Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – Fortuna’s Edgar Herrera

The Huskies are headed back to the North Coast Section Division-I boys soccer championship game after a comfortable 7-0 win over Fort Bragg at Fortuna Wednesday night.

Unfortunately, the Fortuna girls didn’t fare quite so well, falling 2-1 to Middletown in their semifinal later in the evening, their first loss of the season.

The Huskies, who gave up a go-ahead goal just two minutes into the game, finish out a memorable campaign with a record of 15-1-2.

“Overall, I’m just very proud of my young ladies this year and the season that they had,” Fortuna head coach Kathleen Lynch said. “And just the way they went about doing things. They were super fun to get to work with. It was just a memorable season.”

Kallia Yang closed out a strong playoff run by scoring the Huskies’ only goal of the game.

Fortuna’s Fernando Atilano

And afterwards Lynch paid tribute to a Middletown team that came to play. 

“Kudos to the young ladies on their team,” the Fortuna coach said. “They played a really fast-paced aggressive game and got the better of us this evening.”

No. 5 Middletown will play No. 3 Arcata for the championship this weekend.

The Fortuna boys, meanwhile, will get the chance to defend their D-I title at home on Friday night at 7 p.m.

Sergio Marquez and Junior Cruz each netted twice for the Fortuna boys, who took control of the game quickly and led 4-0 at the interval.

Geovanney Ramirez and Fernando Atilano each scored spectacular goals in the win, with Omar Alvarado closing out the scoring.

Ramirez scored on a rocket of a shot from 25 yards out.

“It was a pretty solid match for us,” Fortuna head coach Danial Holmes said. “Overall I was pleased with their effort.”

###

Ray Hamill writes at humboldtsports.com, where you can read lots more about sports in Humboldt County.