By Ray Hamill — One loss does not define a season, but how a team reacts to that loss often can.
On Friday night the Ferndale Wildcats suffered their first regular-season loss in two years, when they traveled to McKinleyville and fell 32-29 on a late field goal.
With the loss, Ferndale dropped to 7-1 on the season and 1-1 in the Redwood League, making it difficult to repeat as league champions.
However, head coach Clint McClurg and his players still have plenty to play for this season.
Unlikely and all as it might be, they can still share the league title with both Arcata and McKinleyville, providing they beat Hoopa in their final regular season game in two weeks and Arcata can top McKinleyville.
Where Friday’s loss may affect the Cats, however, is in the North Coast Section rankings.
The Cats came into the weekend as the No. 18 team in the NCS and No. 1 in Division 7.
That means they were on track to receive the top seed for the Division-5 playoff bracket — a team can move up two divisions but no more based on MaxPreps rankings — followed by St. Vincent de Paul (4-3) and St. Bernard’s (5-2), the latter of which Ferndale beat three weeks ago.
The Mustangs are scheduled to play the No. 2 team in the entire section, Cardinal Newman, on Saturday afternoon, while St. Bernard’s will host Del Norte.
But it’s unlikely that Friday’s loss will have that drastic an affect on the rankings — although as Ferndale head coach Clint McClurg said “you just don’t know how it’s going to play out” — and the Cats are still in line for a high seed in the upcoming NCS Division-5 playoff bracket.
The bigger question for Ferndale fans right now is how will the players respond, although judging by the character this program has shown in recent years it should be no more than a minor setback.
Bouncing back immediately, however, won’t be easy.
The problem facing the Cats is that next week’s game could be their most challenging of the campaign, as they get set to face neighbor Fortuna in their annual rivalry Milk Can showdown, a matchup both schools always circle on their calendars.
Asked whether Friday’s loss might give his players extra motivation next week, McClurg didn’t think it was necessary.
“You don’t need anything extra for this one” he said. “It’s just a classic football game over a can.”
Ironically, the loss may have made the Cats a more dangerous proposition moving forward.
McKinleyville head coach Jason Benge and his staff, who have done an outstanding job since taking over the program before last season, put together a game plan that worked, even if it took a while to get going and was helped by five Ferndale turnovers, a stat that will lose games more often than not.
They loaded the box in an attempt to take away the much-heralded Ferndale ground and pound attack and challenged the Cats to beat them through the air.
And while it was a strategy that ultimately worked for the Panthers — barely — it was a situation that helped the Wildcats grow as a team.
According to McClurg, McKinleyville “did a hell of a job slowing our run game down, and we were able to execute our passing game. For us to utilize our aerial attack to put up scores was definitely a way our team improved.”
Two of the Wildcats’ four touchdowns came through the air.
The always-dangerous Garyn McClurg and Preston Killingsworth both ran in for TDs in the opening half and the Cats led 15-0 at the break.
They added two passing TDs in the second half, both to right end Luke Dixon, one on a Wildcat formation on a pass from Garyn McClurg, and one on a tight end screen on a pass from QB Adrian Lopez.
They led for much of the game and seemed to have an answer every time the Panthers scored, at least through the opening three quarters.
There was other good news for the Cats as well, with the return from injury of playmaker Liam Bishop, who has been sidelined since the St. Bernard’s game.
Having Bishop, one of the best players in the Redwood League, back for the stretch run is a huge boost for the team and he had an immediate impact on his return, coming up with an interception that led to one of his team’s second-half scores.
The night, however, belonged to the Panthers, who are building something special and enjoying a breakout campaign.
“At the end of the day, we faced a well-prepared McKinleyville team that’s on the rise,” Clint McClurg said.
