Photos by Jennipher Willis – Action from Tuesday’s game between South Fork and Del Norte.

The Ferndale girls scored in the opening minutes for the third straight game on Tuesday afternoon, as they continue their impressive season on the soccer field.

The Little 4 leaders stretched their unbeaten run to 12 straight games and widened their gap at the top of the conference standings with a 3-1 win over St. Bernard’s at Ferndale High.

Almost halfway through the conference schedule, the Wildcats now lead the field by four points and their four L4 wins are twice as many as the rest of the conference teams combined.

Also in the Little 4 on Tuesday, the South Fork Cubs celebrated Homecoming week by securing their first point in conference, tying Del Norte 2-2 in Miranda.

The conference leaders continued to roll with another big performance by the in-form Teresa Catana, who has been playing at a high level in recent weeks.

Catana, who has developed a strong bond in the middle of the field with teammate Claire Renner, was involved in her team’s opening two goals.

The junior standout opened the scoring less than three minutes in off an assist from freshman Madison Hagemann, and she would repay the favor in the final two minutes of the opening half, setting up Hagemann, who doubled the advantage.

St. Bernard’s narrowed the deficit on a CJ Figas goal 13 minutes into the second half, but the Cats would seal the win late when Macie Hagemann scored the final goal of the game four minutes from time off an assist from McKenzie Chambers.

And it could have been worse for the visitors going up against the hottest team in the H-DNL.

“Honestly, I didn’t think we had a good first half,” Ferndale head coach Bailey Davy said. “We weren’t connecting passes.”

The Cats still carried a two-goal advantage into the break and they began to grow in stature in the second half.

“We had a great second half,” Davy said. “We played a lot better. We pretty much controlled the second half, especially the last quarter.”

Key to that was the play of Catana and Renner, who are picking up a lot of the slack in they absence of influential junior Gianna Regli, who has missed several games through injury.

“Teresa Catana had a fantastic game. She’s really been playing some good soccer,” the coach said. “With the absence of Gianna, she just has stepped up and has been a force at both ends of the field.

“And Claire Renner had a fantastic game. She’s stepped up as well.

“In the second half, it was a good team effort.”

At South Fork, meanwhile, the visiting Warriors overcame a two-goal second-half deficit to share the spoils and deny the Cubs a first conference win.

“I thought we played really well. I thought we had a strong game,” Del Norte head coach Shawn Eckart said. “It was their Homecoming and they were pumped.”

The Cubs had one of their best conference games, especially in the opening half.

“We played a more complete game with high intensity and full effort,” South Fork head coach Beth Anderson said. “We definitely created a lot more offensive opportunities in the first half when our passing was crisper.”

Makenzie Brewer netted both goals for the Cubs, one in each half, with Kara Worswick and Calleigh Smith assisting.

But Aurora Mitchell would give the visitors a lifeline when she netted her team’s first goal early in the second half, and Jaden Bennett would tie the game 13 minutes from time.

Mitchell’s goal was a beauty from just outside the penalty area.

The ever-consistent Worswick had a big game in midfield for the Cubs, while the team defense held firm for much of the afternoon in front of another outstanding performance by goalkeeper Aurora Galaz.

“The defense played tough again,” Anderson said.

Galaz finished with nine saves and earned the praise of the opposing coach.

“She was awesome,” Eckart said. “She was owning that whole (first) half.”