Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – Action from Tuesday’s game at McKinleyville High.

The H-DNL frontrunners both won on Tuesday to keep rolling in the race for this year’s H-DNL championship in boys soccer.

League leaders Arcata won for the eighth time in nine league matches, beating South Fork 4-2 to go to 8-1 in the H-DNL standings (16 points) with three games remaining.

The Fortuna Huskies kept pace with the Tigers and beat St. Bernard’s 8-0 to improve to 7-2 (14 points).

The two frontrunners will face off in Fortuna on the final day of the regular season (Oct. 29) in a game that could  very well decide the fate of this year’s championship.

Also in action on Tuesday, McKinleyville hosted Del Norte and scored a late equalizer to earn a 1-1 tie.

Both the Panthers and Warriors also remain in the mix for this year’s league title.

The in-form Mack boys, who are unbeaten in five straight league games, are now 4-3-2 (10 points), while Del Norte is 4-2-2 (10 points) with a game in hand.

Brandt Pennington gave the Warriors a first-half lead at McKinleyville on a well-placed free kick and they carried the narrow lead into the break.

The Panthers, however, netted a late equalizer when a Rylee Collart shot was deflected into the net with just over 10 minutes remaining in the game.

“It was just a tight game where chances were few and far between,” Del Norte head coach David Sanyaolu said. “It was a fair result.”

The Panthers overcame a sluggish first half and grew into the game with a much improved second half.

“With the way we played in the first half, we were happy to get one back and tie it up to keep our unbeaten streak going,” said McKinleyville head coach Ryne Deppe, whose team came into the showdown on the strength of big back-to-back performances against Arcata and Eureka last week. 

“I liked our response in the second half. We definitely cleaned up a lot of our touches and played better, but we’re trying to be a more consistent team.”

The ever-consistent Gaelen Creighton had another big game in the heart of defense and once again helped to anchor the unit, which came under plenty of pressure in the second half.

“Gaelen had a heck of a game being able to distribute the ball under pressure,” Deppe said of the standout sophomore who continues to play beyond his years.

Up front, Andy Garcia also continued to impress and created multiple scoring opportunities.

The Warriors had some opportunities to sneak both points in what is shaping up to be a tight race for the league crown, but they were unable to convert in the second half, despite hitting the post late.

“We were not better than them today, though we could have won it at the end with some luck,” Sanyaolu said. 

The Del Norte coach also praised the effort of the Panthers, who have catapulted themselves back into contention despite earning just one point in their first four league games.

“McKinleyville are a much improved team,” Sanyaolu added. “They gave little away, were solid defensively and their progressive passings were very good.

“My boys played a good game and I am proud of their effort.”

The Warriors will play a make-up game against South Fork on Thursday and would move within four points of the league leaders with a win.

The Tigers, meanwhile, had four different goalscorers in their win at South Fork.

Daniel Davidson, Tex Larsen, Lars Gerdes and Victor Vega each scored in the win, which was the team’s second straight since falling 5-0 to McKinleyville last Tuesday.

Julian Gillespie and Isaac Ingram each also had an assist.

No stats were available for South Fork.

The Tigers will try to make it three straight wins in league play when they host Eureka on Saturday.