Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – The Del Norte Warriors will host Yreka on Friday night.

By Ray Hamill — A busy Friday night sees six of the nine local high school football teams in action, including four playing here on the North Coast.

Up in Crescent City, the Del Norte Warriors will play their home opener and try to build on what was an impressive first game at Moreau Catholic a week ago.

Eureka will host for the second straight week, welcoming Windsor to Albee Stadium, while St. Bernard’s travels to Hoopa for what will be the Warriors’ opener.

For more on the Loggers’ game, see Change of pace up next for Eureka, and for more on the St. Bernard’s and Hoopa game, see Crusaders look to start fast at Hoopa and Hoopa players back and ready for action.

McKinleyville will also be in action at Willits, and Fortuna travels to play Miramonte.

Ferndale and Arcata both have week-two byes, while South Fork was scheduled to scrimmage in Laytonville this weekend.

Yreka (0-0) at Del Norte (1-0), 7:30 p.m.

(Radio: KPOD 97.9 FM)

The Warriors will look to build on their impressive start when they host a Yreka team playing its season opener.

Last Friday, a physical Del Norte team came away from Moreau Catholic with a hard-fought 20-19 win, and they return home eager to build on that momentum.

“We’re excited to play our first home game of the season,” head coach Nick White said. “One of our goals is to defend our home turf this year.”

To make it 2-0, the Warriors will have to be wary of the Yreka passing game, and will need a big performance from their secondary.

“They’re going to spread it out,” White said of the Miners, who were 1-7 a year ago.

The coach admitted there are difficulties preparing for a team you don’t have game film on, just scrimmage footage.

“That’s the biggest challenge for us,” White said, adding that “we’re going to focus on ourselves and making sure we’re doing the right stuff.”

McKinleyville (0-1) at Willits (0-0), 7:30 p.m.

The Panthers will be hoping for a better start to the game than last week when they travel to play the Wolverines, in what will be the home team’s season opener.

And not having any game film on the Wolverines means the Panthers can’t be sure of what to expect.

“It’s tough because they haven’t played a game yet,” Mack head coach Keoki Burbank said. “So you never know on the team.”

The Panthers will focus on themselves and will be eager to get off to a quicker start on both sides of the ball than they managed a week ago in a 37-3 loss to St. Vincent de Paul, as well as taking better care of the ball.

“We need more consistency. We’ve got to take care of the ball better, but I think it starts with the opening quarter,” Burbank said. “I don’t think we came ready to play (last week) and that’s on me.”

Burbank liked a lot of what he saw from his team’s passing game a week ago, in particular receiver Che Jimenez, but the Panthers threw four interceptions, something they will have to improve on.

“We’ve got to take care of the ball better,” the head coach said. “We had too many turnovers. We gave up two touchdowns when we had the ball.”

The Mack JVs will also be in action and will look to build on an impressive week-one win.

Fortuna (0-1) at Miramonte (0-1), 7 p.m.

(Radio: MIX 95.1 FM, 6:40 p.m.)

The Huskies will look to bounce back from a tough 38-0 road loss against Cardinal Newman when they travel to Orinda in the East Bay to play the Matadors.

Last week, the Matadors lost 45-7 at De Anza.