Huskies open strong, wear down the Saints in season opener

By Ray Hamill — The experience in the trenches proved decisive for the Fortuna Huskies on Friday night.

Fortuna opened the 2026 football season against St. Helena at Husky Field and cruised to a comfortable 41-6 victory.

Two touchdowns within nine seconds late in the first quarter put the hosts up 20-0, and after that there was no way back for the Saints, as the Fortuna offensive and defensive lines wore them down.

Head coach Mike Benbow has all five of last year’s offensive line starters back this year, and that proved to be the difference in a game that many observers expected to be closer than this.

“You know what, we started exactly how we wanted,” Benbow said. “I think our offensive and defensive lines were spectacular tonight. They played really well, and we played like an experience group, so that was good.”

A relentless Fortuna ground attack paved the way to victory as the visitors had no answer for the home teams’ dominance in the trenches.

But it wasn’t just the line.

Senior quarterback Will Shaw enjoyed a big night and was involved in three of his team’s four first-half touchdowns, rushing for one, passing for one and adding a scoop and score on defense.

“The experience of being a second-year guy, you can’t put a price on that,” Benbow said of Shaw. “He’s our leader. He’s been our leader all summer long. On both sides of the ball he’s coming into his own.”

The Saints would score their only TD of the night late in the opening half to give them a boost going into the break, but a long, time-consuming, run-heavy Fortuna drive to open the second half ended the game as a contest even if it didn’t result in a score.

This year the Huskies have had to replace two outstanding running backs after the graduation of Kavi Bolden and Mako Limon, each of whom have taken their talents to College of the Redwoods, but early indications suggest they will be just fine.

Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – Fortuna quarterback Will Shaw was involved in three of his team’s four first-half TDs on Friday.

A three-headed rush attack that featured Shaw, Easton Essig and Tiki Bolden ran the ball well behind against the Saints, a playoff team from last year.

Bolden opened the scoring for the hosts on their first possession of the night, scoring on a 46-yard run.

The Fortuna defense was equally impressive and never really allowed the visitors to settle into the game, and two more TDs before the end of the first quarter gave the Huskies a commanding lead.

Both of those scores came within nine seconds of each other.

After driving deep into St. Helena territory, the Huskies found the end zone a second time on a short Shaw run.

Moments later, after recovering an onside kick, the Huskies struck again, this time on a TD pass from Shaw to a wide-open Joe Hawthorne, who ran into the end zone untouched to put his team up by three TDs.

Shaw would add to the lead midway through the third quarter when he recovered a fumble at the Saints’ 24-yard line and found his way to the end zone.

That put the Huskies up 27-0.

The Saints, however, would respond late in the opening half, when junior Daniel Gonzalez ran in for a seven-yard TD, a score that was set up by a 45-yard Julian Earls run just moments earlier.

But that was as close as the visitors would get and the Huskies would add to their tally with two more touchdowns in the second half.

The first was scored by Essig on a two-yard run with 7:24 remaining in the game and the second by junior Cayden Free, who broke free for a 71-yard score, his first for the Huskies.

The Huskies got the ball to start the second half and pieced together a 13-play drive that ate up more than eight minutes, and even though the drive stalled deep in St. Helena territory that possession ended any lingering hopes of a comeback for the visitors.

The Fortuna defense also enjoyed an outstanding night, holding last year’s North Coast Section semifinalists to just one score all game.