Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – The Hoopa Warriors will play for the Little 4 lead at Ferndale on Saturday.

The most important game of the JV football season so far will take place at Ferndale on Saturday morning, when the Wildcats host the Hoopa Warriors with the Little 4 lead on the line.

Kickoff is set for 11 a.m.

Both teams are 2-0 in league play after big wins for each this past weekend and both have winning records on the season.

The Wildcats, in fact, have the best record of any local JV team at 5-1 and they comfortably defeated Arcata 38-7 at the Redwood Bowl on Friday night.

The Warriors, meanwhile, beat McKinleyville 68-6 at Hoopa on Friday and are the hottest team in the H-DNL right now with four straight wins.

The two league leaders have already faced off once this season in a pre-league showdown in the Cream City in early September, which the home team won 20-6.

The Warriors, however, have won all four of their games since then to go to 4-2, and with the league lead up for grabs both schools will have plenty of motivation on Saturday.

The Cats and Warriors will face off once more in league play at Hoopa on the final weekend of the season.

They weren’t the only JV teams in action this past weekend.

The Fortuna Huskies won their second straight game at Healdsburg by a score of 55-13 and improved to 5-2 on the season.

Quarterback Braylon Johnson passed for 139 yards and three touchdowns to lead a balanced attack that also featured 211 yards and three touchdowns on the ground.

Kavi Bolden added an 80-yard punt return for a touchdown and Mako Limon had a 67-yard punt return for a TD.

The Del Norte JVs also won, beating Eureka 31-6 at Albee stadium.

The Crusaders will host St. Vincent de Paul on Saturday.

The win was the third straight for the Warriors, who improved to 4-1 and have the best record of the Big 4 teams.

St. Bernard’s had a bye this past weekend and remains 3-2-1 on the season.

The Crusaders will host St. Vincent de Paul on Saturday, while Del Norte, Eureka and Fortuna all have byes.

Also this coming weekend, something will have to give when the winless Arcata Tigers (0-5) host the winless McKinleyville Panthers (0-6) on Friday.

Both young teams have taken their lumps so far this season but each also is improving and will fancy their chances against their closest rivals.

This will be the first of two meetings between the two teams over the next four weeks, as each looks to close out the season with some momentum.

The Big 4 teams will kick off league play next week.