By Ray Hamill — The McKinleyville Panthers will try to keep their best start to a season in 11 years going when they play a familiar rival this weekend.
The Panthers are 2-0 after nice wins at home against Cloverdale (8-7) and at For Bragg (32-8) and they will be back on the North Coast this week as they try to go to 3-0 for the first time in at least 22 years since MaxPreps began keeping records in 2004.
On Saturday night they will match up against Arcata (0-1) at McKinleyville High in what will officially be a road game.
After an opening-week bye, the Tigers kicked off their season at home against Ukiah over the weekend, but were shut out 41-0.
Game time is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
Saturday night’s showdown is one of seven involving local high school teams this week, five of which will take place in Humboldt County.
On Friday afternoon Ferndale will host Santa Ynez at 2 p.m.
The Wildcats are 1-0 after an opening-weekend win at Anderson and a bye this past weekend, while the Pirates have played three games already and are 1-2, including a 31-14 loss at Nipoma this past weekend.
On Friday night, the Fortuna Huskies will try to keep their fast start to the new season going when they host Ukiah.
The Huskies are 2-0 after a big opening week win over St. Helena and a hard-fought 27-20 victory at University Prep this past weekend.
Ukiah will be another tough opponent for the Huskies and the Wildcats are coming off back-to-back lopsided wins to open the season, in which they have outscored their opponents (Orland and Arcata) 91-14.
Game time it set for 7 p.m.
Also here on the North Coast on Friday, the Eureka Loggers will try to put two lopsided losses behind them when they host Marshfield out of Coos Bay.
The 0-2 Loggers have been outscored 83-6 in losses to Windsor and Shasta, while the Pirates are 1-0 after a 36-7 win over Philomath in their season opener over the weekend.
Game time is set for 7:30 p.m.
Two other local teams will be in action earlier on Friday evening.
The Del Norte Warriors, who are 0-2, will try to get their first win at West Valley, which is 1-1.
This past weekend Del Norte dropped its home opener against Ashland, falling 33-14, while the Eagles were shut out 20-0 at East Nicolas.
Friday’s game, which starts at 6 p.m., will be the home opener for West Valley.
The South Fork Cubs will also kick off at 6 p.m. at Hayfork.
The Cubs are 1-0 after a dominating opener in eight-player football at home against California School for the Deaf, a game they won 54-0.
Hayfork is 2-0 after a 54-8 win over Butte Valley over the weekend and the Timberjacks remarkably have not lost a game since October 2022 and are 39-0 since then, including three unbeaten seasons.
A busy weekend for the local teams continues on Saturday.
Fresh off a thrilling 21-20 win over St. Vincent de Paul in their season opener, the 1-0 St. Bernard’s Crusaders will host 2-0 Heritage in the afternoon, with kickoff set for 2.
The Patriots won 33-13 at Castro Valley over the weekend.
Hoopa (1-1), meanwhile, has a bye this week.
