Ruling may affect playoffs

CORONA DEL MAR — Corona del Mar High’s football game against Irvine, originally scheduled for today, then postponed to Monday, has been canceled and won’t be made up.

Due to safety concerns stemming from the Santiago fire, all Pacific Coast League football games for this week were canceled by vote of league athletic directors.

Sage Hill’s game at St. Margaret’s, originally scheduled for today, has been moved to Monday at 6 p.m., still at St. Margaret’s

Estancia had originally rescheduled its Orange Coast League debut against Calvary Chapel for Monday afternoon, but will now play Monday at 7:30 p.m. at Orange Coast College.

For the Sea Kings, the missing game carries ramifications for the CIF Southern Section Southern Division playoffs.

University and Laguna Hills lead the league with 1-0 records, while Irvine and Corona del Mar are both 1-1. Beckman is 0-2.

CdM and Irvine each have one league game left, CdM against University, and Irvine against Laguna Hills. University and Laguna Hills were scheduled to play each other this week.

“Based upon CIF rankings for our division, [University and Laguna Hills] are the two strongest teams in our league,” Orris said. “Not having to play each other helps them. They’re probably in the driver’s seat in terms of going to playoffs. Depending upon what happens in those two games, we could conceivably end up being tied [with Irvine] if we both won or both lost. So it could come down to a coin flip as to the designated third-place team.”

Beckman’s bye was scheduled for this week, so it will be the only school that plays all four league games.

This week’s cancellation means CdM (3-5) can’t get to the .500 mark, so it will not be considered for an at-large berth unless no other eligible team in the division is at least .500.

“One condition we had to look at was the health and safety of the kids,” Orris said. “Several leagues are playing Monday, and we thought that was not good for the kids because of the lack of practice, conditioning, hitting.”

Teams hadn’t had a real practice in 10 days, Orris said.

CIF has already stated that it will not reschedule playoff games. The first round is scheduled for Nov. 16.

Southern Section schools may make up football games, but cannot play more than two games within eight days.

SORAYA NADIA McDONALD may be reached at (714) 966-4613 or at soraya.mcdonald@latimes.com. SORAYA NADIA McDONALD may be reached at (714) 966-4613 or at soraya.mcdonald@latimes.com.