Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – Hoopa quarterback John Smith steps up to the line of scrimmage during Friday’s game against St. Bernard’s.

By Ray Hamill — Two weeks into the 2019 prep football season and only two of the nine local varsity teams have managed a win.

Admittedly, three of the seven teams yet to post a win were idle this past weekend, but it remains an inauspicious stat nonetheless as we head into September.

Here then are five takeaways from this past weekend’s action …

1 — Del Norte’s impressive start continues

It certainly hasn’t been all bad news for the H-DNL teams so far, especially up in Crescent City where the Warriors have impressed early in the campaign.

On Friday, they dominated a thoroughly out-matched Yreka team, putting up 55 points in the opening half on the way to a 62-0 win.

This follows a season-opening victory at highly-ranked Moreau Catholic.

Their fast start hasn’t gone unnoticed, and the Warriors are now the No. 2 ranked NCS team in Division 5, according to MaxPreps, one spot behind Encinal and two spots ahead of Eureka.

Moreau Catholic is No. 3.

The Warriors will try to continue their winning ways when they host La Salle, an Oregon school playing its first game of the season, this weekend.

2 — Eureka, Fortuna still winless

It’s early in the season and both the Loggers and Huskies have shown plenty of promise, but neither has yet managed a win, a big change for two programs that have had a lot of success in recent years.

The Loggers have been in both of their games against top-notch programs, Placer and Windsor, the latter of which is the No. 4 ranked team in NCS Division 3.

The good news is they gave themselves opportunities to win both games. The bad news is they were unable to do so on either occasion.

Eureka will need more consistency from a promising offense, but the defense has been a pleasant surprise.

Fortuna, meanwhile, almost came away with an impressive road win this past weekend against a Miramonte team ranked No. 5 in NCS Division 5, three spots ahead of the Huskies in eighth.

A late touchdown by the home team broke the deadlock in the final seconds of a high-scoring 45-39 affair, one week after Fortuna suffered a shutout loss to a very good Cardinal Newman team.

Unlike the Loggers, the Huskies put up plenty of offense this past weekend, while their defense gave up too many big plays.

3 — Little 4 still winless

Somewhat surprisingly, two weeks into the season the Little 4 teams are a combined 0-5.

Don’t hit the panic buttons just yet, though.

Arcata’s loss came on the road against a very good South Tahoe team, while a beat-up Hoopa team’s only loss came against a very good St. Bernard’s program that has dominated the L4 for years.

Ferndale also has just one loss, against Clear Lake, while McKinleyville is off to an 0-2 start but has shown improvement from a year ago, particularly in the passing attack.

This coming weekend won’t get much easier for any of these teams, with all four matching up against higher-ranked opponents, according to MaxPreps.

Arcata travels to play St. Bernard’s, Ferndale is on the road at Fall River, McKinleyville is at home to Fort Bragg and Hoopa travels to Etna.

4 — SB still dominating L4 opposition

Make it 29 wins and counting.

The Crusaders have not lost to a L4 opponents since Ferndale beat them in October of 2013, stretching their current win streak against the league this past weekend with a comfortable 39-14 win at Hoopa, despite not playing their best football.

They’ll look to make it 30 straight wins against the conference this coming weekend, which leads us to …

5 — Huge matchup looming

It may not settle the debate for good, but we’ll get a better idea which school belongs in what conference after this coming weekend, when St. Bernard’s hosts Arcata in a huge showdown on Saturday.

The Crusaders moved up to the Big 4 before the 2018 season, a tough challenge for a small program with a smaller roster than any of their conference opponents.

The Tigers, meanwhile, are adamant they belong in the Big 4 with the bigger programs and will look to prove it this weekend.

Last season, SB rolled out to an easy 47-14 over Arcata.

For comparison sake, St. Bernard’s is currently ranked No. 359 in the state by MaxPreps, 446 places ahead of the Tigers at No. 805.