Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – The Crusaders are 5-2 all-time in Big 4 games against Eureka.

By Ray Hamill — Conference play kicks off for all 17 local high school football teams this weekend with a number of key matchups at both varsity and JV levels.

In the Little 4, conference favorite Ferndale (4-0) opens at Hoopa (1-3) on Friday night, before Arcata (1-3) makes the short trip to play McKinleyville (2-2) 24 hours later.

In the Big 4, five-time defending champion Del Norte (3-1) opens at Fortuna (1-3) on Friday night, while Eureka (1-3) travels to Crusader Field to play St. Bernard’s (4-0) on Saturday afternoon.

And rounding out a busy weekend for the local varsity squads, the South Fork Cubs kick off the NCL III at Round Valley on Friday evening at 6 p.m.

So what can we expect from an intriguing opening weekend?

In the Little 4, it’s difficult to see anyone stopping a Ferndale team that has been steamrolling opponents through the opening four games and the Cats will be considered heavy favorites to win this year’s title outright.

But the Wildcats will need to stay grounded, show up every week and take care of business, something this group of players have shown themselves to be adept at.

The Arcata Tigers, who shared the title with the Cats a year ago on their way to an historic state championship, look like they could pose the biggest threat to Ferndale.

However, it doesn’t augur well for an Arcata defense that is giving up more than 46 points a game going up against a Ferndale team that is averaging more than 56 points a game.

The two schools will play each other on Oct. 18 (at Ferndale) and Nov. 7 (at Arcata).

The more intriguing of the two opening games takes place at McKinleyville on Saturday night, with the Panthers building some momentum this fall under new head coach Jason Benge.

McKinleyville has the second best record among L4 teams in pre-conference play and the Panthers are playing with a newfound enthusiasm and confidence this fall.

Will that be good enough to see them challenge the Cats or at least place second in this year’s Little 4?

Saturday’s game against their closest rivals will give us a better indication as to where these two teams are right now.

The Big 4, meanwhile, appears to be more open.

St. Bernard’s has been the most impressive of the four schools early in the season and has yet to taste defeat.

But all three of their conference rivals look capable of beating any other B4 school on any given day.

Only a fool would underestimate what Del Norte is capable of when it comes to conference play, and the five-time defending champions — four of which they have won outright — will be eager to continue that run and confident they can do so.

The only blemish on the Warriors’ record so far is a loss to Arcata, but they always seem to grow in stature as the season goes on and find a way to lift their game when conference play kicks off.

The Warriors, in fact, have lost just once in their last 19 official conference games dating back to the fall of 2018.

(They did, however, go 1-2 in unofficial conference games during the COVID-shortened 2020 season in the spring of 2021.)

They face a tricky opener at Fortuna on Homecoming night at Husky Stadium against a host team that finally got its first win of the campaign a week ago.

Interestingly, Fortuna is the only Big 4 program that managed to de-rail the Warriors in recent years, beating them 22-12 in the final game of the 2022 regular season, a win that resulted in a three-way tie for the title that year.

On Saturday, the Crusaders and Loggers will renew their rivalry in what is always a highly-anticipated showdown.

The two schools played just once ever before the Crusaders joined the larger schools conference in 2018, tying back in 1962 (12-12).

In the nine games since then, SB holds a 5-4 advantage, including a 5-2 record in official conference games.

From 2019 to 2023, the Crusaders won five consecutive Big 4 games against their crosstown rivals, but the Loggers ended that run in emphatic fashion a year ago when they cruised to a 41-6 victory at the Redwood Bowl.

Still, heading into the first of two games between these schools this year, the Crusaders look like the team to beat.

They have rolled over their first four opponents — Clear Lake, McKinleyville, Hoopa and Montgomery — while the Loggers have struggled since an opening-weekend victory over Arcata, losing three straight since then.

The big question for the Loggers this week is how will they respond to an embarrassing 58-0 loss at Ferndale last week.

That on its own could give them a boost as they look to respond and play for pride as much as a win.

Rounding out a busy weekend for the local varsity teams, the South Fork Cubs will head to Round Valley to kick off the NCL III.

The Cubs are 2-1, having posted impressive wins over Happy Camp (62-8) and Branson (40-28), with a tough 68-8 loss to a red-hot Hayfork team that has won 30 straight games sandwiched in between.

In JV action, meanwhile, all of the Big 4 and Little 4 teams will kick off conference play this weekend as well.

Similar to the varsity squads, both Ferndale and St. Bernard’s appear like the teams to beat and both carry 4-0 records into conference play.

Impressively, only one of the H-DNL JV teams currently has a losing record.

Del Norte is 3-1, Eureka is 2-1-1 and Fortuna is 2-2.

In the Little 4, McKinleyville is 2-2, Hoopa is 2-2 and Arcata is 0-4.

In local college football, meanwhile, College of the Redwoods has a bye this week before beginning conference play at Sierra College next week.