Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – The Eureka Loggers will play at Ukiah on Saturday night. 
By Ray Hamill — The Eureka Loggers will have an extra day to prepare for a speedy Wildcats team after their game at Ukiah got pushed back 24 hours.
Because of excessive heat forecast for the area on Friday, the game will now be played on Saturday, when the temperature is expected to drop considerably.
Regardless of when they play, the Loggers will have their hands full containing the home team’s quickness.
“I expect a lot of speed,” Eureka head coach Mike Marcelli said of the showdown. “They’re a very, very fast team, so we’re expecting a tough football game.”
To counter that, the Loggers will look to do what they did well against Arcata in their season opener two weeks ago — run the ball effectively.
Multiple backs got the chance to shine against the Tigers, behind a strong showing by the offensive line, and Marcelli will be hoping for more of the same this weekend.
“I thought they played very, very well (against Arcata),” the coach said of the line. “With the Wing-T, you have to know where you’re going and make the right moves, and so far our O-Line has been very productive.”
The Loggers are coming off an early-season bye and were able to use it to their advantage after a 30-0 shutout win over Arcata.
It also allowed a couple of early-season injuries to heal up and the Loggers will go into the weekend showdown at close to full health.
“We did lose a couple of guys during that game, and with the bye week we got those guys back,” Marcelli said. “The bye week has been very productive as far as correcting the mistakes we made against Arcata and throwing some new wrinkles in.”
Eureka comes into this weekend’s game ranked No. 6 among Division-5 teams in the North Coast Section, according to MaxPreps.
They are No. 47 overall in the NCS, one spot ahead of the Division-3 Wildcats.
Ukiah is 0-2 and has been outscored 55-6 in back-to-back matchups against No. 21 Montgomery and No. 26 Northgate.
Saturday’s varsity game is set for 7 p.m.
