Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – Fortuna quarterback Daeden Taylor

By Ray Hamill — A young Fortuna team came of age on Saturday night, and so too did their quarterback.

Daeden Taylor had his best game yet as the Huskies stunned a large Eureka homecoming crowd at Albee Stadium with a 22-14 win over the Loggers in a thrilling league opener for both teams.

The winning score came with just a few seconds remaining in the fourth quarter when Taylor found Max Hough on an 11-yard touchdown pass to break a 14-14 deadlock. 

The Huskies kept the Loggers offense off the field for much of the first half and led 14-0 at halftime, before the Loggers came storming back behind the running of back-up quarterback Hayden Bode, who started in place of the injured Trevor Bell for the second straight game.

Bode scored both of the Loggers’ TDs, the first from 26 yards out and the second on a QB sneak, to pull his team back into the game.

And the Loggers had a chance to take the lead after recovering a fumble deep in Fortuna territory late in the game, only to cough up possession themselves two plays later in what were muddy conditions.

The ball was recovered by Fortuna’s Kevin Gage, and the Huskies proceeded to then march 75 yards to the end zone, killing off the final five minutes of the game in the process.

Along the way, Taylor had a 44-yard run and a fourth-down completion to Jordan Bennett.

And the Huskies did it without the help of two of their most influential players, running back/DB Levi Nyberg, who is out for the season after suffering a non-football related injury this past week, as well as the team’s top lineman, Luciano Medina, who was sick.

“That was a big one for us,” Fortuna head coach Mike Benbow said of the win. “We said it was going to take the entire game, that we had to play every play, and we had to.

“I’m really proud of the effort.”

Playing without Bell for the second straight week didn’t help matters for the Loggers, although they found some rhythm offensively running the ball in the second half, with Keeb Her impressing and breaking free for a 57-yard gain late in the third quarter to set up Bode’s second TD.

“In the first half we just never had the ball,” Eureka head coach Jason White said. “Literally, we had it just 10 plays or nine plays, and we had too many penalties tonight.”

The Huskies, meanwhile, came out ready to play, turning in their most impressive team performance of the season.

“My hat’s off to Mike and his staff,” White said. “They did a good job. They made some changes to their offense and it worked.

“It’s a chess match with Mike every time we play them.”

The Huskies opened the scoring on a 37-yard TD pass from Taylor to Branson Gans seven minutes in, and led 6-0.

They stretched the advantage to 14 on a two-yard Taylor TD run on the opening play of the second quarter and the ensuing two-point conversion, also by Taylor.

“No. 15 (Taylor) played well tonight,” White said. “He was the difference.”

Muddy conditions didn’t help matters for either team, with several turnovers.

Draven Boyd had a fumble recovery for Fortuna, while Diego Garcia had a fumble recovery and Josiah Graham an interception for Eureka.

Kobe Letter ran in for the two-point conversion after the late TD.

Bennett and Hough both had big games to help Taylor.

“It was an all-around great effort by our team,” Benbow said.

With the win, the Huskies improved to 1-0 in the Big 4 and 3-5 overall, while the Loggers fell to 0-1 and 3-5.

Eureka plays at St. Bernard’s next weekend, while Fortuna hosts Del Norte.

In JV action, the Loggers defeated the Huskies 21-0, improving to 5-4 on the season and 1-0 in league.