Submitted photo – The Del Norte players and coaches celebrate their playoff win at Credo last week.

This year’s Del Norte girls soccer team epitomized what high school sports are really about.

To the very end, the Warriors appeared to be having fun, and even though they came up just short in their bid for a first-ever North Coast Section championship game appearance, the players have every reason to feel proud of what they accomplished and excited for what the future holds.

“I thought it was great,” first-year head coach Shawn Eckart said of the season. “We suffered a few injuries, but it was a great season. The girls came at in each game.”

It was a campaign that saw the Warriors win a first-ever conference championship and they followed that with a playoff win at Credo over the weekend.

Unfortunately for the Del Norte girls, however, the season ended with a 1-0 loss at Fortuna on Wednesday night in a game that went right down to the wire.

“It was a typical back-and-forth game,” Eckart said. “We had shots on goal, they had shots on goal.

“My team was working well together and they were having fun. I think they were super stoked (to be playing).”

It was indeed a breakthrough campaign for a school that has often struggled to compete with the bigger schools in the H-DNL.

The Warriors played all of the Big 4 teams close, not losing by more than two goals to schools that have easily rolled over them in the past.

And the program should only continue to grow in the coming years.

“I’m really looking forward to next year, and seeing some of our up-and-coming JV players,” Eckart added. “And I think the players are excited and can see the potential.”

The team will lose five seniors to graduation, a class that includes Alexis Aguirre, Deja Payne, Lilly Schaad, Kalynn Schaad and Marianna Garcia.

But several key players will be back, including the influential Aurora Mitchell, who continued to impress in Wednesday’s loss.

Mitchell epitomized the Warriors’ fighting spirit to the very end with a perfectly placed corner kick into the box in the dying seconds.

The threat ended when on a shot that went just right of the post.

Aguirre and Payne both closed out their high school careers with big performances.

Payne, who has been one of the best goalkeepers in the league during her time at Del Norte, had a second-half penalty kick save that kept her team in contention.

Isabel Sanchez scored the decisive goal for Fortuna midway through the second half to send her team on to Friday’s championship game against Eureka.

For more on the big night for the Huskies, see Huskies edge the Warriors to set up the rematch they wanted …

“We had plenty of time to come back, and we definitely had a couple of close opportunities,” Eckart said.

The Del Norte coach was particularly impressed with the play of his defense, which contained a dangerous Fortuna attack for much of the night.

Outside backs Avery Ritter and Teexeeshe Scott both had strong performances in wet conditions at the side of the field.

“My whole defense was working really well together,” Eckart said. “Both of my side defenders were working hard.”