By Ray Hamill — After putting a difficult start to the new season behind them with a big win last weekend, the Del Norte Warriors will be hoping to keep that going when they travel to play Hoopa on Friday night.
Del Norte is 1-3 on the season, but head coach Nick White believes the team is taking steps in the right direction, and the Warriors enjoyed a much cleaner performance in their 50-7 win over the Arcata Tigers.
“I thought we played together in all three phases of the game. We finally got them all going,” White said. “And our defense was aggressive. We forced a couple of turnovers and everything kind of worked.”
The players, to their credit, never allowed the 0-3 start — which included losses against Oakland Ashland and West Valley — take them out of their game, and they continue to show signs of improvement each week.
Most neutrals will favor them to win again this weekend, and if they can live up to those expectations and follow that with a win over a struggling Eureka team in their league opener on Homecoming night next week, they would find themselves back at .500 and right back in the mix for a possible league championship and a place in this year’s North Coast Section playoffs.
(The Warriors are ranked No. 65 in the North Coast Section and No. 6 in Division 6, one spot behind the McKinleyville Panthers, whom they will host on the penultimate weekend of the season in late October.)
Competing for a Pacific League championship remains the goal, and with just three league games on the schedule a victory over the Loggers would leave them just one win from at least a share of the title.
“Right now, as a group we’re taking it week to week, and we have to keep progressing to be able to compete for a league title,” White said.
“I think we’re progressing well right now and getting better.”
All three team captains have been leading the way, with senior quarterback Trent Cronk and senior running back/linebacker Max Borges each doing some good things against the Tigers, along with senior lineman Ricardo Borges, who has been setting the tone for his teammates in the trenches.
And White will be hoping for more of the same in the all-Warriors showdown this weekend.
Heading into the Friday night game, the Del Norte coaches want the team to play their game and concern themselves with what they do rather than the opposition, including continuing to clean up the mental mistakes.
“We had some false starts last week and we’re trying to clean that up,” White said. “And keeping our assignments on defense.”
The good news is the players are clearly taking the right steps, and playing some tough opponents early in the campaign should only benefit them when they open league play.
“Sometimes we played well, and at times fundamentally we weren’t very good with our assignments on defense,” White said of the first three games. “But we played some good teams and it’s always good to see those mistakes and correct them. It’s about progressing and we’re getting better every week.”
Part of that has to do with the way the players have responded, and it’s a roster than is embracing that challenge.
“What I like about them is the resiliency,” the head coach added. “We’ve played hard every single game, whether we’ve won or lost, and their attitude in practice has been great.”
After the games against Hoopa and Eureka — two teams that are a combined 2-6 right now — the Warriors will face a tough stretch run, including back-to-back road games at Ferndale (Oct. 17) and at St. Bernard’s (Oct. 24), the top two ranked local teams in both the Humboldt Sports Power Rankings and the MaxPreps NCS rankings.
After that, they host McKinleyville (Oct. 30) and travel to Fortuna (Nov. 6) to close out the regular season and two more challenging opponents that have been impressing this fall.
Friday’s game at Hoopa is set for 7:30 p.m.
