Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – Action from Friday night’s game at McKinleyville.

By Ray Hamill — The Fortuna Huskies continued their winning start to the football season with another dominating performance on Friday night, improving to 3-0 with a 42-0 victory at McKinleyville.

It was the second straight shutout for the Huskies defense, and that might not even be the most impressive thing about this team.

For the second straight weekend they ran for more than 300 yards, and they did so with contributions from a lot of different offensive weapons, with 10 different players carrying the ball.

And once again, the offensive line paved the way for that dominance on the ground.

“They came in and they did all the things we needed them to do,” head coach Mike Benbow said of his offensive line. “They’re a pretty consistent group and they work hard every day.

“And the nice thing is even the back ups came in and did a good job.”

The Huskies scored touchdowns on their opening two possessions of the game, but they got a little sloppy in the second quarter while turning the ball over twice.

They quickly put that behind them, however, with three third-quarter TDs to end the game as a contest.

“We kind of came in with the idea of working on a few things and we were able to do the things we were trying to do,” Benbow said. “It got a little sloppy in the second quarter but we got better in the second half.”

The Fortuna offense rushed for 333 yards and six touchdowns on 37 carries, including three rushing TDs by Jake Houseworth.

He finished with 94 yards on eight carries, including scoring runs of 45, 10 and 13 yards.

Houseworth has six touchdowns already this season.

Senior quarterback Chad Mussey also did a good job running the ball and had 96 yards and two TDs on nine carries.

Mussey opened the scoring on a 15-yard TD run on the Huskies’ opening drive of the game, and would add a 10-yard TD run before halftime to put the visitors up 21-0.

Senior running back Chris Duey closed out the scoring late in the third quarter on a six-yard TD run.

Duey finished with 58 yards rushing on eight carries, while kicker Kallen Barrote made all six PATs.

The performance of the ball carriers impressed the head coach.

“Right now we’re in a position where a lot of kids are getting opportunities and they’re taking advantage of those opportunities,” Benbow said.

The coach also praised the efforts of his defense, which has given up just 15 points in three games.

“Our defense is playing well right now,” he said. “They’re flying around and they’re making plays.”

McKinleyville dropped to 0-2.

The Fortuna JVs also won, beating McKinleyville 40-8 to go to 2-1.

The McKinleyville JVs dropped to 0-2.

Next weekend, the Huskies will return home to host Ferndale in the annual Milk Can showdown, while the Panthers will travel to play at University Prep.