Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com

By Ray Hamill — Week one of the new high school football season has come and gone with several local players and teams impressing.

At McKinleyville High School, the Panthers posted a comfortable 28-6 win over Fort Bragg to kick off the new campaign on a winning note, ending a long two-year losing streak in the process.

It’s only a small sample size and bigger challenges await this team, but it was a notable start to the new campaign for the program.

New head coach Jason Benge and his staff had their players ready to go and focused, but perhaps the most impressive aspect of the victory was the manner in which the team responded to early adversity.

The visiting Timberwolves started the better of the two teams and marched all the way to the end zone on their opening possession to take the lead.

But just as it appeared as if it was going to be the same old story for McKinleyville, the players responded with a huge second quarter to take control of the game and held Fort Bragg scoreless the remainder of the way.

And that makes the Panthers our Team of the Week.

This week’s Athlete of the Week honors, meanwhile, go to a Fortuna senior who turned in a big performance for his team in a losing effort at St. Helena.

Senior Kavi Bolden was instrumental for the Huskies on both sides of the ball, including rushing for 102 yards on 15 carries and averaging almost seven yards a carry.

Bolden also came up with a pair of late takeaways to help keep his team’s chances alive, intercepting the ball in the end zone and recovering a fumble.

Unfortunately for Bolden and his teammates, they would lose the game 28-18.

ATHLETE OF THE WEEK 

Kavi Bolden

Fortuna Football, Senior

Bolden was expected to be one of the best running backs in the H-DNL this fall and he lived up to those lofty expectations in the opener.

Along with fellow senior running back, Mako Limon, the dynamic tandem accounted for 238 yards rushing and three TDs in the loss.

The Huskies will have a bye this weekend before traveling to play Ukiah next week.

For more on Bolden’s big performance see our Friday night football roundup …

TEAM OF THE WEEK

McKinleyville Football

This year’s McKinleyville Panthers look like a very different prospect to what we’ve seen from the team over the past two seasons.

After posting back-to-back winless campaigns, the Panthers ended a 21-game losing streak with Saturday afternoon’s win over Fort Bragg.

And that will give the players and new coaches a big boost early in the new campaign.

There were several key contributors ion the win — including the play of Thurman Henderson, Brenden Bates and Braylon Sotelo — but no player had a bigger impact on the offensive side of the ball that senior quarterback Ruger Baxter, who was involved in all four of his team’s touchdowns, including passing for three in the second quarter.

The Panthers will try to keep the momentum going when they host St. Bernard’s on Friday night.

For more on their big weekend, see Panthers answer the call, top Fort Bragg to end long losing streak …