Killingsworth’s four-touchdown night leads Ferndale rout at Fall River

Preston Killingsworth had a career night as the Ferndale Wildcats stretched their regular season winning streak to 16 straight on Friday.

The Cats traveled to McArthur to play Fall River and cruised to a comfortable 52-0 win, their second straight shutout and their 10th in their last 13 regular season games.

Keyed by the outstanding Killingsworth, the Cats started strong and led by three touchdowns after the opening quarter before stretching the advantage to 42 by halftime.

With no way back for the home team, the game went to a running clock in the second half, and the only question at that stage was how much Ferndale would win by.

With the victory, they improved to 3-0 on the season, while the Bulldogs dropped to 1-3.

And no one played a bigger role in the win than Killingsworth, who scored his team’s first four touchdowns of the night, two on offense and two on defense.

“Killingsworth is pretty electric right now, and if you give him a little bit of space he’s getting in the end zone,” Ferndale head coach Clint McClurg said of the outstanding junior.

But it wasn’t just Killingsworth who caused the Bulldogs problems and it was another complete team performance by the No. 1 team in the Humboldt Sports Power Rankings.

The Cats overwhelmed Fall River in all phases of the game, turning in strong performances on offense, defense and special teams.

They continued to wear down their opponents with a relentless ground attack behind a physical line, while the defense has given up just one touchdown in three games this fall and the kicking game had a big night as kicker Christian Enriquez rediscovered his touch after a tough outing against Santa Ynez a week ago, nailing all seven of his PATs as well as a late field goal to close out the scoring.

“He had a great game, and that’s kind of the expectation,” McClurg said of Enriquez. “He’s an outstanding kicker, and we use that, and he’s a hell of a corner.”

With Killingsworth, Garyn McClurg and Liam Bishop running the ball well behind another strong performance by the offensive line, the Cats opened the scoring on a 24-yard run by the former on their first possession of the night.

On the ensuing Fall River possession, Killingsworth doubled the advantage on a 54-yard pick six.

He added a third TD before the quarter was done, this one on a five-yard run, and Ferndale led 21-0 going into the second.

Killingsworth was far from done and would add a second pick six, this one good for 60 yards, early in the second quarter.

On the Cats’ next possession, Luke Dixon stretched the advantage to five TDs on a one-yard scoring run, a score that was set up on a tight end screen pass from quarterback Adrian Lopez to Dixon on a third-and-long.

Junior Cade Renner would get in on the scoring before halftime, finding the end zone on a 14-yard wide receiver screen pass from Lopez, and the visitors carried an insurmountable 42-0 lead into the break.

Lopez, according to Clint McClurg, has been “progressing week to week,” and he continued to impress on Friday night, finding Brandon Bailey on a couple of nice passes early in the third quarter. 

Cash Mobley, who is making a case to see more of the ball, scored the Cats’ seventh TD of the night on a 29-yard run, a score that was set up by a Renner interception.

This is the second straight week Mobley has made his presence felt late in the game after making some big gains in the fourth quarter against Santa Ynez last weekend.

“He had a couple of nice carries,” said Clint McClurg, who added that the junior standout is “showing good vision.”

The only concern for the Cats was the loss of two influential players — Garyn McClurg and Rigel Hahner — to injury, although the Ferndale coaches are hoping both players will be back on the field soon.

Several of their teammate picked up the slack in their absence on both sides of the ball, including Killingsworth, Dixon, Bishop, Colton Renner, Kelton Braud and George Bibby, all of whom had an impact at linebacker.

“Those dudes had a heck of a game,” Clint McClurg said. “The linebacking corps is showing some depth. It was a good defensive day.”

Bibby was playing his first game of the year after missing some time through injury, but he looked sharp on his return.

Asked what impressed him most about his team’s dominating performance, Clint McClurg responded “the Wildcat White,” referring to the Cats’ road uniforms.

“I just saw a lot of Wildcat White,” the coach said. “Wildcats White on offense, Wildcat White on defense, everyone’s going to the football and consuming the opposition. It was an outstanding team performance.”

Next up, the Cats will play at Eureka next weekend.