Warriors bounce back, get set for weekend NCS tournament

By barstoolfanatics on February 1, 2024 • ( Leave a comment )

Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – Del Norte’s Reynaldo Martinez in action at Eureka on Wednesday night.

By Ray Hamill — One week after seeing their seven-year unbeaten H-DNL dual meet run end in a loss to Arcata, the Del Norte Warriors bounced back with a dominating victory at Eureka on Wednesday night.

The Del Norte boys won 63-15 to close out the regular season and will now turn their attention to this weekend’s North Coast Section Redwood Empire dual meet championships, which will also be held at Eureka.

The Warriors won 11 of the 14 matchups.

“Overall, we were happy,” head coach Clinton Schaad said of his team’s performance. “But again there are small things we can work to improve, with a little tweak here and there.”

The Del Norte boys won eight matches by fall, including impressive victories for Soren Lewis and Dane Brown.

Lewis, who placed second in his bracket at last year’s league championships, has been battling some injuries but came through with a nice win as he continues to build toward the 2024 H-DNL championships.

“He’s a little banged up right now, but he took the mat and was able to win by fall,” Schaad said of the senior. “It was a good strong resilient effort by him and we were happy to see Soren get some good mat time.”

Brown, meanwhile, only recently began competing but has been practicing hard all winter and that hard work is beginning to pay off.

The sophomore has wrestled just twice and has impressed in both matches, pining his first opponent in 13 seconds and following that with a pin in 27 seconds at Eureka.

“He’s picking the sport up really well,” Schaad said. “It’s great to see a kid work all year long and be able to come out and compete.”

Several other Warriors also impressed on their way to victories, with Chulhs Bates, Wyatt Sharp, Isaac Lopez, Remington Escobedo, Reynaldo Martinez and Braydan Johnson all winning their matches by fall.

Alex Osborne

Curtis Bartley, Colton Schaad and James Gensaw Jr. each also won their matches by forfeit.

The Warriors dropped just two matches in the lopsided win, with Alex Osborne losing a decision and Yatish Patel losing by fall.

Eureka also took the 106 match by forfeit.

The Warriors will now turn their attention to the big NCS tournament on Saturday, which gets under way at 10 a.m.

The Warriors will be one of four H-DNL teams competing after receiving an at-large berth.

The Del Norte boys have placed second in four straight Redwood Empire Division-2 NCS championships and will be hoping to get that elusive win at Eureka.

They will be joined at the NCS tournament by H-DNL champs Arcata, while Hoopa and McKinleyville will compete in the Division-3 bracket, which will also be held at Eureka High.

Wyatt Sharp

James Gensaw Jr.

“We get to put a lineup together and go down and represent our league,” Clinton Schaad said. “It’s always nice if you stumble a little to get an opportunity, but you’ve got to compete.”

The matchups for the 10-team bracket will be finalized at the seedings meeting on Saturday morning.