Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – The Fortuna Huskies beat Justin-Siena 27-20 on Friday night.
Enterprise scored two late touchdowns to come from behind and beat the Del Norte Warriors 28-20 in Crescent City on Friday night.
In other local high school football, the Fortuna Huskies pulled out a hard-fought 27-20 win over visiting Justin-Siena, while Ferndale lost 33-8 at Clear Lake and Hoopa’s game at Weed was canceled because of COVID protocols.
McKinleyville also took its season opener at Yreka, winning 30-0.
Del Norte’s returning all-league running back Caleb Dodson got the new season off to an impressive start with a pair of touchdown runs, but it wasn’t enough for the Warriors against a very athletic Enterprise team.
“It came down to us not making the plays when they counted,” Del Norte head coach Nick White said. “We’ve got to clean some stuff up, but the good thing is it’s just game one. We’ve got three more games before we get to league.
“We’ll learn from it and see how good a team we are.”
Dodson scored on a five-yard run midway through the second quarter, before teammate Giancarlo Desolenni added a second Warriors TD on a 20-yard run late in the first half for a 13-0 lead.
The visitors responded immediately, however, pulling back within a touchdown before halftime and then tying things up in the third quarter.
Dodson restored the home team’s advantage on a four-yard TD run late in the third, but two fourth-quarter TDs sealed the win for Enterprise.
The Warriors had an opportunity to score late but fumbled on the three-yard line.
“We played really good at times and we put ourselves in a position to win with how physical we were,” White said. “We forced four turnovers, but we had turnovers ourselves. Turnovers and big plays killed us.”
Sam Schauerman had a big game on the defensive line for Del Norte, as did Desolenni at outside linebacker.
“Everybody played hard, and that was the biggest thing,” White said. “It was good to see the kids try hard to the end.”
Hunter Giddings kicked two PATs in the loss.
The Del Norte JVs won their game against Enterprise.
Clear Lake 33, Ferndale 8
Jack Westfall scored Ferndale’s only touchdown of the night, as a new-look Wildcats team lost its season opener in Lake County.
Westfall found the end zone on a short run in the fourth quarter, and quarterback Cole Carmesin capped an impressive individual performance with a two-point conversion run.
“We turned the ball over and that ended up being the difference,” Ferndale head coach Clint McClurg said. “But there were a lot of positive things. They fought to the end and that’s something to move forward with.”
The game was the first taste of varsity action for many of the Cats players, who did not get an opportunity to scrimmage in the preseason after graduating most of their starters from a year ago.
“It was the first varsity experience for some of them, but in terms of energy and effort, it was there,” McClurg said. “We just had too many first-game mistakes.”
Carmesin had a good game at quarterback and outside linebacker, playing physical football on both sides of the ball, as did Westfall at running back and middle linebacker.
