Photos by Ray Hamill/humboldtSports.com

By Ray Hamill — The Huskies and Crusaders have conditioned us to expect games like this.

What is usually one of the most fun annual matchups on the H-DNL sports calendar did not disappoint once again on Saturday as these two rivals served up another exciting encounter.

Facing off at Crusader Field in front of a large crowd and with the Big 4 lead on the line, the two schools battled back and forth all afternoon, with the home team holding on late for a 26-22 win.

“First of all, I just want to compliment coach (Mike) Benbow and his coaching staff and his players,” St. Bernard’s head coach Matt Tomlin said of his opposite number. “That was just a great battle. We have so much respect for his program.”

Benbow echoed the sentiment.

“I think it was a great game,” he said. “Both teams played their tails off, and we just came up short.”

It didn’t look they would early on.

The Huskies started the stronger of the two teams and opened up a 14-0 lead in the opening quarter.

After forcing a turnover on St. Bernard’s opening possession, the visitors opened their account on an 11-yard Michael Shaw touchdown run.

They would add to their tally later in the quarter when Mako Limon scored the first of his two touchdowns for the game on a 38-yard run and the Huskies led 14-0.

But the home team would grow into the game and cut the deficit in half on a 32-yard TD run by outstanding freshman Bryce Panacoast before the first quarter was done.

With injuries mounting in the St. Bernard’s offensive backfield and multiple running backs sidelined — including the very dangerous tandem of Riley Nantz and Kuron Devlin — Panacoast is taking full advantage of his opportunities and has been electric in his first two games.

No final stats were available, but the young standout finished the game with around 80 yards rushing and probably 80 more receiving, according to Tomlin.

“I’m super proud of my kids today. We’ve got a lot of injuries right now and we had a lot of young kids out there, and we got behind early and they didn’t quit,” Tomlin said. “We showed a lot of pride today and I couldn’t be more proud of my freshman running back. He just made big play after big play.”

The second quarter was a big one for the Crusaders, who would pull even early in the period on a two-yard TD run by quarterback Trenten Hagler.

The big quarter continued for the home team when Hagler and receiver Garrett Shanahan combined on an 11-yard TD pass and the Crusaders led 20-14 at the break.

“I was a little disappointed with the second quarter,” said Benbow, who added “I thought we played well at times and poor at times, but when you’re playing a team like St. Bernard’s you have to play for 48 minutes.

“We came out and played a great 10 minutes, and then things turned.”

The Crusaders began the second half in much the same fashion as they closed out the first and added to their lead on a seven-yard Tyler Hinrichs run midway through the third quarter.

At that stage they led 26-14 and the game appeared to be getting away from the visitors.

But the Fortuna players, much to their credit, refused to throw in the towel despite having given up 26 unanswered points, and they would make for an exciting finish.

Limon scored his second TD of the afternoon with just under four minutes remaining in the game, this one from three yards out, and a two-point conversion run by quarterback Will Shaw made it 26-22.

That’s when things began to get really interesting.

With momentum on their side, the Huskies defense forced a quick three-and-out by the Crusaders and they got the ball back with 2:47 on the clock.

But the SB defense would hold on down the stretch, as a pair of back-up cornerbacks rose to the challenge.

With Devlin and the team’s second starting corner, Quentin Ikeya, both sidelined because of injury, sophomore Henry Hinrichs and senior Alex Carter “made several good plays today to help us win the game,” according to their coach, including a key interception by Hinrichs.

Fortuna’s final opportunity slipped away on an incomplete pass on a fourth-and-11 with just 1:22 on the clock.

With no timeouts remaining for the visitors, the home team was able to run out the clock.

“We made a big play on the last play of the game, and we feel very fortunate to come away with the win,” Tomlin said. “We hung together.  We just stayed together and played as a team, and it’s been that way all season long.”

The end result was obviously a disappointing one for the Huskies, but Benbow was more than happy with the way his players responded late in the game.

“What I like is we challenged (our players) at halftime and they put themselves in position to win at the end,” the Fortuna coach said. “And I’m really proud of them for that.”

With the win, St. Bernard’s took over sole possession of top spot in the Big 4 standings with a record of 2-0 (6-0 overall).

The Crusaders have never won a Big 4 championship outright after joining the conference in 2018, although they did share the title with Del Norte and Fortuna two seasons ago.

With the loss, the Huskies drop into a tie for second in standings with Del Norte with a record of 1-1 (2-4 overall). 

In JV action, the Huskies won 40-0 and improved to 2-0 in conference and 4-2 overall, while the Crusaders dropped to 0-2 and 4-2.