Sacred Heart Cathedral, St. Ignatius to meet again?

The oldest football rivalry west of the Mississippi might be renewed a second time in 2018.

St. Ignatius (3-7) and Sacred Heart Cathedral (5-5), who are both San Francisco and West Catholic Athletic League rivals, could face off for a Central Coast Section Open Division 3 semifinal game, it was announced at Sunday’s seedings meeting.

Each will have to win firstround road games to get there.

On Friday, sixth-seeded Sacred Heart Cathedral travels to face No. 3 seed Live Oak-Morgan Hill (8-2), a team that eliminated the Irish 28-21 in a first-round Division 3 game last season. SHC lost its final two regularseason games, 42-0 to Serra and 26-14 to Mitty.

On Saturday, seventh-seeded St. Ignatius (3-7), with back-toback shutout wins to close the regular season, plays at secondseeded Sacred Heart Prep-Atherton (9-1).

St. Ignatius beat Riordan 35-0 on Oct. 27 and topped Bellarmine 34-0 on Saturday to reach the playoffs, whose qualifiers are based on a points system. Sacred Heart Prep rebounded from its only loss, 30-0 to MenloAtherton, by beating Terra Nova-Pacifica 40-28 on Oct. 26 and Menlo School-Atherton 53-18 on Friday.

Palma-Salinas (9-1) is the top seed in Division 3.

Sacred Heart Cathedral and St. Ignatius faced off for the 2011 CCS Division 3 championship before more than 10,000 at AT&T Park. St. Ignatius prevailed 21-14.

The rivalry dates to 1892, and in 1947 the Irish and Wildcats began playing for the BruceMahoney trophy, to honor Bill Bruce and Jerry Mahoney, each an alumnus of one school who were killed in World War II.

Four other WCAL teams earned spots in the playoffs, all in the Open Division 2 bracket.

Top-seeded St. Francis (9-1), which won its first outright WCAL crown since 2003 with a 42-7 win over Serra, hosts No. 8 seed Aragon-San Mateo (2-8) on Friday. Other first-round Division 2 games Friday are No. 6 seed Mitty (5-5) at No. 3 seed Oak Grove-San Jose (6-4), No. 2 seed Valley Christian (8-2) hosting No. 7 seed Christopher-Gilroy (5-5), and No. 5 seed Serra (6-4) at No. 4 seed Leland-San Jose (6-4). All kickoffs are 7 p.m. Wilcox-Santa Clara (10-0) is the top seed in Open Division 1, then Menlo-Atherton (8-2), Palo Alto (9-1) and Salinas (7-3).

Five teams from the CCS advance to the CIF Regional bowl games Nov. 30 and Dec. 1. Only finalists from the three Open Divisions are eligible.

The 13 CIF State Bowl championships are Dec. 7-8.