High school football: California small school power Ferndale has outscored opponents 450-0 through seven games

Seven weeks into the high school football season, only two teams in the nation have shut out all of their opponents, a rare feat in an era when shootouts have become the norm.



"We have true leadership at the center position in Ethan Weitzel (6-1, 235) and a team within a team that just loves being offensive linemen," McClurg said. "We run so many different concepts because our offensive line allows us to."

Joining Weitzel on the offensive line are Angel Zaragoza (6-2, 275), Ruben Peredia (5-9, 215), Jacob Kurwitz (6-1, 225) and Mason Garrett (6-3, 275). The Wildcats also have a pair of big tight ends in Luke Dixon (5-11, 215) and Tyler Broderick (6-1, 205) while McClurg's sons, Garyn (5-10, 190) and Rolland (5-10, 165), help out the blocking in the backfield.

The defense is what has made the Wildcats a team of interest this year. While shutouts were common in the 20th century all the way up until the 1970s, they are rare today. To post seven in a row is unheard of. To go a whole season without giving up a point simply never happens anymore.

But that's not to say the Wildcats will stop trying.

"To say we were expecting this many shutouts would be a lie," McClurg said. "To string along seven shutouts and give up minimal offensive yardage is pretty impressive when looking through an objective football lens. Very rare in the modern era built on offensive production. Running clock has been part of the equation for the shutouts as well as not giving opponents many opportunities to score against us."

The defense has posted 22 sacks in seven games with Langer leading the way with five. He also leads the teams in tackles for loss with 12. As a team, Ferndale has 62 TFLs on the year. The defense also has 14 interceptions, five fumble recoveries and three blocked punts to go with 38 passes defensed, two safeties, four touchdowns on interception returns, four scores on punt returns and two kickoff returns for touchdowns.

While finishing a complete season without allowing a point is unheard of today due to postseason play and longer seasons, it was a fairly common occurrence in the early part of the 20th century. Three noteworthy teams from that era include Fostoria (Ohio), Everett (Mass.) and Harrisburg Tech. (Pa.).

Fostoria went 8-0 in 1912 and outscored opponents 596-0 including Buffalo Central (N.Y.) in a national championship game by a score of 74-0. Fostoria also had a 131-0 win over Crestline and a 103-0 win over Prairie Depot Wayne.

Everett claimed the national championship in 1914 with a 13-0 record that included an 80-0 win over Oak Park (Ill.). Oak Park had claimed the national championship from 1910 to 1912. Everett outscored opponents 600-0 and has been claimed in some circles, including Sports Illustrated, to be the greatest high school football team of all-time.

If Everett wasn't the greatest high school team of all-time, Harrisburg Tech could stake its own claim. Although the school no longer exists, it won back-to-back national championships in 1918 and 1919 including a 12-0 record in the latter season while outscoring opponents 713-0.

The outstanding 2025 season is nothing new for the Wildcats. They have had one of the top small school football programs in the state dating back to the 1920s. Over the past 60 years, Ferndale has had just four coaches – Carl Carlson, Kim Jorgensen, Jeremy Griffith and McClurg. Griffith coached just one year after Jorgensen retired before turning the reins over to McClurg.

Perhaps Ferndale's most incredible season took place two years ago when it knocked off Fairfax (Los Angeles) 29-21 in the Division 7-AA CIF State Championship Bowl Game. Enrollment-wise, the matchup was completely lopsided, pitting the Wildcats, enrollment 130 students, against a Fairfax team with 1,524 students.

Yet Ferndale prevailed despite not completing a pass. The Wildcats racked up 325 yards on the ground and gave up just five rushing yards to the Lions.

There was a time when the difference in population between Ferndale and Los Angeles was only about 10,000 people. That was back in 1880 when Ferndale had about 800 residents and Los Angeles had about 11,000. Now the second-largest city in the United States, Los Angeles is home to 3.9 million people while Ferndale remains almost unchanged from over a century ago with just 1,400 people in the town.

Ferndale is an idyllic town in the northwestern part of the state. The gateway to the Lost Coast, Ferndale is the westernmost high school in California. Plucked right out of the 19th century, Ferndale has multiple Victorian-style homes, including the Shaw House. Located in the center of town, the Shaw House was the first home to town founders Seth and Stephen Shaw. The home does not look a whole lot different today than when it was built during the Civil War.

The city has a strong sporting history as home to a number of famous athletes including Oregon football coaching legend Len Casanova, New York Giants pitcher Joe Oeschger, who once pitched a Major League record 26 innings in one game (fun fact: only one ball was used in the game and it only took three hours and 50 minutes) and former Denver Broncos linebacker Rob Nairne.

Ferndale has its fair share of celebrities as well, including host of Drive-Ins, Diners and Dives Guy Fieri, Spanky and Our Gang lead singer Elaine "Spanky" McFarlane (Sunday Will Never Be the Same) and Andy Griffith show character actor Frank Ferguson.

The town has also been the setting for a number of movies, including made-for-TV movies Death in Canaan (Brian Dennehy, Stephanie Powers) and Salem's Lot (David Soul, James Mason) along with major motion pictures Outbreak (Dustin Hoffman, Morgan Freeman), The Majestic (Jim Carrey, Martin Landau) and Joe Dirt (David Spade, Dennis Miller).

But Ferndale also considers itself a football town. The Wildcats have won 14 North Coast Section championships since the playoffs started in 1975 including five under Carlson, eight under Jorgensen and one with McClurg. The Wildcats reached the section championship game last year before falling to Moreau Catholic.

The program appears primed to make another run at a state championship. With three games left to play in the regular season, Ferndale has already defeated its three future opponents (the Humboldt-Del Norte Little Four plays a double round-robin schedule) by an average score of 75-0.

In the playoffs, Ferndale could face undefeated St. Vincent de Paul (Petaluma), St. Bernard's (Eureka) and St. Helena. Last year, Ferndale defeated Vallejo 35-20 and Piedmont 43-7 in the first two rounds of the NCS playoffs before falling to Moreau Catholic (Hayward) 21-19.

"We had an outstanding season last year," McClurg said. "With the type of commitment this team has, we knew we would be better through the off season and continue to improve throughout this season."

Born in Santa Barbara, McClurg graduated from Eureka and sandwiched stints at College of the Redwoods and Humboldt State around a tour of duty in the armed forces. He was a record-setting All-American defensive back with the Lumberjacks, got into coaching football after graduation and married a fellow Eureka Logger,  Alisa Cormier, whose great grandfather Clark Bugbee was a member of the Ferndale 1923 league championship team.

After 10 seasons at Burney where he and Alisa began raising their three children, Rolland, Garyn and sister Soryah, McClurg got the itch to head back home.to Humboldt County to be closer to family. So he applied at Ferndale where Jack Lakin, the former Humboldt-Del Norte commissioner, was in his final year as superintendent.

"Jack was my football coach in high school and he recommended back then that I get into teaching and coaching," McClurg said. "He knew how important football was to me, and he knew how important it was to the community of Ferndale."

McClurg joined the Ferndale staff in 2017 and became head coach in 2018, replacing Griffith, the current Ferndale principal. Griffith spent one year as head coach replacing Jorgensen in 2017. Jorgensen, a former quarterback for the Wildcats, had replaced Carlson when he passed away in 1991. Jorgensen is the all-time winningest coach at Ferndale with a 248-62 record.

The job at Ferndale has been a rewarding one for McClurg, who can't imagine coaching anywhere else.