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As the Fortuna Huskies might tell you, it’s not how you start the season but rather how you finish it that matters.

On Saturday night, the Huskies kept their conference championship hopes alive with a 26-18 win over St. Bernard’s at Husky Field, denying the Crusaders a first-ever Big 4 title outright and setting up a big final weekend for both schools.

Also in action on Saturday night, the Del Norte Warriors kept their playoff hopes alive with a shutout victory over Eureka in a low-scoring game at the Redwood Bowl.

But the big story of the night was at Husky Field, with Fortuna winning a game it had to win and avenging a four-point loss at St. Bernard’s three weeks ago.

With their victory, the Huskies improved to 4-1 in the Big 4 and 5-4 on the season, while the Crusaders suffered their first loss of the year and dropped to 4-1 and 8-1.

If both schools should win their final regular-season games next week, or if both should lose — Fortuna hosts Eureka and St. Bernard’s hosts Del Norte — then they would share the title.

It’s been an impressive turnaround for the Huskies, who moved above .500 for the first time all season.

After opening the year with three straight loses, the Huskies have now won five of their last six games.

Saturday night’s game, however, was marred by a lot of penalties and turnovers by both teams.

Tyler Hinrichs opened the scoring for the visitors midway through the first quarter when he nailed a 37-yard field goal.

The Huskies threatened on a couple of occasions in the opening quarter but turned the ball over on downs twice in the red zone.

However, the impressive Fortuna running back tandem of Mako Limon and Kavi Bolden would dominate the scoring the remainder of the night, combining for three touchdowns as the home team gradually pulled away.

Limon opened the Huskies’ account with a two-yard TD run in the second quarter and Fortuna led 6-3 at the interval.

Fortuna quarterback Will Shaw added to his team’s tally early in the third quarter on an 11-yard TD run, but a second missed two-point attempt left them ahead by just nine points (12-3).

Despite a disappointing first half, the Crusaders began to settle into the game and scored their first TD of the night just 16 seconds later when quarterback Trenten Hagler threw a short pass to Kuron Devlin, who took it 57 yards to the end zone.

That pulled them within two, but the Huskies were just getting warmed up.

Bolden would add touchdown runs of 39 and 49 yards to stretch the advantage to 16 (26-10), and after that there was no way back for the visitors, although they continued to battle.

Hagler, who threw four interceptions, would add a second TD pass with just 11 seconds remaining in the game, this one to Hinrichs for 11 yards.

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An exciting finish to the night saw the Crusaders recover the ensuing onside kick to give themselves a shot and they quickly drove to the Fortuna 32-yard line before an interception in the end zone ended the game.

At the Redwood Bowl, meanwhile, the Warriors scored their only touchdown of the night on their opening possession and held on for a 7-0 win.

With the win, they improved to 2-3 in the Big 4 and 5-4 overall and officially became playoff eligible, although it remains to be seen if they will be included.

The loss was the eighth straight for the Loggers, who dropped to 0-5 in the Big 4 and 1-8 overall.

Tobias Meyers took full advantage of some strong blocking by the Del Norte offensive line to score on a 19-yard TD run less than four minutes into the game.

Del Norte kicker Adrian Alvarado added the PAT and the Warriors led 7-0.

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And that would prove to be enough thanks to a Del Norte defense that posted its first shutout of the season.

Early miscues once again proved costly for the Loggers.

They fumbled the ball six times in the opening half, losing possession on three of those.

The Warriors weren’t much better, fumbling twice in the opening quarter.

The Loggers threatened late and drove into Del Norte territory late in the fourth quarter, but were unable to punch it it and suffered their second straight shutout loss and third on the year.