Submitted photo – The Eureka girls celebrate their Panthers Classic championship this past weekend.

By Ray Hamill — The H-DNL girls are getting some serious recognition in the early-season MaxPreps rankings, with six of the nine varsity teams featuring in the top 22 in the North Coast Section.

That’s an impressive showing for the league considering there are 129 NCS teams this year.

Leading the way are the McKinleyville girls, who are ranked No. 10 overall, followed by No. 13 Eureka, No. 14 Del Norte, No. 15 St. Bernards, No. 17 Arcata and No. 22 Ferndale.

For comparison, the highest ranked H-DNL boys team is McKinleyville at No. 39.

The H-DNL girls teams also feature highly within their own divisions.

Ferndale is No. 1 in Division 6 (No. 2 in the state), while the Panthers are No. 2 in Division 4, followed immediately by Del Norte, SB and Arcata at Nos. 3 through 5, giving the H-DNL four of the top-five teams in Division 4.

Eureka is also ranked No. 3 in Division 3.

The Loggers, however, are No. 1 in our first Girls Power Rankings of the season, having comfortably taken care of McKinleyville last week.

The Panthers are No. 2 and look like the most likely to challenge the Loggers in the Big 5, having gone 5-0 in their other games against H-DNL teams so far.

We have a tie at No. 3 between Arcata and St. Bernard’s, each of which has largely impressed in tournament play in December, while Del Norte rounds out the top-5, with the Ferndale Wildcats on the bubble and building momentum.

Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – The McKinleyville Panthers are No. 2 in our Power Rankings.

POWER RANKINGS

1 — Eureka (10-2)

The Loggers are the early Big 5 favorites

2 — McKinleyville (10-3)

The Panthers are 5-1 against H-DNL teams this season 

3T — Arcata (8-2)

The Tigers’ only losses have come against Mack and Ukiah

3T — St. Bernard’s (10-2)

The Crusaders have already won two tournaments and have beaten Del Norte

5 — Del Norte (9-2)

A young Del Norte team is much improved this season