Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com
By Ray Hamill — Two of the most in-form teams on the North Coast will face off on Friday night in what is surely the game of the season so far.
Fresh off back-to-back wins, the 3-1 Eureka Loggers will head north on the 101 to play the 4-1 Del Norte Warriors, who also are coming off two straight wins.
This game will be a non-league showdown, with the two rivals set to play again in three weeks in their Big 4 opener at Eureka.
Fridays’s showdown will be a great litmus test for both teams, as they look to build momentum ahead of league play.
The game will also be Homecoming for a Del Norte team that has been on fire for most of the season and one that has captured the imagination of the local community with its tremendous success in recent years.
“It’ll be Homecoming for us, and you’ve got the top two teams (in the H-DNL) so far, so it should be exciting,” Del Norte head coach Nick White said. “We’re looking forward to it, obviously.”
Eureka head coach Mike Marcelli says he is expecting a battle.
“That game coming up will definitely tell us where we are as a football team,” he said. “They will be our biggest challenge to date.”
Not only are these two teams the top two in this week’s Humboldt Sports Power Rankings, but they are also the top two ranked local teams on MaxPreps.
The Warriors are No. 4 in North Coast Section Division-4 field and No. 25 overall, while Eureka is No. 4 in Division 5 and No. 39 overall.
The Loggers have posted nice wins over Arcata, St. Bernard’s and Piner, with their only loss coming at Ukiah in their second game.
But while Eureka has pulled away for comfortable victories in each of their three wins, they have not yet matched the Warriors’ domination.
Del Norte’s four wins have come by an average of more than 48 points — over Kelseyville, Piedmont, West Valley and McKinleyville — and none have been by less than 42.
The team’s one loss came at South Medford, the No. 9 team in all of Oregon.
The Warriors will have two consecutive bye weeks after this weekend, with their next game coming at Eureka on Oct. 22 in what will be both teams’ league opener.
Game time is set for 7:30 p.m., with the JVs playing at 5.
The game will be broadcast live on KPOD 97.9 FM and through the Del Norte Sports Website.
So more students are enrolled at DNHS compared to EHS?
Is this true?🤷♂️
It’s competitive equity. DN has had a few years of deep play off runs so they got bumped up a division. School size has little to do with section divisions anymore.
True, but that ranking means zilch until sections really, assuming the past is a forebearance of the future…but, “does DNHS have more enrolled students than EHS?”
More students = greater potential for more athletes competing… typically an indicator of successful winning sports programs/teams in HDNL…
Just curious because of how Pelican Bay State Prison has brought in outside families, growing the population of Crescent City.