The expansion of the North Coast Section football playoffs was supposed to give more teams a chance to continue their season, pull an unthinkable upset or otherwise make a mark in the postseason.

Some of those teams may have been better off staying home.

Seeds 13-16, the teams that got into the tournament when the brackets were expanded to 16 teams, went 1-13 over the weekend and were outscored by a combined score of 568-168.

The only one to pull an upset was No. 14 College Park, which beat No. 3 Amador Valley 34-21 in Division I.

Some of the scores reflected the disparity in competition. Salesian defeated Willits 45-0. Heritage allowed 63 points in losing to Monte Vista. And, in perhaps the biggest mismatch of the weekend, Eureka trounced Pinole Valley 61-7 after the Spartans had to travel over five hours to play the game.

Another goal of the expanded playoffs was to increase interest at schools that previously would have received a bye. That didn't necessarily work out, either, because some of the blowout games drew crowds far below average. De La Salle saw its lowest turnout of the year, and attendance was paltry at Deer Valley. Montgomery-Santa Rosa even held a team reunion to draw extra fans for its game against No. 14 Mt. Diablo.

One other aspect of the expanded brackets is the travel. When the section expanded to include both Redwood Empire schools and East Bay schools in the same

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tournament in 2006, the distance between schools became significant. It's a hurdle that both regions' schools are dealing with.

"We haven't gone anywhere near that far," said Ygnacio Valley running back Patrone Wood II, who will head to Eureka this weekend with the Warriors. "I hope it will be a good team builder, but who knows? We're just going to go out and play some football, wherever it is."

TEAM SUCCESS: Contra Costa County ruled the NCS Cross Country Championships team-wise with five titles on the three-mile Hayward High course Saturday, including a sweep of the Division II races by College Park.

The Falcons boys, who had five runners in the top 13 led by Jeff Bickert's third-place finish (15 minutes, 23 seconds), won easily by a 51-point margin over second-place Santa Rosa (96). Bickert's time was the second-fastest for East Bay runners.

The College Park girls defeated second-place Casa Grande 57-68. Alycia Cridebring paced the Falcons, who had four runners in the top 12, with a third-place finish (17:54). That time was second-fastest among East Bay girls at the championships.

San Ramon Valley, with a score of 41, edged Castro Valley (46) for the Division I boys title. Kevin Griffith (third place, 15:40) led a tightly packed Wolves squad that had only 25 seconds separating its first and fifth runners.

Monte Vista won by a 26-point margin in the Division I girls race (75-101) over second-place Castro Valley. The Mustangs were paced by sophomore Mikaela Hammitt (eighth, 18:47).

Dougherty Valley earned the first NCS team title in the school's history despite not placing a runner in the top 10 of the Division IV girls race. The Wildcats took the 14th through 16th places, led by junior Victoria De Metz (20:10).

Staff writer Phil Jensen contributed to this notebook.