Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – The Huskies will host St. Vincent de Paul on Friday night.

By Ray Hamill — What now for the Fortuna Huskies?

After suffering their first loss of the season in a blowout at Foothill last weekend, the big question this week is how will the Huskies respond to that adversity?

On Friday night, they face a competitive St. Vincent de Paul team in a homecoming showdown at Husky Field.

The players should be pumped up for the game — as long as they’re not too distracted by the festivities — but the opposition should present a big challenge.

The Mustangs are 3-1 and also are coming off their first loss of the season, having fallen 37-35 at Montgomery last weekend.

The Mustangs, who moved up to Division 6 this year, are also highly ranked in the North Coast Section — or at least they were.

According to MaxPreps, St. Vincent de Paul was the No. 1 team in Division 6 last week, but for some reason the Mustangs have completely disappeared from all the website’s rankings this week.

Fortuna, meanwhile, remains No. 2 in the same division, with Moreau Catholic taking over at No. 1.

(Arcata is No. 4 in the same division.)

Friday night’s game will be broadcast live on MIX 95.1 FM, as part of a weekend doubleheader.

Several other local teams will also be in action this weekend, including league opening games for the Little 4 teams.

Defending champion McKinleyville (0-4) will open at Ferndale (2-2) on Saturday afternoon at 2, while Arcata (2-2) is scheduled to host Hoopa  (1-3) at Mack High later in the same day (7:30 p.m.).

Del Norte will play on Friday night, when the Warriors (2-2) welcome Oakland Tech (2-2) to Crescent City, with kickoff at 7 p.m.

That game will also be broadcast live on KPOD 97.9 and DelNorteSports.com.

The Eureka Loggers (0-5) will try to get their first win of the season when they host Windsor (2-1-1) at Albee Stadium on Friday, with kickoff scheduled for 7 p.m.

Rounding out a busy weekend for the local high school teams, on Saturday St. Bernard’s will host Ukiah (2-3) at 2 p.m., while South Fork (0-4) will return to eight-player football and open league play against Stuart Hall (3-1) in San Francisco at 6 p.m.

Saturday afternoon’s game at Crusader Field will also be broadcast live on MIX 95.1 FM.