File photo – The Hoopa Warriors celebrated Homecoming on Friday night with a 42-20 win over Ferndale.

The Hoopa Warriors had to overcome a second-half deficit before comfortably defeating Ferndale on Homecoming Night at Hoopa High on Friday.

Trailing 14-12 in the third quarter, the home team rallied for a 42-20 victory, quickly getting back to winning ways after a disappointing loss at McKinleyville last week.

The win lifts the Warriors to 2-1 in the Little 4 and 5-2 overall, while the Wildcats dropped to 0-3 and 2-5.

“We’ve still got some things to fix, we all know that,” Hoopa head coach Floyd “Cowboy” Billings said. “But all in all, this was the boys’ last Homecoming and they said ‘this is it, let’s leave it all on the field,’ and they did.

“They played their butts off.”

All six of the Warriors’ TDs came on runs, with five different players finding the end zone.

Darvin Davis IV scored two TDs, and both were “tough touchdown runs,” according to the coach.

Rodney Clark, Gerard Marshall, Lane Campbell and Andrew Hunsucker each also had a TD run in the win.

“The O-Line did their job,” Billings said.

So too did the Hoopa defense, which continues to be a strength of this year’s team and got stronger as the game wore on.

In particular the Warriors did a good job tackling.

No stats were immediately available for Ferndale.

At the halfway stage of league play, the Warriors remain in second place in the standings and one win behind the McKinleyville Panthers, who are 3-0 after a 40-20 victory over Arcata on Friday night.

Next weekend Hoopa travels to play Arcata and Ferndale hosts McKinleyville.