Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – Action from Saturday night’s game.

By Ray Hamill — A mistake-filled first half and way too many penalties proved costly for the Eureka Loggers on Saturday night, as they dropped their home opener 32-24 to Shasta at the Redwood Bowl.

The Loggers, to their credit, would grow into the game and enjoyed the better of exchanges in the second half.

But digging themselves a hole against a competitive Wolves team was too big a hurdle to overcome.

“We came out fired up and ready to get after it, but the biggest thing is the mistakes happened at the worst times,” Eureka head coach Sam Edmonds said. “They’re kids and kids are going to make mistakes. But for me, put aside the mistakes and penalties and they played hard. I was not disappointed with the performance. We won the second half.”

Shasta received the opening kickoff and scored on the possession, which included a fourth-down conversion on a Eureka penalty deep in Loggers territory.

On the next play, sophomore running back Deven Ortega found the end zone on a 15-yard run to open his team’s account.

Just two plays into the ensuing Eureka drive, a fumbled handoff was kicked through the end zone for a safety and Shasta led 9-0.

The visitors added a second TD on the next possession, with Ortega again scoring, this time on a six-yard run.

Before they even had a first down, the Loggers trailed 15-0.

But they grew into the game and began to move the ball, with multiple running backs all making plays behind a solid offensive line performance.

Check out Isaac Lopez’s TD run below …

Unfortunately, however, their second possession of the game ended on another fumble, this time at the Shasta 30-yard line.

The Wolves would add to their advantage on a 28-yard field goal with five minutes remaining in the half and the Loggers found themselves 18 points adrift.

The Loggers would finally get their first points of the night with 28 seconds remaining in the half, capping an effective 11-play drive with a two-yard Isaac Lopez TD run on a fourth-and-goal.

Tautua Ou added the two-point conversion and the Loggers trailed 18-8 at halftime and were still well in the game.

Eureka outscored the Wolves 16-14 over the final two quarters, but it wasn’t enough to pull out a come-from-behind win.

Senior Brycen Mismash, who was arguably the Loggers’ player of the game, and Alex Her both scored second-half touchdowns and two-point conversions.

“Honestly, all my running backs had a good night,” Edmonds said of a group that includes Mismash, Her, Lopez, Ou and Quincy Smith. “And for that to work, you’ve got have the offensive line work, and those guys played their hearts out.

“Honestly, I’m beyond proud of the boys.”

With the loss, the Loggers dropped to 1-1 on the season as they get set for a bye week before traveling to play Novato in two weeks.

And Edmonds is confident his team will bounce back from Saturday’s disappointment.

“Just because we lost in week two, that’s not going to define our season,” the coach said.

In JV action, the Loggers and Wolves tied for the second straight year, this time 0-0.

“They played hard,” Edmonds said of the JVs. “They battled, and I’m beyond proud of them as well.”