Eureka’s Hailey Forster is the early leader in the race for the H-DNL girls golf championship after an impressive opening round on Thursday.

The H-DNL girls traveled to Benbow for the league opener and it was Forster who led the way with a round of 95.

It was also a good opening round for Del Norte’s Jaylee Keeling, who pushed Forster all the way and finished just two strokes back with a 97.

The top two golfers on the day were well ahead of the chasing pack.

Keeling’s Del Norte teammate Bria Larson had the third best round of the day with a 109, followed by Eureka’s Sophia Zwald in fourth with a round of 110.

Fortuna’s Macee Marquez rounded out the top five on the day with a round of 115.

Keeling and Larson helped lead Del Norte to the team win, with the Warriors shooting a 465.

Thanks to the impressive days for Forster and Zwald, the Loggers placed second with a 481, followed by Arcata (504), Fortuna (531) and McKinleyville (579).

Del Norte had three golfers place in the top six, with Taylor Homer shooting a 116, just one stroke out of the top five.

The next three best scores of the day all came from Arcata.

Julie Omaha (121), Sabrina MacDonald (122) and Mira Rust-Kelley (128) placed seventh through ninth, with McKinleyville’s Abby Allen (128) tying the latter and leading the way for the Panthers.

The second of the seven rounds of league play will take place at Baywood Golf & Country Club on Monday.