Warriors answer the call at Healdsburg with much improved performance

What a difference a week makes.

After dropping their season opener in a lopsided loss at Trinity last week, the Hoopa players clearly took that loss and a disappointing opener to heart.

They were determined to represent themselves better at Healdsburg on Friday night and delivered with a much-improved performance in a 28-6 win.

No one more so than junior quarterback Torin Billings and junior receiver Jonathan Peralta, who combined on three touchdown passes.

“I’m proud of my boys,” said first-year Hoopa head coach Tashone Rice, who got his first career win as a head coach. “They worked really hard for this. They worked hard all week.”

The Warriors cleared up a lot of mistakes from a week ago, which is exactly what you want to see from a team in a week-two game.

“We had so many missed tackles against Trinity, so we worked on tackling a lot and wrapping up, and we had very few missed tackles (on Friday),” Rice said. 

The Warriors gradually took control of the game, scoring one touchdown in each of the four quarters.

Jack Marshall rounded out the scoring with a TD run, while Hoopa scored a pair of two-point conversions, one by Billings on a bootleg and one by Marshall.

The long trip did not seem to affect the Warriors. In fact, if anything, it seemed to fire them up.

“They came out and they worked their tails off,” Rice said of his players. “And they got the job done.

“They rallied to the ball, and that was something we talked about.”

There were several standout performances for the team on both sides of the ball.

In addition to the big nights for Billings and Jonathan Peralta, linemen Saul Peralta, who is enjoying a good start to the new campaign, and Jesus Jones each helped set the tone in the trenches for their teammates.

“They really held it down for us on the D-line,” the Hoopa coach said. 

Nose guard Brian Billings also had a big night in the trenches, especially in the opening half, while David Sylvia had an interception, as did Jonathan Peralta.

Jesse Roberts also forced a fumble, a play that Rice said “really got the boys going.”

The Warriors will have a bye next week before traveling to play Archie Williams in two weeks.

The Hoopa JVs did not have a game on Friday night, as Healdsburg does not have a JV team.

The young Warriors have yet to play this year.