Submitted photo – The Ferndale players and coaches celebrate their championship at Fortuna on Sunday.

The remarkable and continued success of the Ferndale High football program begins with the success of the Cream City’s youth football program.

On Sunday, the young Mustangs won a fourth straight Six Rivers Youth Football Conference AAA championship, edging Eel River 6-0 in wet and muddy conditions at Fortuna High.

The victory also capped a second straight undefeated season for the young Ferndale players, many of whom will no doubt go on to play for the Ferndale high school team in the coming years.

And they succeeded in large part thanks to an unselfish and team-first attitude.

“They were a lot of fun,” head coach Levi Buck said of his players. “They liked to have fun, but they got serious when they needed to, and as a coach I had a lot of fun with these guys.

“They were super cohesive and very supportive of each other and that camaraderie was really great to see with young kids.”

Running back Easton Essig scored the decisive touchdown in Sunday’s win, running in for the only score of the day in the opening quarter, and a stellar Ferndale defense made it count, posting a shutout in the tough conditions.

The versatile Essig, who played running back and tight end, was one of several standouts on this year’s team, along with fellow running backs Dameer Kowtko and Ryker Renner.

“(Kowtko) was our workhorse,” Buck said. “He did a lot of the hard running, and Ryker was incredibly shifty. He was really hard to bring down and he played with a lot of heart.”

Quarterback Mason Long also enjoyed an outstanding season and contributed in ways you don’t often see at the youth football level.

“I’d say our strength was throwing the ball,” Buck said. “Our quarterback Mason Long has incredible accuracy. He would throw to spots before guys made their breaks, and seeing that from an eighth grader is very impressive.”

Essig benefitted from that as one of the team’s leading receivers, along with Tegan Dalton, who was “our best outside runner and the fastest kid on our team,” according to Buck.

“He has amazing feet,” the head coach added of Dalton.

Linemen Isaiah Nahm and Thornton Oram led the way in the trenches and opened some big holes for the ground attack

“Those were the guys we ran behind when we needed tough yards,” Buck said of the influential duo. “They were our bulldozers, especially in the last game.”

And they weren’t the only standouts on the offensive line.

“The whole offensive line communicated really well,” the fifth-year head coach said. “They were really smart, probably the smartest offensive line I’ve had as a head coach.”

The Mustangs pass defense also played a key role on this year’s team.

“Defensively, I think our defensive backfield was probably our strength,” Buck said. “Nobody was able to pass the ball on us.”

Essig was the only returning starter on that side of the ball and he played a pivotal role at linebacker, along with Oram at defensive end.

“We had a lot of guys that were pretty raw, but towards the end they all started to figure it out,” said Buck, who added that nobody could run the ball on the side of their defense that featured Essig and Oram.

The versatile Jaxon-Stone Smith also played a key role for the Mustangs at defensive end and wherever he lined up.

“He just has a motor and a knack for the ball,” Buck said of Smith, whom the team designed special packages for. “He was really disruptive all year as far as getting in the backfield, and we moved him around a lot.”

The win was the second over Eel River this season, but the opposing players earned the respect of the Ferndale coaches, a group that also included Travis Hardwick, Justin Braud, Nate Coppini and Jon Losa, the latter two of whom have been with Buck for all four recent championships.

“I want to give credit to Fortuna. They are a well-coached team,” Buck said. “It was fun playing them twice this year.”

This year’s Mustangs team also included Christian Benham, Ryker Braud, Derek Buehler Zen Giacomini, Kasen Hardwick, Julian Hany-Miller, Liam Klammes, Justin Noga, Emilio Payne, Jaxson Renner, Reid Rice, Justin Richardson, Robert Rodoni, Matyas Sanchez, Nakahi Saulque, Wyatt Shaw and Levin-Steele Smith.