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The Del Norte Warriors are building momentum as they look to win a fifth straight conference championship this season.

On Friday night, they got the better of conference rivals Eureka 7-6 in a low scoring non-conference football showdown in Crescent City.

The victory was their fourth straight and they have quickly put a 1-2 start to the season behind them as they get set for their Big 4 opener against Fortuna next week.

After a scoreless first half, the visiting Loggers finally broke the deadlock in the third quarter, when quarterback Kyle Johnston connected with Michael Jewell on a 30-yard TD pass.

However, a missed two-point conversion attempt left them ahead by just six points, and that ultimately would prove costly.

The Warriors responded with their only touchdown of the night when Will McCovey found the end zone on a short run in the fourth quarter to cap their best drive of the night, and Greyson Franklin would add the PAT to give his team a slender one-point lead.

And that was all the Del Norte defense would need, as the home team held on for the win and improved to 5-2.

“Defensively I thought we played really good,” Del Norte head coach Darren LaFazio said. “We had a couple of big stands.”

And it was the team leaders that set the tone for the Warriors, who would not be denied in the second half.

Senior team captains Ben Borges, Colton Schaad, Curtis Bartley and Aidan Rice all played well for the home team, and along with McCovey they helped inspire their teammates to secure the victory.

“I thought our team captains really stepped up,” LaFazio said. “We just had the will to win in the second half. (The captains) pretty much put the team on their backs in the second half.”

The loss was the fifth of the season for the Loggers, who will go into conference play with a record of 2-5.

The game was also the sixth straight on the road for Eureka, which was coming off an impressive 43-0 victory at Biggs last week.

But the Loggers were competitive and the players earned the respect of the opposing coach.

“Eureka’s a pretty good team,” LaFazio said. “You’ve got to give them credit. They’re pretty physical.”

The Loggers defense was particularly effective.

“The biggest thing for me is we held Del Norte to seven points and they’ve been scoring 30 points (in most games),” Eureka head coach Sam Edmonds said. “Everybody on the defense, they played lights out.

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“They played really well. They played hard, they played physical and they didn’t give up.

“Offensively we had some good drives but they stalled. We didn’t play together on offense tonight like we have in the past. We didn’t execute.”

Edmonds says he went for the two-point conversion because he felt it gave his team the best chance to win in what was a low-scoring game.

“I wanted to go for the win,” he said. “You can always play it safe, but when you have an opportunity to get the lead you go for it. I gambled and it didn’t pay off.”

The Loggers will open conference play at home against St. Bernard’s next week and will play the Warriors a second time in a Big 4 showdown at the Redwood Bowl in two weeks.

And if Friday’s game is any indication, that should be another closely fought battle.

“League should be tough this year,” LaFazio added.

The Eureka JVs won their matchup on Friday night, defeating Del Norte 26-0.

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