By Ray Hamill — This weekend will be a relatively quiet one for the H-DNL teams with four of the nine league schools set for a bye.
With the new league schedule beginning next week — this year all eight 11-player programs face off against each other once each — this weekend sees the last games against out-of-area schools.
The four local schools who have a bye include Eureka, McKinleyville, Del Norte and Fortuna.
The Loggers are coming off a huge overtime win over Marshfield, a victory that ended an 11-game losing streak that dated back to week one of 2025, while McKinleyville is off to a 3-0 start for the first time since 1989 after the Panthers dominated rival Arcata, 27-0.
Also this past weekend, Fortuna suffered its first loss, falling 27-13 to a very good Ukiah team, and Del Norte lost 14-8 at West Valley and dropped to 0-3.
The other five local teams will all be in action this weekend.
St. Bernard’s will get the weekend started with the longest road trip of the season by some margin.
The Crusaders are in Michigan and will play Sacred Heart Academy on Thursday night.
The Irish are 2-1 on the season and are coming off two straight wins, including a 49-22 win over Comstock on Friday.
SB is 2-0 and showed a lot of improvement from week one to week two, beating Heritage 35-18 on Saturday.
Two more local teams will be in action on Friday night.
The South Fork Cubs (1-1) will try to bounce back from a narrow 24-22 loss at Hayfork in eight-person football when they return to Miranda to play Elite at 6 p.m.
The Eagles, out of Vallejo, are 0-1 but have yet to play a game after a forfeit loss to CIVICA out of Nevada.
Also on Friday, unbeaten Ferndale (2-0) travels to play Fall River.
The Cats are coming off a 27-0 win over Santa Ynez, while the Bulldogs are 1-2 after a 20-6 win over Portola on Friday.
Rounding out the weekend action, two more local teams will play on Saturday.
The Arcata Tigers (0-2) will try to get their first win of the year at St. Vincent de Paul on Saturday afternoon at 2.
The Tigers are coming off a shutout loss to McKinleyville, while the Mustangs are 2-1 after a 26-7 win over Redwood Christian over the weekend.
After a bye last week, the Hoopa Warriors (1-1) return to action at Archie Williams High in Marin County, with kickoff set for 2 p.m.
After a disappointing season opening loss at Trinity, Hoopa responded with a 28-6 win at Healdsburg two weeks ago.
Archie Williams is 1-2 after suffering a second loss at Marina on Thursday by a score of 30-15.
