Get your kicks on Route 101 or I-5.

And be sure to pack for cool…well, maybe cold weather.

That’s the forecast for 3 of the San Diego Section teams still competing in the state football playoffs.

Lincoln knows that it will play next week in Division III-AA but not where after winning the Southern California regional last week, coming from a nine-point deficit in the third quarter to win on the road, 54-42, at Culver City.

The Hornets will take on the winner of the Northern regional, matching Menlo-Atherton of the Central Coast Section and Eureka of the North Coast.

Should Eureka win, Lincoln may find use for a Rand-McNally road atlas.

A Lincoln-Eureka game would arguably represent the longest, in-state trip in the history of the state CIF.

The distance is 772.3 miles from the Hornets’ campus at 49^th Street and Imperial Avenue in South San Diego to the Eureka High campus at 19^th and J. streets, roughly 270 miles North of San Francisco and about 100 miles south of the Oregon border.

The trip could be longer, if this week’s site is an indication.  The Eureka Loggers-Menlo Atherton Bears contest will be played at McKinleyville High, 19 miles north of Eureka.

Should Menlo-Atherton win, the Hornets are looking at an approximate 490-mile trip.

San Diego High and Orange Glen also will make the rubber hit the road.

The Cavers will meet Colfax in the D5-A championship and they are preparing for a 563-mile venture to a community that its chamber of commerce advertises as “above the fog and below the snow”, northeast of Sacramento.  Colfax’ 2,425-foot elevation is probably a couple hundred feet  higher than Ramona’s in San Diego County.

The odometer will finally rest at 502 miles when Orange Glen visits San Francisco Lincoln in the San Francisco Washington stadium, which is located in  an area known as the “Avenues”, several miles west of downtown.

Cathedral also doesn’t know which team it will play, Folsom or Fresno Central, but the Division I-AA state championship game will be at Cerritos College in Norwalk, less than 2 hours from the Dons’ Del Mar digs.

LAST WEEK

CATHEDRAL 24, NARBONNE 21

Cathedral won another tough battle with visiting Harbor City Narbonne, the L.A. City champion, 24-21, when Jalen Dye, son of former major league baseballer Jermaine Dye intercepted a pass on the Dons’ one-yard line with 14 seconds remaining after the Gauchos had fought back from a 21-7 deficit.

Cathedral’s Dean Janikowski broke a 21-21 tie with a 40-yard field goal with 1:42 remaining.  Narbonne’s Jake Garcia passed for 334 yards, but Cathedral’s Shawn Poma rushed for 246 yards and touchdown runs of 33 and 80 yards.

Poma ran for 175 yards and four touchdowns in the Dons’ 35-28, DI-AA playoff win over Narbonne in 2016.

SIMI VALLEY GRACE BRETHREN 28, ST. AUGUSTINE 14

The Saints trailed, 21-14, with 2:01 remaining in the DII-AA contest at Cal Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks when they were stopped on fourth down at the Lancers’ 49-yard line.  Brethren’s Josh Henderson clinched the victory with a 37-yard touchdown run with 1:11 left.  The Saints ended coach Joe Kremer’s first season at 10-5.

LINCOLN 54, CULVER CITY 42

The Hornets’ Don Chapman scored 20 points in the fourth quarter, on a 40-yard interception return, 84-yard kickoff return, one-yard touchdown run, and two-yard point after run to seal the DIII-AA victory after Lincoln trailed, 35-26, in the second half.

VISALIA CENTRAL VALLEY CHRISTIAN 30, MORSE 14

The Central Section champion overcame an early, 8-0 Morse lead and dominated the IV-AA game.  Shamar Martin, apparently headed to UCLA, led the Tigers with 111 yards in 21 carries and a touchdown.

SAN DIEGO 42, TEMECULA LINFIELD CHRISTIAN 31

The Cavers trailed the DV-A favorite and state’s highest scoring team, 21-0, 24-7, and 31-21.  Jayden Wickware’s 94-yard kickoff return got the Cavers close, and then Mo Jackson put the them in front, 35-31, with a 57-yard scoring hike.

ORANGE GLEN 22, L.A. LOCKE 14

Carlos Galvan sacked Saints quarterback Mikel Beime, who fumbled and the Patriots’ Damien Gainey recovered and ran 10 yards to Locke’s nine-yard line.  On the next play Cael Patterson scored and then, after a couple penalties on the visitors, punched in a two-point conversion to clinch the DVI-A battle with 2:05 remaining.

Sixth and final in a series on San Diego Section state playoff matchups.

VI-A

After coach Rob Gilster departed to fledgling Valley Center following a 9-3 season in 1997, Orange Glen went into free fall.  They were 51-155 from 1998 until this season when fifth-season coach Jason Patterson, 1-9 in ‘17 and 15-28 overall, turned to another Patterson.

Cael Patterson, the coach’s son, a 180-pound junior not reluctant to take the ball, averaged 200 yards a game rushing, with 2,196 yards in 329 carries in 11 games, and scored 26 touchdowns to go with a 6.7-yard rushing average.

Patterson also caught 14 and scored two touchdowns although the pass is a passing thought to the Patriots, who have attempted 55 in their 8-4 season.

Cal Preps.com predicts a 28-21 Orange Glen victory over Los Angeles Locke tonight at  6 in the Southern California Class 6-A playoffs at the Patriots’ East Escondido facility.

Locke played in the Los Angeles City Section’s Coliseum League for many years, but, after a 1-9 season in 2016, the Saints moved to the Metro, winning a league championship with a 10-3 overall record.

The school in the legendary South Central L.A. community of Watts went back to the Coliseum this year, finishing third to Dorsey and Crenshaw, but defeated Roosevelt, 22-21, for the D-II section title and is 10-4.

Locke has an edge in prominent alumni.

Named after Alain Leroy Locke, the first African-American Rhodes Scholar in 1907, the Saints boast baseball Hall of Famers Eddie Murray and Ozzie Smith among their graduates, along with Valery Briscoe Hooks, a five-time Olympic medalist in track and field.

Orange Glen cites two NFL players, quarterback Sean Salisbury and defensive back Lenny McGill. By the time he graduates in 2020, Patterson figures to increase Orange Glen’s list of prominent football alums.

Fifth in a series this week on San Diego Section playoff matchups.

V-A

San Diego coach Charles James, while returning the city’s oldest and perhaps most beloved high school to prominence, recognized tradition and greatness.

After multi-generation tough sledding, which began with a gradual shift in demographics and school boundaries after Duane Maley retired following a championship in 1959, the Cavers are thriving again.

San Diego won 176 games and lost 347 from 1960-2014.  They were 2-8 and 1-9 in James’ first two seasons, 2015-16, but have enjoyed back to back 12-1 and 10-2 campaigns.

The Cavers topped Kearny, 42-14, last week for their first outright San Diego Section title (they shared a championship after a 21-21 tie with Escondido in 1969) and James paid tribute to those who came before him in an interview following the game with television channel KUSI 51.

James, born several years after Maley’s departure, wanted the viewing audience to know that he was up on his Cavers history and how James valued the school’s tradition.

That tradition includes national championship recognition in 1955 and the years 1944-60, when San Diego made the playoffs 14 times, plus Southern Section championship appearances in 1916, ’25, ’33, ’47, and ‘59.

His message also has filtered down to James’ players, music to the ears of the vast number of alumni who still support the former “Old Grey Castle.”

San Diego takes its next step against Temecula Linfield Saturday night  in the Southern California Division V-A playoffs.

The Cavers like to run the ball.  Raiden Hunter has rushed for 1,063 yards and 18 touchdowns.  Mo Jackson has gained 986 yards in 86 attempts plus 17 touchdowns and an 11.5-yard rushing average.  Jayden Wickware is at 7.3 yards a carry and has gained 631 yards in 87 carries. Quinn O’Connor, who transferred when Horizon Christian closed, has been an effective quarterback with 49 completions in 95 attempts and 16 touchdown passes.

FAMILIAR FACE

Linfield Christian, which opened in 1936 as Culter Academy in Los Angeles and bounced around until settling in Temecula in 1972, has a long history with San Diego teams, mostly among the smallest schools, many in eight-man competition.

The Lions hold a 30-22-2 record against San Diego Section clubs since 1981.  Local teams, however, were 6-1-1 from 2010 through the 2012 season. There have been no games since.

Linfield, with reported support from ex-Lincoln star and Pro Football Hall of Famer Terrell Davis, upgraded to 13-1 against stronger competition this season, losing only to San Bernardino Aquinas, 30-20, and averaging 57 points.

The Lions won games in which they scored 85, 78, 70, 69, and 63 points.  Their offensive coordinator is former Lincoln standout and NFL No. 1 draft choice Akili Smith.

Kaleb Maresh has thrown for 32 touchdowns, is averaging 8.8 yards carrying the ball, and has scored 13 touchdowns.  Kenric Jamieson is the workhorse with 2,011 yards rushing and 30 touchdowns.

Max Preps ranks the Cavers 137^th in California and Linfield 165^th.  Cal Preps.com assigned San Diego a 29.2 rating and Linfield 27.6.  The computer predicted a 35-34 Linfield victory.

Fourth in a series this week on San Diego Section teams’ playoff matchups

IV-AA

Morse, staggered by a late-season, 47-6 loss to St. Augustine, recharged to win its last four games and claim the Tigers’ first San Diego Section championship in 24 years. The Skyline Drive squad was rewarded with the longest trip of the Southern California playoffs, 320 miles to Visalia and a 7:30 Friday evening kickoff against the 11-2 Central Valley Christian Cavaliers, winners of the Central Section’s Division IV.

Morse coach Tracy McNair has compiled a 60-55-1 record and stabilized the program since becoming head coach in 2009. The Tigers were 21-78 under three coaches from 1997-2008, a period in which the school underwent demographic change and football dramatically declined.

Morse had appeared in eight championship games and won five titles from 1979-96 under the legendary John Shacklett, one of the winningest coaches in County history with an all-time record of 229-156-8 (.659).

Morse’s 9-4 record represents the most victories in one season since the 12 in 1996, Shacklett’s last championship season.

The Tigers have done it with a running attack revolving around Shamar Martin, who has averaged 11.2 yards and gained 1,617 yards and scored 14 touchdowns.  Isiah Thompson has gained 1,569 yards with an 8.8-yard average and 13 touchdowns.

Eric Dragt, a 6-foot, 5-inch quarterback, has thrown for 1,638 yards and 23 Cavaliers touchdowns.  Running back Jaalen Rening has gained 1,216 yards and scored 28 touchdowns

Central Valley is ranked 108^th in the state and Morse 112th by Max Preps.  The computer-based Cal Preps.com assigned a 32.9 rating to the Cavaliers, 33.4 to Morse, and predicts a 31-24 Central Valley win.

QUICK KICKS

Central Valley met two San Diego Section teams in 1986, defeating Army-Navy, 21-0, and losing to Santa Fe Christian, 24-3…the school began in 1979 as an elementary unit and became a kindergarten-to-grade-12 school in 1982…Morse is named after the man credited with inventing the single wire telegraph system known as the Morse code…the school name is officially Samuel F. B. Morse…his middle names were Finley and Breese…Morse died in 1872 but a granddaughter, Leila Morse, was an honored guest at a ceremony dedicating the school in 1962…

Third in a series this week on San Diego Section teams’ Southern California playoff matchups.

III-AA

Lincoln rallied down the stretch with five consecutive victories and now is 10-4 after it appeared to be sliding into the abyss.

Coach David Dunn explained that injuries and other problems left him without enough players to take on Cathedral in the midseason, necessitating a forfeit by the Hornets, who also forfeited their opening game to Bloomington.

The Hornets changed gears the following week in a 24-14 win over Madison.

Lincoln began relying more on running back Carlito Nothaft, who was called on 77 times in the first nine games but carried the ball 90 times in the last five.  Nothaft has 1,201 yards and 15 touchdowns.  Raymond Spriggs (1,866 yards, 18 touchdowns) and Chris Davila (783 yards, 11 TD’s) both saw action at quarterback.

Cal Preps.com is predicting a 40-27 win for 12-2 Culver City, which will host the Hornets in a 7:30 kickoff Friday night. The computer entity is more impressed with the Centaurs’ statistics.

Greek mythology described a Centaur as a beast with the head, arms, and chest of a man but the legs of a horse.  This specimen relies on its arms, those of sophomore quarterback Zevi Eckhaus, who has passed for 3,122 yards and 46 touchdowns, and junior Nick Lucero, who has passed for 13 touchdowns and took over when Eckhaus missed two games. Wide receiver Kevin McGuire has caught 62 passes for a 17.1-yard average and 18 touchdowns, and five players have at least 29 catches.

Culver City averaged 44 points and scored 612 in its first 14 games.  Lincoln has a more modest 34.8 average and 417 points (not including the two forfeits).

Lincoln competes in the arguably stronger San Diego Western League with Cathedral, St. Augustine, Madison and Point Loma.  The Centaurs are aligned in the Southern Section’s Ocean loop, which includes league champion Lawndale, Hawthorne, Beverly Hills, El Segundo, and once powerful Santa Monica.

Lawndale won the teams’ head-to-head meeting, 37-36, and Palos Verdes Estates edged Culver City, 34-27.

QUICK KICKS

Cal Preps.com assigned Culver City a 47.4 rating…the Centaurs are ranked 32^nd in the state by Max Preps and they are not in Cal-Hi Sports’ top 50…Lincoln also is outside the top 50 and is given a 41.5 rating by Cal Preps.com and is slotted at 68^th by Max Preps…Culver City played St. Augustine here in 1952, a year after the Centaurs opened their doors, and the Saints, 2-5-1 that season, took a 14-6 decision…Culver did not  renew acquaintances here until Point Loma signed a home-and-home agreement that ran for four seasons, 2004-07…coach Mike Hastings’ Pointers were 38-12 during this period but could get only a 2-2 split with the Centaurs, who won the last two games, 40-13 and 54-35… the Dunn-coached Hornets are making their first Southern California playoff appearance and last won a San Diego Section title in 2012….

Four city schools made the final Union-Tribune Top 10, an outstanding achievement for an area, once the most powerful in the County but lately looking up.

No. 1 Cathedral, 3 St. Augustine, 8 Lincoln, and 9 Morse all are in the Southern California playoffs this week, and San Diego, which accumulated a healthy amount of voting points, also is in the quest for laurels outside the San Diego Section.

Week 15 final poll:

Rank             Team                        Record                Points           Previous

Others: Mission Hills (5-7, 23 points), Mira Mesa (10-1, 21)), San Diego (10-2, 21), Steele Canyon (9-3, 21), La Costa Canyon (6-4, 6), El Centro Central (12-1, 5). Chridtian (10-2, 1).

Voting panel: 30 sportswriters, sportscasters, and officials from throughout the County.

• • John Maffei, The San Diego Union                                                                  Jim Lindgren, Rick Hoff, Terry Monahan, Don Norcross, Tom Saxe, Union-Tribune correspondents
  • Paul Rudy, Brandon Stone, KUSI Chl. 51
  • Adam Paul, ECpreps.com
  • Ramon Scott, EastCountySports.com
  • Bodie DeSilva, sandiegopreps.com
  • Ted Mendenhall, Tyler Quellman, The Mighty 1090
  • Steve Brand, San Diego Hall of Champions
  • Troy Hirsch, Fox 5, San Diego
  • Rick Smith, PartletonSports.com
  • Jerry Schniepp, John Labeta, Ron Marquez, Carlton Hoggard, CIF San Diego Section
  • Joe Heinz, Coordinator, Athletics, Sweetwater School District
  • Raymond Brown, sdfootball.net
  • Montell Allen, MBA Sports/San Diego Friday Night Lights Magazine
  • Bob Petinak, Fox 1360 Radio
  • John Kentera, Brandon Suprenant, 97.3 FM The Fan
  • Steve (Biff) Dolan, Mountain Country 107.9 FM
  • Jim Arnaiz, Mike Dolan, John Carroll, San Diego Section Tournament Directors.