The Whitefish Bulldogs are kings of the Northern A conference once again.
The Bulldog soccer team defeated Columbia Falls 4-1 last week to claim the No. 1 spot in the standings in the regular-season finale.
Whitefish (7-3-2 overall, 5-1-2 in conference) will host a first-round playoff game on Saturday, Oct. 18 against Hamilton (5-6-1, 3-4-1), the No. 3 team from Southern A. The match will be played at Smith Fields at 2 p.m.
Bigfork (6-4-1, 5-2-1) finished second in the conference standings and will play on the road against the winner of Billings Central (8-1-3, 3-1-2) and Livingston (3-6-3, 1-3-2). Those teams played Oct. 14 after the Beacon went to print.
Libby (6-6, 5-3) qualified for the state tournament as the third-place team from Northern A and will hit the road and take on the top team from Southern A, Corvallis (11-1, 8-0).
Belgrade (11-1, 5-1) plays Stevensville (8-3-1, 6-2) in other first-round action. The victor hosts the winner of Whitefish and Hamilton in the semifinals.
On the girls side, Columbia Falls won its third conference title in four years and earned a No. 1 seed in the state tournament.
The Wildkats (7-1-4, 6-0-2) host Stevensville (3-7-2, 3-4-1) this weekend.
Polson (7-4-1, 4-3-1) finished second in the conference and plays the winner of Laurel (8-2-2, 2-2-2) and Belgrade (5-6-1, 2-4-0). The Lady Pirates play on the road.
Whitefish (5-5-2, 4-3-1) also qualified for the state tournament with the No. 3 seed from the North. The Lady Bulldogs travel to Hamilton (10-2-0, 8-0-0) this weekend.
Billings Central (10-0-2, 5-0-1) hosts Corvallis (6-6-0, 5-4-0) in other first-round action. Billings Central has won six consecutive state championships.