Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – Action from last weekend’s game between Fortuna and Eureka.

By Ray Hamill — We’ll have a much clearer picture of who is the best team in both the Big 4 and Little 4 after Friday night.

The second weekend of league play pits the two leaders in both conferences against each other, with Fortuna heading to Crescent City to play Del Norte and Arcata making the short trip to McKinleyville to host the resurgent Panthers.

The Huskies, who are 1-0 in the Big 4 and 4-1 overall, surprised some people with a hard-fought win over Eureka in their conference opener last week and will carry plenty of momentum into Friday night’s big showdown against a physical Del Norte team (1-0, 3-1) that wears opponents down.

Game time is set for 7:30 p.m., with the JVs playing at 5.

The Tigers and Panthers, meanwhile, will also both carry a lot of momentum and confidence into their showdown at Mack High.

Arcata is 1-0 in the Little 4 and 3-2 overall and has won three straight games with a potent passing game featuring quarterback Shane Purcell and receivers Alex Jioras, Carson Tucker and Ty Franklin, among others.

The Panthers are 1-0 and 4-1 and can match their highest season win total of the past 13 years with a victory on Friday.

They won five games in 2014 and 2009 but have not had a winning season since 2008, something they appear well on track to achieve this year.

If they can beat a senior-heavy Tigers team on Friday night, that would be a major statement win, but whichever team is victorious will take control of the Little 4.

Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. with no JV game scheduled.

Also in action this weekend, Eureka and St. Bernard’s will both try to bounce back from tough losses last week and end losing streaks when they play at Albee Stadium on Saturday night at 7:30 p.m., with the Eureka and McKinleyville JVs playing beforehand at 5 .

The Arcata Tigers will play McKinleyville on Friday night.

The Loggers have dropped three straight since their season-opening win over Ukiah, but this is also their first home game since that victory.

They also have been right there in two of those losses and could easily be 3-1, but simple mistakes have let the Loggers down each week and they’ll need to clean up their execution if they want to beat a talented and extremely well-coached Crusaders team.

The Crusaders have dropped two straight games and are 2-3 overall, but St. Bernard’s matched up well against the physically bruising Warriors a week ago and won’t back down from the challenge of facing another much larger school.

This game is as difficult as any this weekend to call.

On Saturday afternoon, meanwhile, the Hoopa Warriors travel to play the Ferndale Wildcats at 2 p.m.

The Warriors are 0-1 in the Little 4 and 2-2 overall after falling to Mack last week.

The Cats are 0-1 and 0-4.

Rounding out a busy weekend of local action, South Fork opens NCL-II play at home to Anderson Valley at 6 p.m. on Friday night.