Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com

By Ray Hamill — The Del Norte Warriors are beginning to find their rhythm.

On Friday night, they traveled to McKinleyville and came away with a 55-0 win, improving to 3-2 on the season.

Over the past two games they have outscored Skyline and McKinleyville by a combined 103-0, winning back-to-back games for the first time this season.

“We’re coming around for sure,” head coach Darren LaFazio said. 

The dominating Warriors scored eight touchdowns in the win, including seven on offense.

Tobias Meyers and Jason Murphy each found the end zone twice, while quarterback Aidan Rice accounted for a pair of TDs, running in for one and passing to Meyers for one.

“They all did their assignments,” LaFazio said. “And our offensive line is starting to come together as one.”

Del Norte quickly took control of the game, scoring three TDs in the opening quarter and adding two more before halftime to carry a 34-0 advantage into the break.

Will McCovey led the way on the ground and finished with 52 yards on seven carries, including a two-yard TD run to open the scoring just over three minutes into the game.

The defense also got on the scoreboard when Braydan Johnson recovered a fumble in the end zone for Del Norte’s second TD of the night.

Check out Tobias Meyers’ nine-yard TD run below …

Meyers scored the first of his two TDs on a 15-yard reception from Rice late in the first quarter and would add a second TD on a nine-yard run early in the second.

Rice closed out the first-half scoring on a 10-yard TD run to give his team an insurmountable lead going into halftime.

And the Warriors succeeded with a balanced attack, rushing for 148 yards and passing for 73 more in the first half alone.

Defensively, they held the home team to minus-30 yards for the opening two quarters.

“Our defense was outstanding,” LaFazio added.

The head coach said part of the team’s big improvement over the past two weeks has come about because the back-ups are pushing the starters more in practice.

“They’re stepping up a lot more and they’re competing in practice a lot more,” he said.

With the Warriors well in control before halftime, LaFazio went deep to his bench in the second half and the back-ups continued to pile on the pressure.

Junior Jason Murphy had a big second half, adding a pair of TD runs, from 10 and five yards out, as well as recovering a fumble on defense.

They were the first varsity TDs of his career.

Curtis Bartley would add another touchdown on a 10-yard run late in the third to round out the scoring.

Rice completed 5 of 9 passes for 73 yards through the air and also had 50 yards rushing on six carries. 

Murphy finished with 41 yards on five carries, Ben Borges had 32 yards rushing on five carries and Bartley added 23 yards on three carries.

With the loss, the Panthers dropped to 0-4 as they get set to kick off the Little 4 against Arcata next week.

The Warriors will try to keep their impressive run going when they travel to play Oakland Tech.

In JV action on Friday night, Del Norte and McKinleyville tied 14-14.

Since losing to Fortuna on the opening weekend, the Del Norte JVs are unbeaten and are now 3-1-1.

The tie was the second straight for the Mack JVs, who are now 0-2-2.