Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – Luke Moxon in action for Arcata at this past weekend’s McKinleyville tournament.

By Ray Hamill — Less than a week after they faced off in the championship game at the McKinleyville tournament, Big 5 rivals Arcata and McKinleyville could play each other again in another championship game this weekend.

Both school are among the four Big 5 teams that will compete at this week’s Arcata Invitational Boys Tournament, which gets under way on Thursday.

The Eureka Loggers, who begun the new season in style by winning the 70th Yreka tournament on Saturday, also will feature at the annual Arcata tournament, along with the Fortuna Huskies.

The Huskies will be hoping to put a disappointing trip to the recent Harlan Carter tournament in Redding behind them, although they faced some tough competition there, which should benefit them moving forward.

The four local teams will be joined this week by Montgomery, South Medford, Red Bluff and Pine, and all four Big 5 schools will open torment play against an out-of-area team.

All three days of the tournament will feature four games.

On Thursday, McKinleyville will play Montgomery at 4:30 p.m., followed by Eureka and South Medford at 6 p.m.

The host Tigers, who are still missing several players still playing football, will play Red Bluff at 7:30 p.m., followed by Fortuna and Piner at 9.

The winners of the first two games will play each other in the first of Friday’s semifinals at 6:30 p.m., and the winners of the second two games will meet in the second semifinal on Friday at 8.

McKinleyville (5-0) and Eureka (3-0) are both unbeaten through the early going, while Arcata is 4-1 and Fortuna  is 3-3.

The Panthers defeated the short-handed Tigers 61-45 in Saturday’s championship game at the McKinleyville tournament.