Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – Action from the second half of Saturday’s game at Crusader Field.

While there will be greater challenges in the weeks ahead, the St. Bernard’s Crusaders are exceeding early-season expectations and look like they could be the best team in the Big 4 right now.

On Saturday, the SB players continued their fast start to the new campaign with a 44-0 win over Hoopa at Crusader Field, their second straight shutout win.

In their first three games — against Clear Lake, McKinleyville and Hoopa — the Crusaders have outscored their opponents 111-6 and have dominated the trenches in all three matchups.

And while there were many standouts in Saturday’s win, it was the foot of one player who provided the highlight moment of the game.

Senior Tyler Hinrichs, who does a lot of things well for St. Bernard’s, nailed a career-long 51-yard field goal to open the scoring and showcased once again why he could be the best kicker in the North Coast Section and perhaps even well beyond that.

Hinrichs, who has been referred to as the Crusaders’ “Swiss Army knife,” was also involved in his team’s second score of the day, throwing a TD pass to receiver Garrett Shanahan.

Quarterback Trenten Hagler ran into the end zone for the home team’s third TD of the day, before Kuron Devlin added back-to-back touchdowns, one on the ground and one on a reception from Hagler.

Hagler would throw his second TD pass of the afternoon to widen the gap even further, this one to the always-dangerous Hinrichs.

Senior running back Riley Nantz, who has scored in all three of St. Bernard’s games, added a TD run late in the first half to put the home team up 44-0 at the interval.

Check out Tyler Hinrich’s 51-yard field goal below …

Hinrichs would add five PATs on six attempts to cap an outstanding individual day.

On the defensive side of the ball, Jahseree Bailey caused a short-handed Hoopa offensive line problems and finished with three sacks.

It was a tough day for the Hoopa Warriors, who had just five linemen suit up and struggled to match the home team’s physicality.

“They really had some big boys that I underestimated,” Hoopa head coach Curtis Kane said of the Crusaders. “My O-line really had a tough day.”

Despite the lopsided final score, however, there were some positives for the Warriors, most notably the play of senior Brian Richards.

Richards turned in an inspired performance on both sides of the ball for the second straight weekend and never gave up the fight, even long after the game had ended as a contest.

Richards finished with eight tackles at defensive end and also contributed with some key receptions at receiver.

“He had a couple of receptions that he turned into positive first downs when we needed a morale lift,” Kane said of the senior team leader. “He didn’t go down even though we were being beaten 44-0. He really gave it his all.”

Fellow senior Ethan Obie also impressed running the ball and finished with some nice gains while showing plenty of fight.

But ultimately, this was always going to be a difficult challenge for the Warriors, especially with their lack of options on the line.

In the JV game, the Crusaders improved to 3-0 with a 41-6 win to get the day’s action under way, while the Warriors dropped to 1-2.

Next up, in a week’s time, the Warriors will finally get to play their home opener when they welcome Trinity to the Hoopa Valley, while the Crusaders will travel to Santa Rosa to play Montgomery.