By Ray Hamill — A busy Friday night was a good one for the Redwood League teams, with big wins for Hoopa and McKinleyville.
Four other H-DNL teams were also in action, with the Fortuna Huskies continuing their impressive start to the new season.
However, it was a tough night for the other three league teams playing, with Eureka and Arcata suffering lopsided losses and Del Norte dropping their home opener against Ashland.
The Hoopa Warriors were one of the stories of the night, traveling to Healdsburg and turning in a much better performance in a 28-6 win over the Greyhounds.
The win was the first for new head coach Tashone Rice and was achieved with a much better night in the trenches for the young Warriors, who improved to 1-1.
Quarterback Torin Billing threw for three TDs, all of them to junior receiver Jonathan Peralta.
The McKinleyville Panthers were equally impressive at Fort Bragg.
One week after rallying late to beat Cloverdale, the Panthers turned in their best performance in a few years, comfortably defeating the Timberwolves 32-8.
Several sophomores have been impressing early in the new season for McKinleyville (2-0) and that continued to be the case at Fort Bragg.
The most competitive game of the night for the H-DNL teams was in Redding, where the Fortuna Huskies ran for 392 yards and four touchdowns in a hard-fought 27-20 win over University Prep.
Sophomore Easton Essig ran for over 200 yards and scored two TDs as the impressive Huskies improved to 2-0.
It was a tough night for the other three league teams in action.
The Eureka Loggers traveled to play Shasta and trailed 42-0 at halftime, eventually falling 42-6.
Closer to home, the Arcata Tigers kicked off their season against Ukiah and were shut out, falling 41-0.
Rounding out a busy night, the Del Norte Warriors hosted Ashland in their home opener but saw a competitive game slip away from them in the second half.
Del Norte lost 33-14 and dropped to 0-2.
On Thursday night, the South Fork Cubs kicked off their new season in eight-player football and comfortably beat California School for the Deaf 54-0.
