With Crenshaw, Carson, Venice and Taft earning the top four seeds, there weren’t a lot of surprises when it came to bracketing for the City Section Division I football playoffs.

It was virtually a foregone conclusion Crenshaw (10-0) would be tabbed No. 1 after rolling through the regular season without a loss and not being challenged during Coliseum League play.

They open the playoffs at 7 p.m. Thursday by hosting Birmingham (3-7), which boasts an upset of Taft two weeks ago during the West Valley League play.

Taft (6-4) is home against Garfield (5-5), Venice (9-1) hosts Sylmar (6-4) and Carson (8-2) is home against Santee (7-3) in other first-rounders.

Locke (6-4), which upset Dorsey, 24-0 Friday to clinch second place in the Coliseum League, got the No. 7 seed and hosts Banning (4-6) at 2:15 p.m. Thursday.

Saints coach Wayne Crawford wasn’t expecting anything this good after beating Dorsey. He figured he was headed on the road for the first round.

“I thought those early losses hurt us,” he said.

But they didn’t and now the Saints might be one of those teams nobody wants to face in the playoffs.

They are as healthy as they’ve been all year with the return of standout linebackers Kiliyeon Cooper and Treveon Harris. The Division I college prospects also provide big targets on offense for quarterback Omar Herrera, who has thrown for more than 2,000 yards this year. Herrera passed for 213 yards and two TDs against Dorsey Friday.

Cooper, who had three tackles for loss against the Dons, and Harris are a one-two punch that will be tough to handle for opponents. Nagging injuries have sidelined them for a number of games, though both are healthy now.

“They both disrupt opponent’s offenses so much,” Crawford. “We have a saying, if 5 (Cooper) doesn’t get you, 8 (Harris) will.”

Crawford is cautiously optimistic heading into the playoffs.

“I would say I feel comfortable,” he said. “We’re starting to catch our groove right now. We need to finish games a little better. We’ve got to develop a killer instinct when we’ve got a team down.”

Dorsey (7-3), which is at No. 5 San Pedro (7-3) Thursday, is looking to bounce back from its second consecutive loss.

Considering the Dons were coming off a 44-7 loss to Crenshaw, coach Paul Knox was asked if there were any lingering effects from that game. Dorsey fell behind 18-0 at Locke.

“I don’t know,” he said. “We started off bad and never got untracked. We played all right in the second half, but by then we had dug ourselves such a big hole.”

Joseph Gray did a good job of bring Dorsey back in the second half by completing 13 of 22 passes for 206 yards and two TDs. Jaydon Mickens caught eight for 151 yards and Jorrian Washington caught the two scoring passes.

Crenshaw goes into the playoffs on the heels of a 46-0 rout of Jefferson, its third shutout in five outings against Coliseum League foes. The Cougars averaged 51.9 points per game in the regular season, including 59.2 in league.

Jordan (6-4), the runner-up to Roosevelt in the Eastern League, is the No. 6 seed and hosts Narbonne (5-5) at 2:15 p.m. Thursday. Narbonne and San Pedro were co-City champions a year ago.

In the other Division I matchup, No. 9 West Adams Prep (9-1), the Southern League champ, is at No. 8 Westchester (7-3).

Carson drew the No. 2 seed after defeating San Pedro, 38-21 last Friday to clinch the Marine League title.

Quarterback Daniel Torres was 9 of 12 for 69 yards and a TD passing and carried 10 times for 99 yards and three scores to lead the ground attack for the Colts.

Dwan Gill returned a kickoff 99 yards for a score and Juan Sanchez kicked his eighth field goal of the season.

Torres (315 yards, three TDs) and Justin Alo (649 yards, nine TDs) share the quarterback duties for Carson. Willis is the leading rusher with 660 yards and seven scores.