By Ray Hamill — The ultimate legacy of this year’s Ferndale Wildcats football team is a long way from being finalized, and there will likely be plenty of twists and turns on the journey before they walk off into the sunset.

But thus far, this team has been everything Cats fans could have hoped for and then some.

On Saturday, Ferndale closed out its pre-conference schedule with yet another dominating performance, as the Wildcats rolled to a 58-0 win over a thoroughly outmatched Eureka team in front of a large and very satisfied crowd in the Cream City.

The end result was simultaneously somewhat expected and somewhat surprising.

While we’ve come to anticipate lopsided wins from the best team in the H-DNL right now, few could have expected this sort of dominating performance against a Eureka program that has been building some momentum over the past 13 months.

But the Loggers were gut punched from the opening moments and never recovered, as the Cats stretched their fast start to four wins in four games, during which they have now outscored their opponents by a remarkable 226-0, including outscoring a pair of Big 4 schools — Fortuna and Eureka — by a combined 107-0 over the past eight days.

We are running out of superlatives to describe this group of Wildcats, especially their defense, which is not only shutting out opponents but also giving up relatively few yards or scoring opportunities.

“You know, we played pretty well,” Ferndale head coach Clint McClurg said. “I think our defense set a physical tone that we were able to carry over to our offense.”

Once again, the Cats came out ready to go and ended the game as a contest long before halftime.

After holding the visitors on their opening possession, the Cats would score on their first five drives of the afternoon, with their only stop of the first two quarters coming on their final possession when they received the ball in their own half with just 20 seconds on the clock.

They led 22-0 after the first quarter and carried a 43-point advantage into halftime.

The Loggers had no answer for their dominating opponents on either side of the ball and were never in contention.

“Today was just not our day,” Eureka head coach Sam Edmonds said. “Ferndale’s a good team, they’re a tough team, and we didn’t come ready to play like I was hoping for, or like we should have.

“They were making the big plays when it mattered the most.”

What’s perhaps most remarkable about this year’s Ferndale team is the depth of quality McClurg has at his disposal for such a small school program.

If the season ended today, they would have several worthy candidates for H-DN player of the year.

Senior Prescott Langer, who always sets a physical tone on defense, offense and special teams, found the end zone four times, while quarterback Tanner Pidgeon added two TD runs and a TD pass with his usual effervescent play that can’t help but inspire his teammates and anyone who watches him play.

Both are virtually unstoppable in short yardage situations, while also capable of breaking free for huge gains every time they touch the ball.

But none of that would be possible without the support of a stellar offensive line, one that is anchored by outstanding senior Ethan Weitzel, who never seems to have a bad play and was a monster in the trenches on both sides of the ball all day.

“They beat us in all aspects,” Edmonds admitted. “They came ready to play.”

McClurg also paid tribute to his offensive line, describing the unit as “very, very impressive.”

After holding the Loggers on the opening possession of the day, the Cats quickly went to work on offense.

They would open the scoring on a 24-yard TD pass from Pidgeon to Liam Bishop less than four minutes into the game.

On the very first play of their second possession, Pidgeon doubled his team’s tally on a 65-yard TD run.

Three plays and a punt later, they drove 83 yards to the end zone, scoring on 45-yard Langer run.

The Loggers, to their credit, at least had the awareness to not punt the ball anywhere near “Big Play” Bishop, who had three punt returns for TDs in the opening two games.

But it was merely a strategy that put off the inevitable.

The Cats did not score any TDs on special teams. They didn’t need to.

They added a fourth TD on an eight-yard Prescott run barely three minutes into the second quarter, and thanks to the reliable foot of junior Christian Enrique, who nailed six PATs on the day, they led 29-0 at that stage.

Just three plays later, a Bishop interception gave the ball back to the Cats and they quickly marched back to the end zone, scoring on an 18-yard Pidgeon TD run to lead 36-0 with five minutes still remaining in the half.

A quick three-and-out by the visitors gave the ball back to the Wildcats, who once again quickly added to their tally, this time on a nine-yard Langer TD run.

The second half began in much the same fashion, with the home team driving 63 yards and scoring on a six-yard TD run by junior Garyn McClurg, another Wildcat who is enjoying an outstanding campaign.

His brother, senior Rolland McClurg, has been every bit as impressive and would give possession right back to the Cats just a few minutes later after intercepting the ball near midfield.

Langer would cap an incredible individual afternoon with his fourth TD of the game on a 50-yard run moments later, and a two-point conversion pass from Adrian Lopez to Luke Dixon made it 58-0 before the third quarter had ended.

Langer’s fourth TD was set up by a good block from junior Bradley Williams.

Another junior, Brandon Bailey, also had a big game, filling in at guard for the injured Ruben Peredia, and causing havoc for the Loggers on both sides of the ball all day while epitomizing the “next-man-up” mentality of the smallest program in the H-DNL.

The game went to a running clock for the fourth quarter.

“This was a complete team effort, when you have 16 guys and that’s all you got,” Clint McClurg said. “We’ll take quality over quantity any day.”

Of Weitzel, who is playing as well as any lineman in the HDN right now, McClurg said “He is the reigning co-Defensive MVP (of the Little 4) and that was clearly on display today.”

There were few bright spots for the Loggers, who dropped to 1-3 as they get set for a showdown against crosstown rival St. Bernard’s to open the Big 4 next weekend.

“I think for us it was a wake-up call,” Edmonds said. “Definitely hats off to Clint, he’s doing a great job with those guys.”

The Ferndale coach is also enjoying his season in charge of the most dominating team in the H-DN.

“I’m definitely pretty excited about every opportunity to work with these young men,” the Ferndale head coach said. “We’ll keep bringing our best effort and energy to the task at hand.”

The Cats rounded out a great day for the program with a 29-0 win in the JV game, as the young Ferndale players also improved to 4-0.