Sutter, East Nic are preseason No. 1s
The preseason Northern Section Media Poll was released on Tuesday, and once again, Sutter and East Nicolaus High’s football teams were the the top picks by media outlets to win section titles in their respective divisions.
Sutter, which has won four consecutive Division III championships, and East Nicolaus, winners of three straight Division IV titles, both received all nine firstplace votes in a poll conducted by media members from the Appeal-democrat, Chico Enterpriserecord, Redding Record Searchlight, Red Bluff Daily News and Chico’s Action News Now.
First-place votes are worth five points, second-place votes are worth four and so on.
The Huskies have been the unanimous No. 1 team in the division each week for the last two seasons. They open the season on Friday night in Santa Rosa against North Coast Section power Cardinal Newman.
Following Sutter in the Division III rankings were No. 2 West Valley, No. 3 Anderson, No. 4 Gridley and No. 5 Lassen.
The Spartans, who have held on to the top spot in the poll for the last three seasons, were followed by No. 2 Durham, No. 3 Pierce, No. 4 Colusa and No. 5 Trinity in Division IV.
East Nicolaus opens the season Friday night at Willows.
Shasta High, which won the Division II title last year, received seven first-place votes to earn the No. 1 spot in the division to open this season. Chico picked up the other two first-place votes to come in at No. 2, and was followed by No. 3 Pleasant Valley, No. 4 Foothill and No. 5 Enterprise.
The first-place votes were split up pretty evenly in Division V, where Fall River edged out defending champion Chester for the top spot. Fall River received four firstplace votes and Chester got five.
Rounding out that division were No. 3 Biggs, No. 4 Quincy and No. 5 Modoc.
Division VI, which plays eightman football, saw defending champion Big Valley pick up the No. 1 spot with eight first-place votes. Princeton got the other first-place vote and came in at No. 2, while No. 3 Redding Christian, No. 4 Los Molinos and No. 5 Greenville completed the top five.