Eel river sports and recreation report

11/27/2025

A total of 76 runners ! Willits high school wrestling team first annual turkey trot was a success!

A big thank you to the city of Willits employee Amber Ojeda and willits unified school district employee melissa ragsdale for their hard work during process.

A big thank you to Taqueria Ramirez , Karkar deli , the skunk train , glenns air bnb , and flourish and flow for sponsorship.

The run was fun for everyone With many looking for personal bests in time. Cole lane now holds the record for fastest turkey run at 13:14 seconds for the 2.2 mile course.

11/27/2025

Turkey trot starts in 30 minutes ! Who is the fastest in willits today? First place gets a free ride on skunk train

11/18/2025

All little kids get medals at the race ! They will run a short course at race headquarters

Who is ready !

11/17/2025

Willits wolverines dominate redwood Christian start to finish. The wolverines move on to piedmont high schoolnext Friday night in piedmont.
Home field advantage and great food the night before fueled the Willits wolverines performance. Thank you to the loose caboose for providing a wonderful team dinner Thursday night.

Everyone was watching the teams warm up before the game and you could not help but notice redwood Christian slipping all over the field . Along with dropped passes and empty throws by quarterback due to slippery ball they had some adjusting to do. Word was redwood Christian had not played on real grass for some time and practiced on turf. That played a role from the very start.

One detail that stood out to many was willits faster start and early game defining intensity that set the tone. Willits has started slow a fee times but finished strong all year with big second halfs. A strong start to game followed by strong finish due to strong conditioning program by legendary coach cavender is tough to beat.

Corey Rockey continues to be on fire with great throws completing high percentage of passes to all targets. Late in the game Corey hit Ryan Carter and porter garman on beautiful deep throws on drives that iced the game.

The Willits defense was dominate start to finish , controlling the line of scrimmage and defensive backfield. The fort Bragg line was tough the previous week and had willits prepared. The Willits d line front had everything plugged up all game for Rickey Ramirez and porter garman to make easy tackles. The Willits defensive backs feasted for 3 interceptions and several batted down balls from hurried qb throws.

On the running game, Willits found its success directly up the middle on several occasions including a huge fourth down conversion on a wedge formation with Corey Rockey going for about 40 yards to make it a 1st and goal.

Willits has yet to play its best game and could be peaking at the right time.

Piedmont relies on a running game led by #13 and opportunistic passing from scouting report and statistic review. This will be a test for Willits and a huge opportunity to prove they belong in the championship game

11/10/2025

Willits wolverines find a way and earn a playoff spot after a hard fought win against fort Bragg.
This group had seen victories and losses against fort Bragg group with the last loss being in 6th grade. In the first official “skunk bowl” sponsored by the Skunk train locally the performance did not disappoint.

Fort bragg brought the fog in one the foggiest games i can recall.

The Cody Lowe coached fort Bragg team brought a great defense and time chewing offense along with strategic field position play.

The game started in extremely thick fog that likely played a roll in willits high flying passing game. The addition of grease like field conditions turned it into a power football game.

Fort Bragg started first possession of game and ended up around the Willits 40 yard line. Fort Bragg opted for a field position game but punting on 4th down pinning Willits close to goal line.

After a few uneventful series with short yardage fort Bragg found the end zone and held the lead until halftime even with a great drive led by Corey Rockey that had Willits within scoring position near end zone but a penalty set them back after getting inside the 5 and then clock running out prevented the score.

The Willits wolverines took possession of ball in 3rd quarter and marched down the field scoring a touchdown and two points for conversion.

It remained a back and forth battle with time chewing away with it seeming like whoever had the ball last would win. The big clean hits were delivered by both defenses throughout the game.

In two giant defensive plays an end zone strike was batted down by Perez that was likely a touch down. The next game deciding defensive moment was a trick play attempt where pz Bertolino did not bite on the running back with ball who threw it with pz running stride for stride batting down the ball that was another likely touchdown.

With fort Bragg playing it mostly strategic and methodical most of the game fort bragg became the gambler going for it on 4/10 when fort Bragg had the ball on its own 8. Fort Bragg went for it with Willits stopping them and taking possession in prime location. Willits marched right into the end zone to take a commanding lead.

The surge in second half was powered by slam dunk pizza from Thursday night.

At that point Willits kicked it deep into the fort Bragg territory where they moved the ball for a couple of minutes before willits finally stopped them and kneeled to end the game.

A thank you to the skunk train for creating the trophy we all hope stays in willits for a long time.

11/03/2025

Willits wolverines come up a little short in st Helena.
It was an absolute battle from start to finish for both jv and varsity.
Jv had a very close game that ended up 14/12. Coach roundtree said the jvs played like a team and he was very happy with performance. Coach Reece was also very optimistic.

The varsity game had a lot on the line for each team. A league championship, and a high seed for playoffs was enough to have both stands full.

St Helena interior line on both sides was formidable but Willits was up for the challenge. Willits moved the ball well all game on the ground and it was where they saw the most success throughout game.

Corey Rocky had some beautiful throws for touchdowns to Ricky Britton in the end zone out of backfield.

Ricky Ramirez continues to tackle people all over the field.

St Helena had the lead all game but Willits never took their foot off gas pedal chasing all the way to the end. The Willits wolverines found themselves on the st Helena 10 yard line late in the 4th quarter and on their way to tying the game but #66 from st Helena made a big 4th down stop and st Helena took over and scored again.

The deciding factor for the game was the clean, mistake free play at key points by st Helena. Willits has a must win game against fort Bragg to get into the playoffs next Friday high school.

This Willits team has an incredible opportunity to get into playoffs and play that perfect game we know they are capable of and beating everyone in the process

10/26/2025

Willits high school football dominates

Willits high school varsity was in cruise control
All game against the Cloverdale eagles.
A heavy dose of Garman and Ramirez on rushing attempts was delivered.

Corey Rockey had a great night spreading the ball to various receivers Like Raymond and Perez with high accuracy. Corey had 5 seconds of pocket time to choose his receiver and ran for yardage when he needed to.

4th and Wolverine did not disappoint as willits did not punt once all game.

The willits defense saw a spread approach from Cloverdale which resulted in 3 down lineman from willits. Pz Bertolino, Grady Cooley , Donny Alexander and Ryan Carter had several defended passes. The defensive Effort resulted in a shutout by the Willits wolverines, the second this season.

Carl did an excellent job announcing as usual.

This win sets Willits up for a showdown with the St Helena saints. St Helena is undefeated and boasts a strong running game. They also feature the top defensive lineman in the league which the Willits wolverines are eager to challenge in the trenches.
A win against st Helena puts them in control to be league champions.

Coach Moratti and Norberry were all Smiles after the game. Coach Moratti said he was studying film for next Friday night and would have the kids prepared.

Willits wolverines jv lose a tough game against Cloverdale jv 22-8.

As always if coaches and parents have more info on any sport please let me know and a story can be posted.

10/24/2025

The big game for high school soccer for willits/ fort bragg happened yesterday. It does not matter what a teams record is when it comes to willits and fort bragg competitive rivarly. A big game win is remembered the same as a league champion sometimes.

In a 2 to 1 win against fort bragg senior Kate made 1st goal, freshman Alissa made 2nd goal and whole team played like champions and had their senior night.

Congrats to both teams on a great season.

10/24/2025

Who is ready !