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Three weeks of consistently playing shorthanded may have caught up with the Ferndale girls soccer team on Wednesday, as the Wildcats traveled to Del Norte for a Little 4 showdown and lost 2-0.
The Cats have been battling injuries this season and have had to play with just nine players for much of the time, while matching up against teams with a full complement and substitutes.
And while they have struggled to get results during that time, they have earned the respect of their opponents by facing the challenge head on and pushing the bigger schools all the way.
On Wednesday, however, they fell to the conference-leading Warriors, who remain unbeaten in the Little 4 and improved to 4-0-1.
“It wasn’t our best performance,” Ferndale head coach Bailey Davy said. “For three weeks now we’ve persevered under less than ideal circumstances for a varsity level high school sport.
“We’ve been playing with nine or 10 players and although we’ve put forth a great effort, I think it finally caught up with us today.”
The Cats welcomed back one of their injured players in a limited role this past weekend, but playing three games in just five days, including a make-up non-conference game against Eureka on Monday, made the challenge even more difficult for the shorthanded team.
“The girls are beat-up, they’re tired mentally and physically,” Davy added. “And I think today it showed.
“Our touch was off, we could barely string together a sequence of passes. We were very flat.”
The coach also stressed that she wasn’t taking anything from a Del Norte team that has been one of the most impressive in the entire H-DNL this fall in what has been a breakthrough season for the Warriors’ program.
To their credit, the Ferndale girls have taken the adversity head on and have continued to battle hard when many other teams might have taken the easier route and canceled their season.
Because of that, the Cats were named one of the Humboldt Sports Teams of the Week last week.
And despite Wednesday’s disappointing performance, Davy and assistant coach Brenden McDonald have been extremely impressed with their players’ approach all season.
“Brenden and I are just so proud of the girls,” Davy said. “It’s an honor to coach such a resilient group of athletes.
“It never feels good walking away after a loss, but I know we’ve got more to give and games to still play, so we’re putting this performance behind us and moving forward to focus on Saturday’s game against South Fork.”
The Ferndale players also earned the respect of Del Norte head coach Shawn Eckart, in particular goalkeeper Tinnley Pidgeon.
“Ferndale’s a good team,” he said. “They were down one player and they brought it.
“Their goalie stopped a bunch of shots on goal and really kept the score low.”
For more on Del Norte’s performance, see Warriors keep rolling; Crusaders get first conference win …
The Warriors will play at St. Bernard’s on Saturday, while the Wildcats will host South Fork.
