BOYS POWER RANKINGS — Crusaders stretch winning streak, hold steady at No. 1

By barstoolfanatics on January 17, 2026 • ( Leave a comment )

Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com

By Ray Hamill — The St. Bernard’s Crusaders continued to roll this week, with a win over South Fork in the Little 4 on Thursday night and a 71-52 non-conference victory over Del Norte on Saturday.

With the two wins, the Crusaders improved to 16-1 on the season and they have not suffered defeat since early December, a run that includes 14 straight games.

Because of that, they remain atop the Humboldt Sports Power Rankings for the third straight week, and they are also the highest-ranked H-DNL boys team in the North Coast Section, coming in at No. 19 this week out of 160 schools.

However, they did drop one spot in the NCS Division-5 rankings, falling out of the top spot to No. 2.

They also dropped two spots in the California Division-5 rankings, falling from No. 1 to No. 3.

The next highest-ranked HDN team in the section are the McKinleyville Panthers, who are building momentum as the season progresses.

This week the Mack boys defeated both Fortuna and Arcata in Big 5 action, improving to 4-0 in conference play and taking control of the race for this year’s championship.

The Big 5 frontrunners, who lost twice earlier in the season to St. Bernard’s, hold steady at No. 2 in the Humboldt Sports Power Rankings and are now No. 10 in NCS Division 4.

We have a tie for No. 3 in this week’s Power Rankings, with Eureka moving up one spot and Del Norte holding steady.

The Loggers rallied to beat the Warriors by two points this week, but the latter has gotten the better of their conference rivals twice earlier in the winter, and there seems to be little to separate the two schools right now.

Despite the loss this week, however, the Del Norte boys are ranked 15 spots ahead of Eureka in the NCS, coming in at No. 57, followed by the Loggers at No. 72.

Rounding out this week’s Power Rankings are the No. 5 Arcata Tigers.

The Arcata boys have struggled recently and have dropped nine of their last 11 games, including a 15-point loss at McKinleyville on Thursday night.

They need to win at least three of their final five Big 5 games in order to be playoff eligible, so there is a sense of urgency.

But they do remain well in the chase for a Dick Niclai tournament berth and are tied with Del Norte for third in the conference standings with identical records of 1-2.

Arcata is No. 89 in the NCS, followed by No. 102 Hoopa, No. 121 Fortuna, No. 123 South Fork and No. 131 Ferndale.

Three local teams are ranked in the top-10 in their NCS divisions.

In addition to No. 2 St. Bernard’s (Division 5), Ferndale is No. 9 in Division 6 and McKinleyville is No 10 in Division 4.

Del Norte is just outside the top 10 at No. 11 in Division 3.