File photo – Del Norte’s Geovani Alvarado heads toward goal in an earl-season game against Fortuna.

The South Fork Cubs knocked off the defending league champions in H-DNL boys soccer over the weekend, running out to a 3-2 win over Arcata in Miranda.

Also on Saturday, the Del Norte Warriors secured their first league win, beating McKinleyville 2-1 in Crescent City.

According to Arcata head coach John Davidson, the Cubs came ready to play.

“They were up for it,” said Davidson, whose team dropped to 1-1 in league play. “We kind of struggled a little bit with our composure.”

Sophomore Keanu Diaz and freshman Andy Aguilar Miner each scored for Arcata in a back-and-forth game.

The home team took an early lead, but the Tigers battled back to tie the game before halftime.

In the second half, South Fork re-took the lead, before Arcata tied things up again, with the Cubs then scoring a third goal and making it stick this time.

The Tigers were missing influential attacking midfielder Izaiah Grosveld through injury.

“But honestly there’s no excuses, and South Fork scored great goals,” Davidson said. “They battled real hard and they fought real hard and obviously wanted it more than we did.

“That was by far the toughest loss I’ve experienced as a high school coach.”

The Tigers will try to respond when they host Eureka on Wednesday at 4 p.m.

No scoring details were immediately available for the Cubs, who were playing their league opener.

The Del Norte boys, meanwhile, responded well from a league-opening one-goal loss at Fortuna with a strong performance against the Panthers.

Speedy sophomore Deken Hanks scored a goal in either half, as the home team kept the visitors scoreless until a late penalty kick.

File photo – The Fortuna Huskies are 2-0 in league play after a pair of shutout victories last week.

“Good offensive play balanced with solid defense — except for a last-minute lapse — by my boys led to a deserved victory,” Del Norte head coach David Sanyaolu said. 

Alexis Ortiz, Lyon Rigden, Jacob Ramsey and David Aguilar led the way on a defense that has only allowed one goal in each of the team’s league games. 

Hanks, Saxon Taylor, Adrian Garcia, Pedro Garcia and Marco Gonzalez all played well in attack.

Eureka, Fortuna and St. Bernard’s each had a bye in league play over the weekend.