Too many first-game mistakes proved costly for the Del Norte Warriors on Friday night, as they dropped their season opener at Oakland High School, 34-20.
After making their longest road trip of the season, the Warriors hung with the Wildcats for much of the opening half and led 7-6 in the final minute of the second quarter.
But the home team would take control of the game with three quick unanswered touchdowns, one coming late in the second quarter an two more early in the third.
“I thought we made a lot of mistakes that kind of compounded throughout the game,” Del Norte head coach Nick White said. “But we also did some really good things.”
It was always going to be a challenging opener for the Crescent City school, and not just because of the long trip.
The Wildcats finished up 8-3 last year and returned a lot of their players this season.
“They’re good,” White said of Oakland, “They’re strong, they’re physical, fast, and I thought we hung with them until the mistakes.
“We had too many mistakes, and they’re a really good team, a veteran team.”
Despite the loss, there were some bright spots for the Warriors, most notably the play of running backs Bryce Stover and Max Borges.
Stover opened the scoring for the visitors on an eight-yard TD run in the second quarter, and Borges would double the team’s tally on two-yard TD run in the second half.
Stover then closed out the scoring with the game already decided, finding the end zone a second time late in the fourth, this time from 12 yards out.
“I thought Bryce and Max ran the ball hard, and I was proud of them for how hard they ran the ball,” White said.
The Warriors will try and regroup as they get set to host Ashland in Crescent City next weekend.
“We’ll learn from our mistakes,” White said. “We’ll watch film and really make an emphasis on the things we didn’t do well, and we will get better. It’s only the first game and we’ve got nine more.”
The Del Norte JVs also lost their season opener at Oakland.
No score was immediately available for the JVs.
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