NorCal D1AA Teams Ready for Semifinals

For Cal Poly Humboldt, this has been an enormous climb. Playing D3/Small College for years, CPH was a very good team looking for its potential. Head Coach Greg Pargee was a little nervous early on when discussing how the team would fare.

The issue might not have been whether they could win a game or two, but how could they handle it week after week.

They handled it very well, and got better. They started the season against ARC and, in retrospect, a 47-7 loss wasn't that bad. It wasn't until February 7 that we saw what they might do, when the Lumberjacks beat Fresno State 36-27 and followed that up with a 43-28 loss to San Jose State.

Then wins over SFSU, Nevada, and, last week, Chico State to secure 3rd, followed. CPH has the power of David Tonumaipea at tighthead and a smart playmaker in Jonah Triantafylou (going up against his parents' beloved Wildcats) and hard-running center Anthony Ricci.

So there's reason to believe that it's a more seasoned Cal Poly Humboldt team that will have its rematch vs SJSU.

At the same time, there's a microbial wild card affecting games all over the country. The flu is here and it has almost every team GRR as spoken to. That much well be a factor this weekend.