Unhealthy air from Camp Fire forces postponements
De La Salle’s Jhasi Wilson (10) strips the ball away from Pittsburg’s Melvin Riley (24) in the third quarter of their North Coast Section Open Division semifinal game in Concord on Friday night. De La Salle prevailed 38-0.
The North Coast Section Open Division football semifinal scheduled for Saturday between Clayton Valley Charter and Liberty in Brentwood was postponed until Monday night because of unhealthy air from the Camp Fire near Paradise.
The section’s decision was the latest scheduling adjustment in an unprecedented weekend in Bay Area high school sports as administrators across the region have spent hours monitoring Air Quality Index numbers and postponing games.
CVC coach Tim Murphy and Liberty coach Ryan Partridge called the postponement to 7 p.m. Monday measly in the big picture.
“We’re not dealing with anything compared to what the people up in Paradise are dealing with,” Murphy said. “This is minor in the scheme of things. We still get to play. Still got our homes. Still got our health. It’s just going to be a couple of days later.”
“There are thousands of homes lost,” Partridge said. “We have a game postponed. It’s not a big deal.”
With air quality no better Saturday through much of the Bay Area, administrators at South Bay and Peninsula schools made swift decisions to postpone playoff games until Monday, many deciding well before noon.
The moves came one day after the NCS rescheduled about 75 percent of its football games to Monday because of poor air projections.
The Air Quality Index in San Jose and Santa Clara on Saturday morning was an unhealthy 168.
The AQI in Mountain View was even worse, at 184.
Leland announced on Twitter that its home CCS football game, pushed from Friday to Saturday because of the air, is now scheduled for Monday at 4 p.m.
St. Francis’ home CCS football game against Aragon was rescheduled again as well, now slated for Monday at 6 p.m.
Sacred Heart Prep’s football team, which was scheduled to play at home Saturday afternoon against St. Ignatius in a CCS game, will now play S.I. on Monday at Sequoia at 7 p.m.
Other sports have also moved playoffs from Saturday to Monday.
CCS playoffs in three sports will not be played Saturday. The CCS team tennis semifinals and finals have been pushed to Monday, with times to be announced. Water polo finals in the CCS have been moved to Monday, times to be announced. The CCS field hockey final has been postponed, with the date, location and time to be announced. NCS water polo championships have been moved to Monday at Acalanes. NCS team tennis semifinals have been rescheduled for Wednesday.
Some spots in the Bay Area were not nearly as bad.
The AQI at kickoff Friday night in Concord, where De La Salle played host to Pittsburg in an NCS Open Division game, was 61, far below the 151 and above the section deems unplayable.
“I talked to our medical staff; they texted me at like 6:30 (a.m.) and they had it all charted out,” DLS coach Justin Alumbaugh said after his team’s 38-0 victory. “They had already looked at it and said the worst it was going to be was about 100 and then it’s supposed to go back down to 40 and 50 at game time. “If they’re the ones that are calm about it, then that’s great. When I got done teaching fourth period, I was a little bit worried because I looked out and was like, ‘I don’t know.’ But then lo and behold, about an hour later, I walked back outside and it was clear. It was a great night for football. No issues. We obviously wouldn’t put anybody in excessive harm’s way. It was a great night out here.”
The AQI on Saturday morning in Brentwood, where Liberty was to play host to Clayton Valley, was 62. But Partridge said the numbers that he and his principal monitored were trending upward through the day.
“It had gone from 61 to 116 to 147 within about four hours,” Partridge said. “I think the trending upwards was kind of an issue — 150 is the cutoff point.
“The NCS said it needed to do something before the busses took off, the referees took off. They pulled the trigger.”
Vintage 24, Antioch 21, 2 OTs
Until being anointed with the eighth seed in this year’s NCS Division I playoffs, Vintage (10-2) of Napa hadn’t won a postseason game in 32 years. The Crushers are making up for lost time.
Vintage crushed the hopes of No. 1 seed Antioch on Friday night, shocking the Panthers in double overtime.
Eddy Gonzalez kicked a 35-yard field goal moments after Antioch missed a 30-yard attempt. The kick by Gonzalez completed a stunning comeback by Vintage, which trailed 14-0 midway through the fourth quarter.
Antioch (7-4) will spend a long offseason trying to figure out what went wrong after starting 5-0 and finishing 2-4.
Other games
Payton Stokes’ 4-yard run gave fifth seed Saratoga a one-point lead with three minutes to play Friday in a CCS Division V quarterfinal at unbeaten Gonzales, but the home team rallied for a 54-49 win as Gilbert Payton Flores’ 17-yard run in the final minute was the decisive score. Saratoga finished 6-5. Fourthseeded Gonzales improved to 11-0. … Palma scored 28 points in the first quarter and 21 more in the second on its way to a 55-14 rout of Pioneer in the CCS Open Division III playoffs. Grant Sergent threw for two TDs and Anthony Villegas rushed for two TDs for top seed Palma (101). Pioneer finished 4-7. … Second seed Eureka (12-0) scored 60 points before halftime as it cruised past No. 7 seed De Anza 66-20 in a NCS Division III quarterfinal.