Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – St. Bernard’s is the top-ranked H-DNL football team right now, according to MaxPreps.

By Ray Hamill — The early-season MaxPreps football rankings may surprise some people, although fans of one H-DNL school may like the look of it.

After a 2-0 start to the season, the St. Bernard’s Crusaders are the top-ranked local team, coming in at No. 34 in the overall North Coast Section rankings out of 104 programs, four spots ahead of any other league team.

St. Bernard’s has posted back-to-back wins in their opening two games, although Matt Tomlin’s team has yet to be tested, with matchups against No. 60 Clear Lake and No. 76 McKinleyville.

No. 38 Del Norte (2-0) is the second highest-ranked H-DNL team, while the No. 1 team in this week’s Humboldt Sports Power Rankings, the Ferndale Wildcats (1-0), are at No. 42.

The winless Arcata Tigers (0-1) are next at No. 48, with the Fortuna Huskies (0-1) two spots further back.

The Eureka Loggers (1-1) are No. 56, followed by McKinleyville (1-1) at No. 76 and Hoopa (1-1) at No. 82.

None of the league teams are currently ranked in the top two within their divisions.

St. Bernard’s and Del Norte are both ranked No. 3 in Divisions 7 and 6, respectively, while Ferndale is one spot behind the Crusaders in Division 7.

Eureka also is ranked No 4 in Division 5, while Arcata (Division 4) and Fortuna (Division 6) are both No. 5.

And rounding out the Division rankings for local teams, McKinleyville (Division 6) and Hoopa (Division 7) are both No. 10.

The rankings, which ultimately go a long way towards deciding the section playoff brackets, are not without their usual controversy, most notably with Eureka ranked eight spots behind Arcata despite comfortably beating the Tigers 56-32 in week one.

According to the NCS web page, Arcata now has the highest student population in the league (1272) and is the only Division-4 school in the H-DNL, with Eureka (1173) in Division 5.

Del Norte (925), Fortuna (796) and McKinleyville (568) are all in Division 6, with Hoopa (264), Ferndale (145) and St. Bernard’s (197) all included in Division 7.

South Fork (217) is included in the eight-player division, with no rankings listed yet.

The Ferndale Wildcats