By Ray Hamill — A first-ever Pacific League showdown on the football field will take at Husky Field on Thursday night, as reigning Big 4 co-champs Fortuna and St. Bernard’s kick off the 2026 league campaign.
The league changed names this past offseason, switching from the Big 4 to the Pacific League, and Thursday night’s game will be one of two in the newly named league this weekend.
On Friday night, a resurgent Del Norte team (2-3), which has won two straight games, welcomes the Eureka Loggers (1-4) to Crescent City.
But the big Game of the Week takes place at Husky Field as both teams look to build some early momentum in the Pacific League.
And with only three league games for each team, every one is vital in the race for the championship.
Whichever team wins on Thursday night will play for at least a co-championship in their second league game in two weeks.
As for who has the advantage, well, when these two schools face off it’s usually a dog fight with little to separate them and plenty to intrigue the fans
Head coaches Matt Tomlin of St. Bernard’s and Mike Benbow of Fortuna are two of the very best in the H-DNL and field programs that are perennial North Coast Section contenders.
And that appears to be the case once again this fall.
Both schools are 4-1 heading into the big showdown, with the Huskies now ranked No. 20 in the section, according to MaxPreps, and the Huskies 16 spots further back at No. 36.
Fortuna has won back-to-back games since suffering its only loss of the year against No. 15 Ukiah (6-0) four weeks ago, comfortably getting the better of McKinleyville (40-27) and Arcata (36-0) over the past two weekends.
The Crusaders, meanwhile, suffered their first loss of the year on Saturday against unbeaten Ferndale (5-0) in a highly entertaining matchup at St. Bernard’s.
That game was a great rivalry matchup, but Thursday’s league showdown is more important for the Crusaders, who are looking for a first-ever outright league championship in the larger schools league.
It’s also obviously a big showdown for the Huskies and their most important game of the year so far.
It should be a fun matchup between two of the top three teams in the Humboldt Sports Power Rankings and two schools that have grown accustomed to serving up thrillers when they take the field against each other.
While the annual Milk Can showdown against Ferndale remains a bigger rivalry game for the Huskies, their games against St. Bernard’s tend to bring out the best in each school and more often than not these two teams serve up classic encounters.
Interestingly, this will be the fourth time they have faced off in the past 12 months, having played three times last season.
The two schools split two regular-season league games on the way to sharing the league crown, but the Huskies made it two straight wins over the Crusaders with a huge 35-15 win in the NCS semifinals.
Gas time on Thursday night is set for 7:30 p.m.
