Warriors and Wildcats ready to rumble

Meet on Sat. in Ferndale

Senior fullback Austin Moore runs down the field as his teammates block for him against Hidden Valley, Ore., last Friday at home. On Saturday Del Norte travels down to Ferndale to face the Wildcats at 2 p.m. The Daily Triplicate/Bryant Anderson

After all, this week’s opponent ––  Ferndale of the Little 4 Conference –– may not seem that intimidating at first when only 17 players will take the field Saturday.

In comparison, Del Norte will suit up 34 players when it travels down to the Wildcats’ home field.

But size has never stopped the Wildcats, who have been a football power for years despite being a school of less than 200 students. They defeated Del Norte the last two years, 47-6 in 2009 in Crescent City and 20-13 last season in Ferndale.

Rook said Ferndale is an extremely well coached, disciplined squad that never beats itself and makes the opponent work for everything it gets.

“They do a great job of forcing teams to make mistakes and capitalize on that,” Rook said. “They fight on every play. We know that we have got to execute and be disciplined.”

In the first game of the season Saturday against a small school from Oakland, McClymonds, which went 12-0 last season, the Wildcats trailed 8-6 at the half.

But Ferndale came back on its home field for a 25-8 win.

The season had a very promising start for Del Norte last Friday at home, as the squad won 60-7 over Hidden Valley, Ore.

Senior running back Collin Taylor had five touchdowns and 250 rushing yards, and the Warriors connected on three touchdowns through the air, including one scoring pass to Taylor.

While a great start to the season, Rook said his team knows it must play an excellent game to earn a victory against Ferndale.

Rook said that Del Norte must keep penalties to a minimum and not turn the ball over and play to its strengths.

On offense, that means pounding the ball and using its excellent runners and talented offensive line to hopefully get points on the board.

On defense, Rook said the team must preassure the Wildcats and not let them get their running game, a Ferndale strength, off and running.

This week, the  Warriors squad took Monday off for Labor Day and started practice again on Tuesday.

With classes starting Tuesday, Rook said it has been an adjustment for his team to begin balancing school and football again, but the kids seem focused and ready to play.

It helps to have the game scheduled for Saturday so they still have four days to practice instead of three, Rook said.

“We want to play our game, go out and fight for four quarters,” Rook said.

The game begins at 2 p.m, with the junior varsity game at 11:30 a.m.

Next Friday, Del Norte will host Brookings-Harbor at 7:30 p.m. at Mike Whalen Field in Crescent City.