Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com

By Ray Hamill — This time it was the Huskies who dug deep and found a way to win.

Just a few months after their thrilling finale to the spring season, Fortuna and Eureka served up another instant classic at Husky Field on Friday night, with the home team sneaking a 34-27 victory in the final seconds.

When they met in the spring, it was the Loggers who won in overtime, and it appeared on Friday that these two great rivals were headed to an extra period once again with the scored tied late in regulation.

But a fantastic 26-yard scramble by Logan Miranda gave the Huskies possession at the Eureka 22, and two plays later, with just 23 seconds remaining in the game, quarterback Coltyn Corning connected with Rogan Gans on a 17-yard TD pass that would prove to be the winning score.

“Wow, what an incredible, incredible high school football game courtesy of the Loggers and Huskies,” Fortuna head coach Mike Benbow said. “It was crazy.”

It was also a back and forth affair, with the Loggers dominating the first quarter and taking a 14-0 lead, before the home team battled back to tie the game before halftime.

The third quarter featured several big plays, including back-to-back-to-back touchdowns in a 30-second spell, before penalties slowed the Loggers’ and the game’s momentum early in the fourth.

And then, just when we thought we were headed to overtime, the Huskies found a way to pull out the victory and kick off the Big 4 with a crucial win.

“I tell you what, it felt like we couldn’t have started any worse, but our kids hung together,” Benbow said. “It was back and forth, and it was a great high school football game. And I give credit to Eureka. Their boys played awful hard.”

The Loggers certainly battled, twice rallying from a TD deficit in the second half, before a seemingly endless string of penalties took the wind out of the game early in the fourth quarter.

“I’m proud of how our guys fought,” Eureka head coach Andrew Haraldson said. “We played for four quarters, but we made way too many mistakes. We made too many mistakes to beat a team that well coached.”

The Loggers opened the scoring when Maximus Tapulaaia found the end zone on a 75-yard run on their second possession of the game.

The Huskies gave the visitors possession deep in their own territory twice early in the game, the second time when they failed to get a punt off, which led to Eureka’s second TD of the night, an 11-yard scoring run from Daniel Garcia-Hall.

But just when it appeared as if we might be headed toward a lopsided game, the Huskies took the momentum with successive time-consuming 72-yard TD drives.

Will Stringer capped a nine-play possession with a 30-yard TD run four minutes into the second quarter, before Matt Letter capped a 10-play drive with a two-yard scoring run later in the quarter.

The teams were tied at 14-14 at halftime, but the Huskies took the lead early in the third quarter on another long drive, this one going for 16 plays and 75 yards and ending with a two-yard Breck Bishop TD run.

With the momentum having shifted completely, the Loggers then answered on their next possession, driving 65 yards for a memorable score.

Brothers Kayro and Lary Jimenez connected on a 29-yard scoring pass, with Kayro finding Lary wide open in the end zone on a trick play after taking the handoff from quarterback Hans Chalmers.

The game was just warming up.

Fortuna’s Quin Hall took the ensuing kickoff 75 yards for another TD, before Chalmers ran for a 68-yard touchdown on the next play from scrimmage to tie the game at 27-27.

The Loggers were unable to get much going on offense after that, with successive drives ending on punts.

The Huskies then took over at the Eureka 46-yard line with 48 seconds remaining in the game and on the first play of the drive Miranda caught a bubble screen pass to the left.

The Eureka defense quickly surrounded him, but he managed to break free across the field and ran for a 26-yard gain that set up the game-winning touchdown.

“There are so many kids I could mention, but I really feel like Logan Miranda’s big run at the end was huge,” Benbow said. “And he also came up big on defense.”

So too did Letter, on both sides of the ball.

He ran for 96 yards and the TD, as well as pulling down a pair of interceptions, including one on a hail Mary pass as time expired to ice the win.

Springer and Hall both also were hugely influential in the win, as was tight end Jake Houseworth, who had two big catches in traffic to keep key drives alive.

Bishop also had a big game for the Huskies, giving them a physical presence on both sides of the ball.

“Overall, it was an incredible team win,” Benbow said. “Our kids have been working hard and we’re getting better at doing what we do.”

With the win the Huskies improved to 4-1 on the season and 1-0 in the Big 4, while the Loggers are now 1-3 and 0-1.

The Loggers won the JV game 28-0.