The playoffs have arrived for the Howe Sound Sounders football club and the local club has a familiar foe: the arch-rival the Frank Hurt Hornets.

Howe Sound finished the regular season with a record of three wins and three losses, good for fourth place in the Tier 2 Varsity, but suffered a 44-8 loss to the Hornets in Squamish on Sept. 28.

The Hornets ripped apart the Sounders’ defence and compiled almost 400 yards in one of the worst losses for Howe Sound in recent memory. Frank Hurt and Howe Sound have had a healthy rivalry in recent years, with the Hornets having eliminated the Sounders from the playoffs in 2010 and Howe Sound returning the favour last year.

The winner of the Sounders-Hornets game will then take on Timberline for the Tier 2 championship but the entire playoff structure is not without a bit of controversy. The original playoff structure would have seen fourth-place Howe Sound take on Timberline, along with the Hornets taking on G.P. Vanier. However, league rules state that Lower Mainland teams are not required to travel to Vancouver Island more than twice in a season. Frank Hurt’s trip would have been the team’s third trip this season and the Hornets won the right to host the semifinal game against Howe Sound.

Howe Sound will travel to Surrey to battle the Hornets on Friday (Nov. 16) at 2 p.m. For more information on high school football, visit www.bchighschoolfootball.com.