By Ray Hamill — The Ferndale Wildcats continued their impressive start to the season with a shutout victory over Santa Ynez on Friday, while the Eureka Loggers got their first win of the campaign in thrilling fashion
Apart from that, however, it was a largely disappointing day for the local teams.
The Cats improved to 2-0 with a 27-0 victory, scoring on all four of their third-quarter possessions to take control of a tight game.
The shutout was their ninth in their last 12 regular season games.
Eureka, meanwhile, won an overtime battle with Marshfield at the Redwood Bowl.
The Loggers, who ended an 11-game losing streak dating back to the season opener of 2025, won the game 33-27.
Marshfield led by eight in the dying seconds of regulation but opted to run the ball instead of taking a knee and ended up fumbling away possession.
The Loggers returned the ball to the five and Tyler Johnston would score a touchdown with 4.3 seconds remaining, before they added a two-point conversion to force the extra period.
Bryson Burns scored the game-winning TD in overtime.
More to come on the Loggers’ big night …
The South Fork Cubs were also in action, traveling to play a Hayfork team that had won 39 consecutive games in eight-player football.
And the Timberjacks would hold on late to stretch that incredible run to 40 with a 24-22 win.
The Timberjacks started fast, scoring 18 points in the first quarter and carrying a 24-8 lead into halftime.
The visiting Cubs, however, would battle back after the break, scoring 14 unanswered points in the second half to pull within two late in the game.
But that was as close as the visitors would come and a Hayfork team that has not lost a game since October of 2022 held on for its third victory of the season.
The loss was the first for the Cubs, who dropped to 1-1.
At Fortuna, the Huskies hosted an unbeaten Ukiah team that continued to roll with a 27-13 win.
The Wildcats enjoyed the better of the first-half exchanges, scoring the first of their four touchdowns late in the first quarter, before doubling their lead early in the second and carrying a 14-0 advantage into the break.
The Huskies, who were 2-0 coming into the night, found themselves trailing 21-0 barely a minute into the third quarter.
But they would continue to battle and narrowed the deficit to 15 when the impressive Easton Essig scored on a short TD run later in the quarter.
That, however would prove to nothing more than a minor setback for the Wildcats, who added to their tally before the third quarter was out and led 27-6 going into the fourth.
Essig would add his second score of the night late in the game when he broke free for a 99-yard touchdown run.
With the loss, Fortuna dropped to 2-1, while the Division-2 Wildcats improved to 3-0.
The Del Norte Warriors also lost on Friday night, dropping to 0-3 for the first time since 2010.
The Warriors traveled to Cottonwood to play West Valley and fell 14-8 despite out-gaining the home team in total yards.
Max Borges scored a late touchdown for the Warriors, who added a two-point conversion to pull within six and make for an interesting finish.
Del Norte would then apparently recover an onside kick, but the Eagles had called a timeout just before the play and would make no mistake the second tine around.
After that they held on for the win and improved to 2-1.
The weekend action continues on Saturday with three more local teams in action.
The St. Bernard’s Crusaders will try to go to 2-0 when they host Division-1 Heritage at 2 p.m., before Arcata (0-1) and McKinleyville (2-0) face off at Mack High at 7:30 p.m.
College of the Redwoods will also play at Sacramento City College on Saturday at 1 p.m.
