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It’s safe to say the North Coast Section seedings committee got this one wrong.

Despite a dominating season that saw them clinch a Big 4 championship, the Del Norte Warriors were handed just a fifth seed in the Division-4 NCS playoff bracket and forced to travel for their opening game against No. 4 Tennyson in Hayward after they had been ranked higher than the Lancers all season long.

Because of that, they came out with a point to prove, and they did not disappoint, scoring four touchdowns in the opening quarter and cruising to a 50-14 win.

“I thought we stepped up to the challenge of playing in a higher division and the adversity of having to travel down when we should have had the four seed,” head coach Nick White said. “We came down on a mission, We were ready to go.”

As a team, the Warriors rushed for 534 yards, almost half them by senior Giancarlo Desolenni, and they had seven rushing touchdowns.

All three standout running backs — Desolenni, RJ Loftin and Aden Mintonye — had more than 100 yards rushing each before the end of the third quarter.

Loftin scored four TDs, including three in the opening quarter, and added a two-point conversion to put his team up 29-0 going into the second quarter.

Desolenni added a 31-yard run and finished with a career-high 259 yards rushing on 13 carries.

Loftin had a team-high 23 carries for 128 yards, while Mintonye added 127 yards on 10 carries,  including second-half touchdown runs of 17 and 10 yards.

And they did it behind another outstanding performance by the offensive line.

“I thought we had an advantage up front,” White said. “Our line stepped up and played great. Those kids just blocked their butts off all night. The O-line did a tremendous job.”

Defensively, the Warriors did a good job limiting Tennyson star receiver Taeshaun Lyons, holding him to 95 yards on eight catches.

The win sets up a semifinal matchup against either top seed Marin Catholic or Newark Memorial next weekend.

It was also a statement victory and one that certainly suggests the Warriors should have been seeded higher and awarded a home game.

“All you can do is play the game and prove yourself,” White said. “And I think we did that.”