Running it back in the CCS playoffs

Sell said the solution was to take a Gilroy team, that was actually ranked fifth in the bracket, and put it at No. 8 to play Aragon — with the Dons hanging on for a 27-26 win.

But with the advent of power points, in conjunction with a computerized ranking system, the CCS seeding meeting nowadays comes down to numbers: the top 40 teams make the playoffs — the top eight go into the Open Division/Division I bracket, the next eight into the Division II and so on to Division V.

So it’s simply luck of the draw that sees not only a number Peninsula Athletic League teams facing each other, there are three games that are direct rematches from games earlier this year: In the Open Division/Division I bracket, Mitty takes on Serra in a rematch of a game Oct. 24; Division IV has Half Moon Bay at Burlingame for the second this season after playing each other in the opener, Division V sees rematch between PAL El Camino Division foes, South City and Terra Nova, with the Tigers notching a 14-9 win Oct. 10.

Sell, who has also been a longtime member of various committees and former president of CCS, said these are the kind of matchups section officials love because the rarity of playoff rematches generates a lot of interest in each school’s community.

And to make travel virtually non-existent makes these matchup even more enticing for fans.

“When I saw the matchups, from a CCS revenue standpoint, I thought, ‘This is good,’” Sell said. “For just logistics, you’re removing one more barrier (by limiting travel).”

Adding to the interest is that in all three cases, the games the first time around were competitive. Half Moon Bay-Burlingame was the best of the bunch, as it wasn’t decided until overtime, where the Cougars pulled out a 35-32 win.

“We have a really fun rivalry with Half Moon Bay,” said Burlingame head coach John Philipopoulos. “We’ve played against each other a lot.”

Philipopoulos and his Half Moon Bay counterpart, Keith Holden, are both coastsiders who played against each other in high school — Holden at Half Moon Bay and Philipopoulos at Oceana. So it’s no surprise their programs look very similar: a hard-nosed, physical culture of play, discipline and execution. It’s why Burlingame is ranked No. 4 and HMB No. 5 in the Division IV bracket.

So the coaches must relish facing off against each other, right?

“It would be cooler to face someone worse,” Holden said with a laugh. “(But) you’re not going to get a shabby team (in the first round). … I think there are some advantages to playing a team you don’t know when running the triple (option).”

Neither coach expects the other team to be what was on tape after Week 1 of the season. But both certainly spent time poring over that film, along with more recent games.

“We’ve spent an extraordinary amount of time looking at Week 1 film,” Philipopoulos said. “Then we went back and looked at their more recent games. Do they have the same personnel? How have they evolved? How have we evolved? What worked in Week 1 and how can we adjust that? We don’t want to give them the same look over and over again.

“It’s kind of an interesting matchup in a lot of ways. Whoever wins this game has an opportunity to make some noise (in the Division IV bracket).”

You can expect the coaching staffs at Serra and Mitty, as well as the coaches from Terra Nova and South City, are going through similar motions. The Padres and Monarchs camps won’t have to go back too far to relive their first meeting this season, a Serra 28-13 win Oct. 24. The Padres led only 14-13 after three quarters before pulling away with 14 points in the fourth.

Terra Nova hosted South City in the second week of PAL El Camino play Oct. 10. That game was scoreless into the fourth quarter before the offenses put some points on the board with the Tigers pulling out a 14-9 decision.

While revenge will be on the line in the games mentioned above, there are PAL bragging rights in two other first-round games. In Division II, PAL De Anza Division champion King’s Academy goes on the road to the Bay Division’s Menlo School. In Division III, No. 1 Woodside hosts No. 8 San Mateo.

“I think it’s cool,” Sell said. “It’s almost like a PAL tournament.”