Thomas Allie/HSU Athletics – HSU head coach Fred Junegmann and his players will play a pair of home games to open the season this weekend.

The Panthers will host the 20th annual McKinleyville Invitational Soccer Tournament this weekend, with five local boys teams involved.

The Mack tournament will feature teams from Arcata, Fortuna, Eureka, St. Bernard’s and the host school, with Cloverdale also tentatively scheduled to travel.

The tournament gets under way on Friday afternoon, with four games scheduled, all of them at Mack High.

HSU men to open at home

The Humboldt State men’s soccer team kicks off the regular season at home to Holy Names on Thursday at 3 p.m.

“It’s a great feeling to open the season at home,” said head coach Fred Jungemann. “It’s been a while since we’ve been able to do that and the guys are very excited to start the season off in front of their home fans. We’re hoping to get the season going with a strong start.”

HSU holds a 3-0-0 record all-time against Holy Names, defeating the Hawks 2-1 last season in their only meeting of the year.

“The guys are very excited and we’ve had a great preseason,” said Jungemann. “Everyone has been working hard and the excitement is starting to build towards Thursday. We don’t know a whole lot about Holy Names, they have some new players so we won’t really know what to expect but what they can expect from us is that the guys will be ready to go.”

HSU will be hosting three schools for a total of four games over the course of two days. Stanislaus State and Dominican University take the field on Thursday at 12:30 p.m. prior to the Green and Gold season opener. Stanislaus will also face Holy Names on Saturday at 11:30 a.m., with the Jacks wrapping up the weekend against Dominican on Saturday at 2 p.m.

Corsairs tie Mendo

The College of the Redwoods men’s soccer team opened the season on the road at Mendocino College in Ukiah on Tuesday, coming away with a 2-2 tie.

Alex Turner was involved in both goals for the Corsairs, netting the first off an assist from Sergio Arreola.

The second goal was an OG by the Eagles, coming from Turner’s pressure.

Mack girls open in style

The McKinleyville girls got the local prep soccer season off to a wining start over the weekend, coming away with a pair of victories at the Fort Bragg Tournament.

And the goals were flowing for the Panthers, who defeated the host school 7-2 and Willits 4-0.

Dakota Andersonspirit had a big weekend, scoring five of her team’s 11 goals, including four in the opener.

Mackenzie Bray, Rayn Tripp and Lindsey Maher each also scored against Fort Bragg, while Grace Rosebrook, Cicley Jones and Jaycee Morais each also scored against Willits.