Submitted photo – The Arcata players and coaches celebrate their championship on Wednesday night.
The Arcata Tigers clinched the H-DNL boys soccer championship after battling to a 1-1 tie at Fortuna on the final night of league play on Wednesday.
The championship is the first for the Arcata boys since 2022 and follows the Big 4 championship the school’s girls team clinched last weekend.
The Huskies came into the game with a chance to repeat as champions but needed a victory.
The Tigers, however, would take care of business.
Isai Aguilar scored for the Arcata boys, while Kaden Lodes netted for the Huskies.
Winston Stratton assisted on Aguilar’s strike.
The result means the Tigers close out league play unbeaten with a record of 9-0-3 (30 points), while the Huskies finished just one point behind them with a record of 9-1-2.
The league title also guarantees Arcata the H-DNL’s automatic North Coast Section playoff berth and a probable home game to open.
“Congratulations to Arcata for getting the league title,” Fortuna head coach Daniel Holmes said. “Proud of the boys and we will wait to see what (NCS) seed we will receive.”
In other H-DNL games on Wednesday, Del Norte won 7-0 at South Fork as the Warriors closed out league play with a record of 8-1-3 (27 points).
Giovanni Lopez netted four times in the win to set a new school record for goals in a single season with 28.
Giovanni Alvarado added two goals for Del Norte and Adrian Garcia had one.
“It was another good team performance,” Del Norte head coach David Sanyaolu said.
Alvarado, Garcia, Danny Gomez and Sebastian Espinoza each had an assist.
The brackets for the NCS playoffs will be announced this weekend, with the postseason set to kick off next week.
Del Norte High Athletics – Giovannia Alvarado had two goals and an assist in Wednesday’s win.
