With the season nearing the stretch run, teams in NorCal Premier Soccer’s National Premier League are currently fighting their year-long quest for potential promotion to the ECNL RL, the highest level of play NorCal offers. While each division and age group has a slightly different qualification process, the top few teams from each fall NPL will earn a spot in the spring’s NPL 1, which comes with the chance for promotion for the fall of 2026. And the NPL is where NorCal Matchday returns to this week as we catch you up on several of the exciting races.
Here are your games of the week:
| U14 Boys NPL South Yellow |
| 10/25 | ECFC Salinas |  | 9:00 a.m. @ Salinas Regional Sports Complex |  | Monterey Surf |
| Playing each other in the first of two derbies just a month ago, ECFC Salinas came on top of Monterey Surf via a 3-1 scoreline. While ECFC currently lead the table with a one point advantage over San Jose Rush, they'll need to pick up all three points in a tough matchup this weekend in order to continue their hunt for the title. Meanwhile, should Surf win Saturday and also come out victorious in their final two matches, they could potentially overtake ECFC on tiebreakers. |
| U15 Girls NPL South |
| 10/25 | San Carlos United |  | 12:00 p.m. @ Highlands | | ECFC Salinas |
| In the incredibly competitive U15 Girls NPL South, only three points separate all five sides, with first place San Carlos on 10 and fifth place OV Toros with seven. Amazingly, every team in the division has won either two or three games, ensuring this title race will go down to the wire. ECFC enter this matchup just a single point behind San Carlos, but with two games in hand. The two teams met at the end of last month, with ECFC coming out with a 1-0 victory. |
| U13 Boys NPL North |
| 10/25 | Mt. Diablo Mustang |  | 12:20 p.m. @ Pleasant Oaks Park |  | North Coast FC |
| So far in the U13 Boys NPL, Mt. Diablo Mustang have been perfect, winning all six of their games while scoring 39 goals--35 more strikes than they've conceded. However, this weekend they'll face their toughest matchup yet, a North Coast side that has dropped points just once on the season, but still sits six points behind Mustang. Should Mt. Diablo win, the title would be all but wrapped up, however, North Coast could win and move just three points behind with a game in hand as well as the head-to-head tiebreaker. |
| U17 Girls NPL South |
| 10/26 | Santa Clara Sporting |  | 9:00 a.m. @ Santa Clara Youth Soccer Park |  | Almaden FC |
| Santa Clara Sporting and Almaden FC enter this Sunday's Bay Area derby level on points and within striking distance of the top of the table. Though both are two points behind leaders MVLA, a win this weekend could propel them into first place depending on the results of other matches. |
