Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com

By Ray Hamill — The Huskies are champions of the H-DNL in girls soccer, for the first time ever.

“I believe so” head coach Kathleen Lynch said of the historic achievement, after watching her team pull out a hard-fought 0-0 tie at Eureka on Saturday afternoon, a result that guarantees the Fortuna girls at least a share of the league crown.

In the 25th year of H-DNL girls soccer, we apparently have a new champion.

And the Huskies can claim the title outright with just a tie in their final game at home to McKinleyville on Wednesday.

With Saturday’s result, the Huskies improved to 9-0-2 in league play, while the Loggers drop to 8-1-2.

They had to fight for this one, withstanding a ton of pressure from the home team in the second half, but holding firm with another strong performance by the team defense, anchored by the ever reliable Sarah Hohman, alongside Malia Bolden, Moncerrat Bernal and Erica Carrillo.

“Like I told the girls, it was a great effort maintaining their composure,” Lynch said. “Our back line definitely showed great resolve today.”

So too did Kelsie Hall in goal, after taking over from injured starter Arlette Cruz and posting an impressive shutout against one of the most dangerous attacks in the H-DNL.

The Loggers gave it everything they could, especially late in the game.

“I thought it was the most complete performance we had all year,” head coach Tommy Learmouth said. “Even though the result wasn’t in our favor.”

The performance will also give the Eureka girls plenty of confidence and momentum heading into the NCS playoffs, where they could very well meet the Huskies again.

“The whole team played extremely well,” Learmouth said. “But our back line against was tremendous all night.”