Don the purple and gold, bring along the megaphones and make sure to pack your throat spray so no one gets hoarse in the third quarter — the Wildcats are in the playoffs.

For the fifth straight season the Oak Harbor football team is heading for the state Class 4A playoffs, traveling to Mount Vernon on Saturday night to host Kentwood in the opening round.

The Wildcats earned the number-one seed from the WesCo North Division into the playoffs thanks to a defensive-oriented 14-12 victory over Cascade on the artificial turf at Everett Memorial Stadium Friday night. See page A8 for the complete story.

Kentwood, 6-3, is the number-four seed from the North Division of the Puget Sound League and Oak Harbor coach Dave Ward said the Wildcats will likely have their hands full.

“They like to run the ball and they have a big offensive line,” he said. “They also have a real good tailback who has rushed for over 1,200 yards this season.”

Health-wise, Ward said Oak Harbor is in pretty good shape.

“Brendon Kays is still out with his shoulder injury, but he is in the process of getting cleared to play,” Ward said. “If we get by Kentwood, he should be ready to go for next week’s game. Will Hunter was a little sore after the Cascade game, but that was because he hasn’t played a lot lately. Everybody else is healthy and after this week’s practice, we’ll be ready to go.”

Oak Harbor brings a lot of weapons into the game, including senior quarterback Marshall Lobbestael, who has passed for 1,775 yards and 25 touchdowns this season.

Junior running back Chris Valencia has been averaging nearly 80 yards per game and the Wildcats have a quartet of top-notch pass receivers in Rodrick Rumble, Tony Thulin, Jake Rouser and Michael Bell that Kentwood will have to deal with.

Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. Saturday at the Mount Vernon High School field. It’s a “home” game for the Wildcats, but Oak Harbor’s old War Memorial Stadium is not deemed fit to host playoff games.