Photos by Phoebe Becker – Action from Friday night’s game at South Fork.

The Ferndale Wildcats’ Little 4 championship hopes took a hit on Friday night in a 53-37 loss at South Fork.

With the loss, the Cats dropped to 1-1 in league play and 11-5 overall, and they are now tied with the Cubs for second in the Little 4, one win back of St. Bernard’s (2-0).

The loss also ended a three-game winning streak for the visitors, who had opened league play the previous week with a 76-58 win over Hoopa.

“It was close most of the game until the last few minutes, when they took the game over with their defense,” said head coach Tristan Waters, who added “We just seemed to lose ourselves and it showed.”

Kannon Christiansen continued to impress for the Wildcats and finished with 11 points, while teammate Thomas Fergison had 10 points and Jack Westfall added nine.

The Wildcats,  according to the coach, did play good defense in the first half, which kept them in the game, and they went on an early 13-0 run to put them up by seven.

But they were unable to carry the early momentum into the second half.

“I felt like we weren’t ourselves out there last night, especially in the second half,” Waters added.

Next up, the Wildcats will play a non-league game at Fortuna on Monday, before returning to league play on Friday when they host Little 4 leaders St. Bernard’s in a key showdown.

For more on South Fork, check out our Friday night Little 4 Roundup …