By Mark Lourenzo
Beacon Correspondent
The coveted Milk Can Trophy will be up for grabs once more as this Saturday the Ferndale Wildcats play host to the Fortuna Huskies. Ferndale has retained possession of the can for six years running in this storied rivalry. This year the stakes may be just a little greater as both teams come in undefeated after four weeks of prep football. Let the hype begin!
Last Friday night the Fortuna Huskies held up their end of the bargain with an impressive win over the Brookings Bruins, 35-0. Despite being favored on paper and having less than a perfect game, the Huskies none-the-less ran over the Bruins and showed they can score points in a variety of ways.
Brad Cobb has been outstanding this year for the Huskies and sure enough he opened the scoring in the contest with his 63 yard punt return in the first quarter. Huskies score on a big play! A Landon Stone pass to Zac Branson accounted for a two point conversion and Fortuna led early 8-0. A 14 play, 63 yard drive capped off with a Jose Aguilar one yard plunge brought Fortuna a second quarter touchdown. Huskies score on a sustained drive!
Prior to halftime, a Brookings fumble gifted Fortuna
The Huskies improved to 3-0 on the season and have won games by blowout and have also had to dig deep to come out on top in hard earned victories so far this season. All this leads to that much more the anticipation of this Saturday's Milk Can battle.
On the other side of the river stands the imposing Ferndale Wildcats. The little school that repeatedly takes down it's bigger opponents. Last Saturday night it was business as usual for the Wildcats down in Miranda. Ferndale slowly drew ahead in a hard fought battle with the South Fork Cubs and in the end made it look like another mismatch on the scoreboard winning 33-0.
It was however not as lopsided as the score indicated. The Cubs fought hard and made a good contest of it. South Fork limited the Ferndale ground game as well as any team could, but four turnovers would be the Cubs undoing.
Three fumbles lost by South Fork and an interception led to advantageous field position and points on the scoreboard for the Wildcats. Despite the South Fork defensive plan keying on Ferndale's Jourdain DelBiaggio, the Cats still found a way to outgain the Cubs on offense 306 to 70 yards from scrimmage.
Ferndale's quarterback Kevin McKay had a solid night throwing the ball and went 11 for 17, gaining 122 yards and throwing two touchdown strikes. Kyle Matyshock put up three rushing touchdowns and added a catch for another trip to the endzone. Jesse Slade had a touchdown catch of 21 yards in the 3rd quarter. Oh, by the way, the defense was pretty solid too, as the Cats shutout another opponent on the scoreboard.
In recent years, the Milk Can battle was waged on the 2nd week of the season. Before anyone could settle in to the season, the big game was upon us. Not this year, as the schedule saw fit to move the battle for Eel River bragging rights to the 5th week of the season. All the better as the 4-0 Wildcats now defend the can against the 3-0 Huskies. There have been two close games in the past three meetings, last year the Cats overcame a fast start by the Huskies and came out on top 15-7.
Two years ago Ferndale easily won over a rather young Fortuna squad by the score of 33-14. Who could forget the defensive classic of three years prior when the Cats held on for a 7-2 win over the Huskies. All that recent history has led to the same result as the Wildcats continue their hold on the Milk Can. Lending to this years interest will be that also the two schools junior varsity programs are coming in undefeated.
Ferndale won down in South Fork, 41-6 and Fortuna won up in Brookings by the same impressive score. Coaches will try to downplay the importance of this weekends matchup as to minimize the butterflies and emotions in the players prior to gametime. Of particular interest will be the emotions of the players who are former Huskies that have found their way to the Ferndale side of the river this season.
Players like Cale Lourenzo, a former Fortuna Husky and a late add to the Ferndale junior varsity roster. Lourenzo had an interception and a fumble recovery down in South Fork in the Cats big win. On the varsity for the Wildcats are two emerging stars and former Fortuna Husky football players, juniors Chance Ambrosini and Ryan Robertson, still getting used to wearing the red and white.
After the Cats win Saturday night in South Fork, Robertson and Ambrosini as well as everyone else who follows high school football started thinking about this weekends big game. "It's going to be weird but I'm looking forward to it, it's a great challenge to be playing against my friends and former teammates", commented Ambrosini in looking ahead. Football fans on the north coast are not going to want to miss this one!
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