For the first time in 21 years, there will be playoff football played on the grounds of Gustine High School.

This Friday at 7 p.m., the Gustine Reds will welcome the Golden Sierra Grizzlies from Garden Valley for the first round of the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Division 7 playoffs. It will be Gustine’s first postseason game since 2018, when they fell to eventual section and state champion Denair in the opening round.

Gustine will enter the contest as the No. 8 seed in the bracket, the lowest-ranked team to host a playoff game in the division this year. Meanwhile, Golden Sierra comes in right behind them as the No. 9 team. 

Each of the teams achieved a 4-6 record in the regular season. Four wins were the minimum to qualify for this year’s playoffs, per the Sac-Joaquin Section bylines. The Reds finished in fifth-place in the Southern Athletic League with a 2-4 record, while the Grizzlies finished sixth in the Sierra Delta League.

CalPreps, the website that provides high school football team rankings used by the Sac-Joaquin Section to help determine playoff seeds, gives Golden Sierra a 57% chance of winning against Gustine while also predicting a 30-28 score. The two teams have no common opponents this year.

Golden Sierra will come into the contest riding a three-game losing streak, the most recent coming last week in a 60-12 blowout courtesy of Woodland Christian. As for Gustine, their last three weeks have consisted of peaks and valleys. The regular season ended in a 24-21 loss to Delhi, which helped the Hawks clinch a share of the SAL title with Stone Ridge Christian. That tie atop the league standings was only made possible by the Reds the week prior, who pulled off a 31-23 upset of the Knights.

The winner of Friday night’s game will be awarded a date with top-seeded Summerville (9-1) next week.