Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com

By Ray Hamill — North Coast football fans have spoken and the votes have been cast. McKinleyville and Eureka are the favorites to win a conference championship in football.

In response to our poll this week asking who you believe will win the Big 4 and Little 4 this season, the Panthers edged out Arcata by just seven percent of votes cast in the L4 and the Loggers edged the Warriors by less than one percent in the B4.

McKinleyville pulled in 41 percent of your votes, with Arcata second with 34 percent, followed by Hoopa with 18 percent and Ferndale with seven percent.

McKinleyville is off to an impressive start this season with three wins in four games and kicks off conference play at Hoopa (1-1) on Friday night, while Arcata (2-2) hosts Ferndale (0-3).

In the Big 4, meanwhile, it appears as if North Coast fans are just as split as everyone else on who will win, with barely three percent separating the top three favorites.

Eureka led the poll with 28.5 percent of the votes, followed by Del Norte less than one percent back with 27.6 percent of the votes.

St. Bernard’s is also right there in the eyes of local fans, pulling in 25.2 of all votes cast, with Fortuna not far behind with 18.7 percent.

The six-week Big 4 schedule gets under way with a pair of games this weekend.

Eureka (1-2) plays at Fortuna (3-1) on Friday night, with St. Bernard’s (2-2) hosting Del Norte (2-1) on Saturday afternoon.

There were close to 250 votes cast in this week’s polls.