Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com

By Ray Hamill — An anticipated wide-open race for this year’s Big 4 in football may not be as wide open as we seem to believe.

As least that’s what Humboldt Sports readers seem to think.

In our readers poll this week, one team has emerged as an overwhelming favorite to win the 2023 league championship.

We published a poll earlier this week asking our readers which team they think will win the league title, and of the more than 500 votes cast 50 percent believe the Fortuna Huskies are the team to beat.

The race for second was a close one, with St. Bernard’s barely edging Del Norte.

The Crusaders garnered 23.5 percent of the votes cast, with the three-time defending league champion Warriors pulling in 21.5 percent.

The Eureka Loggers, who have struggled this season, received just five percent of the votes.

The Big 4 kicks off with a pair of games on Saturday.

League favorite Fortuna travels to St. Bernard’s to play the Crusaders at 2 p.m., with the Warriors and Loggers playing under the lights on Saturday night in Crescent City, with a 7:30 p.m. kickoff.

The game at St. Bernard’s will be broadcast live on 95.1 FM and the game in Crescent City will be broadcast live on 97.9 FM and on DelNorteSports.com.

Fortuna and St. Bernard’s are both 5-2 heading into league play, while Del Norte is 4-2 and Eureka is 0-7.