Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – The St. Bernard’s Crusaders will play at McKilnleyville this Friday night.

By Ray Hamill — After an exciting opening weekend for the H-DNL football teams, six of the nine local varsity programs will be in action in week two.

And that includes one all-local matchup between two unbeaten teams on Friday night.

The St. Bernard’s Crusaders got their new season off to impressive start with a comfortable 30-6 win over Clear Lake on Saturday and will try to carry that momentum in a Friday night showdown at McKinleyville.

The Panthers, who are this week’s Humboldt Sports Team of the Week, also won their opener over there weekend, defeating Fort Bragg 28-6 on Saturday afternoon to end a 21-game losing streak that had dated back to the fall of 2022.

Kickoff on Friday is set for 7:30 p.m., with the schools’ unbeaten JV teams also playing each other at 5 p.m.

The McKinleyville JVs defeated Fort Bragg 42-8 in their opener, while SB took care of Clear Lake 34-7.

Also on Friday night, Del Norte will try to make it two straight wins to start the season when they travel to Oregon to play Ashland High School.

As expected, the five-time defending Big 4 champs took care of business in their season opener against Hoopa over the weekend, winning 20-6.

Friday’s game, which will be the season opener for the Grizzlies, is scheduled for 7 p.m. and will be broadfcast live on local radio, KPOD 97.9 FM, as well as on DelNorteSports.com.

Two other H-DN varsity teams will be in action on Friday night.

Hoopa travels to Etna for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff, while  defending Little 4 co-champion Ferndale will play its season opener at Fort Bragg, also at 7:30 p.m.

The Wildcats had a bye last week, while Fort Bragg is 0-1 after losing at McKinleyville.

And rounding out a big weekend for the local teams, the Eureka Loggers will try to keep their impressive start to the new season going when they host Shasta at the Redwood Bowl on Saturday night at 7:30 p.m.

The Loggers scored eight touchdowns in a 56-32 win over Arcata last week, while Shasta is 0-1 after dropping its opener against Lassen by a score of 44-7.

Fortuna (0-1), Arcata (0-1) and South Fork (0-0) each have a bye this weekend.