Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – The Fortuna Huskies hosted the Arcata Tigers on Friday night.

By Ray Hamill — One of the most impressive aspects of Fortuna’s shutout win on Friday night was the balanced ground attack, with eight different players combining for more than 300 yards rushing.

The Huskies improved to 2-0 with a 34-0 victory over Arcata, scoring on four of their first five possessions to end the game as a contest before halftime.

The defense shut down a dangerous Arcata aerial attack and intercepted QB Cole Vandenplas three times.

But it was the Fortuna running game that really stole the show and it didn’t seem to matter who was carrying the ball behind that O-line, they pretty much all had success.

Jake Houseworth led the way with 79 yards and two touchdowns on nine carries, while Caden Wilkinson added 78 yards and two TDs on nine carries and QB Chad Mussey added 64 yards and a TD on 10 carries.

Lolo Payne also had 32 yards rushing on two carries and Chris Duey had 25 yards on six carries.

Overall, the Huskies had 301 yards on the ground on 48 carries for a 6.3 average.

The Huskies only threw for 58 yards on three completions, with Tegan Rumley pulling in a pair of receptions for 52 yards.

Defensively, Payne, Rumley, and Kallen Barrote each had an interception, while defensive tackle Emmitt Lumpkin continually caused problems for the Arcata offense and cornerback Tim Still led the way on a strong performance by the Fortuna DBs with some very good coverage.

“Our DBs did a nice job of keeping people in front of them and not giving up big plays,” head coach Mike Benbow said. “We tackled in space. We did everything we needed to do, and I was really happy with that.”

The Fortuna JVs won 48-18.

Wyatt Simoni, left, and Lane Ford both had big games on the defensive side of the ball for the Crusaders on Friday night.

Simoni setting a blistering pace for SB

The St. Bernard’s defense was equally effective, holding the Wolverines without an offensive touchdown in a 33-10 win at Willits.

Senior DE/RB Wyatt Simoni has been sensational through the opening two weeks — on both sides of the ball — and had 3.5 sacks against the Wolverines, giving him 6.3 sacks through the opening two games.

Simoni also had seven tackles.

He was just as influential on offense and finished with 219 total yards.

Simoni carried the ball 25 times for 150 yards and scored four rushing TDs, giving him 316 rushing yards and six rushing touchdowns in the opening two games.

He also pulled in three receptions for 69 yards.

A pair of young quarterbacks also continued to impress for the Crusaders, who are now 2-0.

Freshman Trenten Hagler completed 6 of 9 passes for 58 yards and a TD, while sophomore Luke Brunton completed 7 of 11 passes for 53 yards.

Defensively the Crusaders dominated the home team.

Lane Ford helped set the tone with a pair of sacks, while Ethan Hagler had six tackles and a sack.

The St. Bernard’s JVs tied 18-18.