Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldSports.com – Action from Wednesday’s game between Del Norte and Eureka

By Ray Hamill — It was a high-scoring afternoon on the opening day of H-DNL boys soccer on Wednesday, with big wins for Fortuna, Del Norte and Arcata.

The Warriors kicked off their league schedule with a trip to play fellow contender Eureka and came away with an impressive 5-2 victory.

The Tigers made the short trek to play rival McKinleyville and dominated a young Panthers team in a 9-0 victory.

On Wednesday evening, defending league champion Fortuna traveled to Miranda to play the South Fork Cubs and won 14-0.

It was a highly-entertaining first half at Eureka, with five goals in the opening 21 minutes.

The Warriors never trailed in the game, opening their account 10 minutes in to kick start a busy 12 minutes of action.

An own goal at the other end five minutes later left the two sides deadlocked again, but that didn’t last.

Just two minutes later, the visitors re-took the lead, only for Jerome Everta to tie things up again three minutes after that.

The Warriors, however, would take the lead a third time in the 21st minute and their defense held tight after that, shutting out their hosts for the remainder of the afternoon.

“We started slow and could not raise our intensity level,” Eureka head coach Tommy Learmouth said. “Del Norte wanted it more, and it showed in their desire and fight.”

Check out some of the early action from Eureka below …

Action from the Arcata/McKinleyville game.

D’Alessandro Medina assisted on one of the goals for the Loggers, but it was a disappointing start to the league campaign for a Eureka team that harbors legitimate championship ambitions.

The win was the fifth straight for the Del Norte boys, who improved to 7-2 on the season.

No scoring stats or details were immediately available for the Warriors from Wednesday’s game.

At McKinleyville, meanwhile, the Tigers got their league campaign off to an impressive start.

Sophomore Dakota Grosveld netted a first-half hat trick in the win, while senior Lars Gerdes and freshman Isai Aguilar both scored twice.

Elijah Brooks and Henry Shanahan added one goal apiece to round out the team scoring, while Victor Vega assisted on three of the team’s goals.

Gerdes had two assists, while Isaac Ingram had one.

“There were some strong moments of connection and combination play, which I was impressed with,” Arcata head coach John Davidson said. “The most rewarding thing for me as a coach is to see things we worked on in training show up in the game, and that happened a couple of times today, so that felt good.”

The team, however, remains a work in progress.

“There were obviously some things we’ve really got to clean up,” the Arcata coach added. “I just really want the players to focus on improving and not get distracted with the results just yet.”

With the game well in hand in the second half, Davidson was able to go deep to his bench, with some of those players also impressing, showcasing the potential depth this year’s team has.

Cruz Aguilar had a good game in the win, as did defenders Jonah Morgan and Kai MacDonald, who both helped to anchor the back line and helped preserve the shutout.

The Huskies, meanwhile, turned in a complete team performance and improved to 10-0 overall.

And head coach Daniel Holmes used the occasion to get all of his players some valuable playing time.

“The boys played as a unit and made connections from the back line to the front,” Holmes said. “It was nice seeing all the players get time on the field.”

Manny Diaz and Brandon Cruz both played well for the Huskies and helped set the tone for their teammates, along with Israel Hernandez.