Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – The St. Bernard’s Crusaders in action during a recent scrimmage against Ukiah.

By Ray Hamill — COVID concerns and the air quality around the state have forced more changes in this week’s H-DNL football schedule.

On Tuesday morning, the Eureka Loggers announced they have had to postpone this week’s game at Windsor because of players still missing due to COVID protocols. 

That game will now be played on the weekend of Sept. 23/24.

On Tuesday afternoon, it was also announced that Arcata will now play at St. Bernard’s on Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m.

The Crusaders were originally scheduled to host the Hoopa Warriors on Saturday, but the Warriors have had to cancel for the second straight week, this time because the air quality in the area has resulted in school being closed for the week.

The Tigers, meanwhile, were originally scheduled to play West Park High in Roseville this week, but had to pull out of that game because of the air quality in the area.

Saturday’s game between the Crusaders and Tigers could be a good one.

Many local fans believe a much-improved Tigers roster should switch to the Big 4 again and replace the Crusaders, who were moved to the bigger schools conference three years ago.

Saturday’s game will tell us more about who belongs there.

The Tigers had a bye last weekend and will be playing their season opener, while the Crusaders lost a close one, 21-20, at St. Vincent de Paul on Saturday night.

It was a tale of two very different halves for SB, which started slowly before a much improved second half.

And Arcata head coach Jamal Jones is expecting the latter when his team faces them at Crusader Field.

“They’re much improved from last year,” said Jones, who watched game film of the Crusaders this week. “We expect the football team that played in the second half to show up on Saturday.”

The Tigers are not fielding a JV team this fall so there will be no JV game on Saturday.