POWER RANKINGS — No stopping the Cats ahead of L4 opener

By barstoolfanatics on October 1, 2025 • ( Leave a comment )

Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com

By Ray Hamill — We’re beginning to see some separation in our weekly Power Rankings, as the top three teams solidify their status and the chasing pack leave us wondering what we should expect from them week to week.

The Ferndale Wildcats remain at No. 1, where they have been since the preseason, and if anything they appear to be getting even better week to week.

Over the past two weekends, the Cats rolled over a pair of Big 4 opponents, putting up a combined 107 points and giving up zero.

When is the last time Ferndale football dominated the Fortuna Huskies and Eureka Loggers like that?

And the schedule should only get easier from here on out with the Cats set to begin conference play this weekend.

Their conference rivals — Arcata, Hoopa and McKinleyville — are a combined 4-8, and while the world of sports has long since conditioned us to never take anything for granted, it’s difficult to see any of those schools beating the Cats the way the latter are playing right now.

The one local team that appears capable of challenging Ferndale is perhaps the St. Bernard’s Crusaders, but the two programs are not scheduled to play each other this year, at least not in the regular season.

The Crusaders are also 4-0 and coming off a bye weekend, and while they have not been as dominating as the Wildcats they have impressed nonetheless and have exceeded expectations thus far.

The Crusaders, who remain a firm No. 2 in our rankings, will be far more heavily tested than Ferndale over the final six weeks of the regular season because of their Big 4 schedule.

But through the pre-conference portion of the schedule, St. Bernard’s has looked like the team to beat in this year’s Big 4 and will be a difficult challenge for any of their conference rivals.

The Crusaders open the Big 4 at home against crosstown rival Eureka on Saturday afternoon in what is always a highly-anticipated matchup.

The Del Norte Warriors are also coming off a bye and they remain steady at No. 3 in our Power Rankings.

The Warriors are 3-1 and answered the call after a narrow loss to Arcata three weeks ago, traveling to Oakland to play Skyline the following weekend and cruising to a comfortable win.

The five-time defending Big 4 champs — four of which they won outright — are still considered one of the favorites to win the conference crown again this fall, as they should be until someone manages to dethrone them.

But outside of the top three, there appears to be a sizable drop-off, even considering the fact that the Warriors lost to Arcata.

Last week’s No. 4 (Eureka) and No. 5 (Arcata) teams both suffered losses over the weekend and each dropped to 1-3 on the season.

The Tigers barely lost to Oakland, a team that is ranked 92 spots behind them in California, according to MaxPreps, while Eureka fell heavily at Ferndale.

Arcata does have a quality win over Del Norte on its resume, but other than that the team defense has largely failed to inspire in losses to Eureka (56-32), St. Vincent de Paul (71-33), and Oakland (32-24), giving up an average of 53 points in those losses.

Likewise with Eureka.

The Loggers has a quality win over Arcata, but since then they have suffered three straight losses to Shasta, Novato and Ferndale, and they have disappointed in all three games.

Fortuna, meanwhile, lost three straight games to open the season, but rebounded with a dominating 35-0 win over University Prep this past weekend.

Is that a sign of things to come for the Huskies? Only time will tell, but for now it’s difficult to separate that trio of 1-3 teams.