division 1 top seed Milpitas (10-0) opens with another WCAL team, Bellarmine (4-6).