Win or lose Saturday evening, coach Chris Hauser’s Mission Hills Grizzlies are an almost unanimous choice as the No. 1 football team in the San Diego Section.

The final Top 10 poll of the season was voted on after conclusion of the  five San Diego Section championships.

The Grizzlies will host the Central Section champion Bakersfield Drillers in a State Bowl Series Southern California Regional playoff.

If Mission Hills wins, the San Marcos squad will play for a Division I state championship against either San Mateo Serra or Loomis Del Oro at the Home Depot Center in Carson the following week.

Two Eastern League teams, Cathedral and St. Augustine, finished third and fourth, respectively.  The Saints also received a first-place vote.

*Points awarded on 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis. NR: previously unranked.

Others receiving votes: Christian, 22; Carlsbad, 20; Rancho Buena Vista, 8; Sweetwater, San Marcos, 5 each; Holtville, El Capitan, Imperial, 1 each.

Thirty-one sportswriters, sportscasters and CIF representatives from throughout San Diego County voted in the weekly poll:

John Maffei, Craig Malveaux, Dennis Lin, Lisa Lane, Andrew Burer,
and Don Norcross (U-T San Diego);
Terry Monahan, Tom Saxe, and Rick Hoff (U-T San Diego stringer);
Bill Dickens (eastcountysports.com);
Steve Brand (San Diego Hall of Champions);
John Kentera, Jack Cronin, Ted Mendenhall, Bob Petinak, Jordan Carruth, Bobby Wooldridge, Craig Elsten, and Mark Chiebowski (The Mighty 1090);
Jerry Schniepp and John Labeta (CIF San Diego Section office);
Rick Willis, Brandon Stone, and Jake Fadden (KUSI-TV);
Bruce Ward (San Diego City Schools);
Rick Smith (Partletonsports.com);
Steve (Biff) Dolan and Rick (Red) Hill (107.9 FM The Mountain);
Jeff Kurtz (NFHSnetwork.com; Ernie Martinez (XTRA Sports 1360);  and
Nick Pellegrino.

The discussion already is in full swing.  Who’s No. 1?

The U-T San Diego preseason basketball poll has La Costa Canyon No. 1 and St. Augustine No. 2.

North County bias by a majority of the voters aside,  I’ll take the Saints.  Call me South-of-Highway-56-biased, at least for this vote.

Saints Coach Mike Haupt, 330-173 in 18 seasons, guides the state’s defending Division III champions, 29-4 in 2012-13 and returning, among others, four-star San Diego State commit Trey Kell.

La Costa Canyon, 28-6 last season, was eliminated by Westlake, 66-64, in the Southern California playoff quarterfinals in D-II.

The Mavericks opened with a 56-46 victory over Poway earlier this week.  St. Augustine has beaten Serra, 70-47, and Santa Fe Christian, 80-38.

A top 10  adjustment should already be in the works. El Camino, No. 4, was edged by No. 6 Foothills Christian, 74-71, and unranked Poway topped Foothills, 72-70.

In other action:

No. 9 Mater Dei has been the busiest with wins over Chula Vista, 78-55; Rancho Buena Vista, 83-43; Castle Park, 66-33; Patrick Henry, 63-40, and Grossmont, 55-49.

No. 8 San Marcos eased up in the second half but still rolled over Castle Park, 102-18. Cathedral, No. 10, defeated Patrick Henry, 69-48.

Hoover, No. 3, topped Vista, also No. 10, 61-55.

*Last year
**Points awarded on 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis
NR Not previously ranked.

Others receiving votes: Westview, 7; Escondido, Mission Bay, 5 each; Lincoln, Helix, 3 each; Eastlake, 2; Serra, Oceanside, Canyon Crest, 1 each.

Twelve sportswriters, sportscasters and CIF representatives from throughout San Diego County vote in the weekly poll:
John Maffei, Craig Malveaux and Don Norcross (U-T San Diego);
Terry Monahan (U-T San Diego stringer);
Bill Dickens (eastcountysports.com);
Steve Brand (San Diego Hall of Champions);
John Kentera and Jack ronin (The Mighty 1090);
John Labeta (CIF San Diego Section office);
Rick Smith (Partletonsports.com);
Jodie DeSilva (sandiegopreps.com);
and Aaron Burgin (fulltimehoops.tumblr.com).

San Diego High first played Bakersfield, then known  as Kern County Union High, in 1917.

The Drillers, who play at Mission Hills Saturday night in a State Southern Regional playoff, last met an area team in  1952.

San Diego holds a 6-5, all-time advantage over the Drillers, the Cavemen having won the last five meetings.  Hoover and Grossmont each is 0-1.

Bakersfield and Long Beach Poly rank 1-2 in most wins by a California prep team.  The Drillers won their 776th  with a 60-21 victory over Clovis North and clinched their 36th Central Section championship.

The school opened in 1893 and is still located at its original site in the middle of the city.  Its 2,800 students represent the largest enrollment in the city but the school’s 25-acre site is the smallest.

All-time results with teams from the San Diego area:

Bakersfield’s second victory over San Diego in 1922 was a state playoff. San Diego had won the Southern California championship a  week before with a 31-14 victory over Gardena.

The CIF dropped  state playoffs in 1926 and didn’t renew the series until 2006.

Mission Hills will be the first San Diego Section team involved in a playoff with a school from another section since Mountain Empire dropped a 34-26, decision to Claremont in 1965.

Mountain Empire had remained in the Southern Section in 1960, when other San Diego County schools formed their own section, and didn’t become a member of the local group until 1969.

CHRISTIAN’S SEASON ENDS WITH NO BID

A Superior Court judge in San Diego sided with the state CIF and the CIF San Diego Section and denied a lawsuit by Christian.

The Patriots claimed a bylaw in CIF rules would allow them to move down to Division IV in the State Bowl Series.

The Patriots, who cited their enrollment of less than 500 students as basis for the action, won the San Diego Section III title but the Section declared them D-II for state playoff consideration.