Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – Breck Bishop carries the ball for the Huskies during the recent Milk Can game.

By Ray Hamill — A pivotal weekend in the H-DNL football season concludes on Saturday with two all-Big 4 matchups, including one that is among the games of the season.

On Saturday afternoon, St. Bernard’s will host crosstown rivals, the Eureka Loggers, and later that night, the Fortuna Huskies will put their unbeaten record on the line at Del Norte in a game local fans have had penciled on their calendars for a while.

Game times are set for 1 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., with the Fortuna and Del Norte JVs also playing at 5 p.m.

Both varsity games will be broadcast live on local radio, as well as streamed online.

One of the stories of the season is how quickly a young Eureka Loggers team is coming together and growing week by week.

They’ve also been fun to watch.

After opening the season with a thrilling overtime win over Arcata, they dominated McKinleyville a week later, and then surprised most observers on the North Coast with a second come-from-behind win, this time at Del Norte.

The 3-0 Loggers feature several underclassmen and could be a very dangerous team in the fall.

Some would argue they already are, and they will be heavily favored going against a very young Crusaders team, which is 1-2 on the season.

It’s tough for young teams when they’re losing games, but the St. Bernard’s players will grow from this spring and will be far better moving forward, especially considering the lack of preparation time they had for this season.

The more intriguing of Saturday’s two matchups takes place in Crescent City, where the Warriors (1-1) will be eager to bounce back from last week’s loss to the Loggers.

However, it won’t be easy against the 3-0 Huskies, who look like the most complete and deepest team on the North Coast this season and are firing on all cylinders right now.

If Del Norte can win on Saturday, it could really make things interesting in the Big 4 going into next weekend’s final round of games.

If Fortuna wins, however, then we’ll likely have an unofficial league championship showdown between the Huskies and the Loggers in the season finale.