POWER RANKINGS — Some big questions will be answered in the coming weeks

By barstoolfanatics on October 10, 2024 • ( Leave a comment )

Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com

By Ray Hamill — The Arcata Tigers and Ferndale Wildcat remain on course for a colossal showdown next week, in a game that barring some huge upset this week will go a long way towards deciding the fate of this year’s Little 4 championship.

Both schools comfortably took care of business in their conference openers with shutout victories last week and they remain the frontrunners in the Humboldt Sports Power Rankings for the third straight week.

The Tigers hold firm at No. 1 for the fifth straight week, with the Wildcats right on their heels at No. 2.

Both teams will be expected to win their respective games this weekend, when the Cats travel to play a winless McKinleyville team on Friday night and the Tigers travel to Hoopa on Saturday.

But, of course, nothing is guaranteed and both coaching staffs will need to keep their players focused on the task at hand and not looking beyond their immediate opponents.

The composure both teams have shown all season, coupled with the leadership on both rosters, suggests that won’t be a problem.

Elsewhere in the top five, there are no changes for the third straight week.

Last weekend was a relatively quiet one for the H-DNL teams with byes for both St. Bernard’s and South Fork.

This weekend, eight of the nine local varsity teams will be in action, with the Del Norte Warriors the one exception as they enjoy a bye before the stretch run of the season.

St. Bernard’s is in Tennessee for a pair of games over seven days, beginning with a showdown at Grace Baptist Academy on Friday.

The Crusaders remain at No. 3 in our Power Rankings and appear to be the slight frontrunners in what is expected to be a tight battle for this year’s Big 4 championship.

Their only loss of the season came against No. 2 Ferndale two weeks ago.

The Huskies, meanwhile, have struggled in recent weeks and have now dropped three straight games, albeit against some very tough opponents.

But they remain at No. 4 courtesy of their blowout win over No. 5 Del Norte in both schools’ season opener.

The Warriors have made a case to move up in the rankings in recent weeks with three straight wins, including a hard-fought 13-7 win at Oakland Tech last weekend.

But those three wins have come against teams that are a combined 2-13 on the season, whereas Fortuna’s three recent losses have come against teams that are a combined 13-2 on the season.

Eureka remains the wild card in the Power Rankings.

According to MaxPreps, the Loggers are actually ranked above Fortuna and are the fourth ranked team in the H-DNL, trailing, in order, Ferndale, Arcata and St. Bernard’s, with Fortuna rounding out the top five.

All four of the Loggers’ losses this season have come against highly-ranked teams — Arcata (No. 29 in the North Coast Section); Shasta (No. 4 in the Northern Section); Willow Glen (No. 22 in the Central Coast Section); and Windsor (No. 11 in the NCS).

Just how much that tough competition prepares the Loggers for the Big 4 remains to be seen, but this is a team that is probably better than its 1-4 record would suggest and a team that could very well compete for the Big 4 and could move up into the Humboldt Sports Power Rankings in the coming weeks.