H-DNL frontrunners Arcata and Fortuna both won their league games on Saturday to keep their championship hopes on track, while Eureka and Del Norte also won on what was a busy day for the North Coast teams.
The Tigers played rival McKinleyville and won a tight game 2-1, improving to 6-0-1 in the standings.
Fortuna played St. Bernard’s and secured a dominating 16-0 victory, improving to 6-1 in league.
At Ferndale, the Loggers won 2-0, while up in Crescent City hosts Del Norte edged South Fork 1-0.
With their win, Arcata improved to 11-3 overall, and head coach John Davidson was happy with the game IQ his players brought to the rivalry matchup.
“I felt like our skill and game intelligence were able to beat their physicality and aggression today,” the Tigers coach said.
Sophomores D’Alessandro Medina and Josh Fernandez both scored for the Loggers, who improved to 7-6 on the season.
Some recent injuries forced Eureka head coach Tommy Learmouth to switch some things up and it appeared to work as the players adjusted well.
“I thought we responded well today,” the Eureka coach said. “We controlled the game, but struggled to finish and had multiple wide-open opportunities that we hit over the goal.”
Halfway through the season the team remains a work in progress, but Learmouth likes the direction his players are taking right now as they look to close out league play strong and make a deep run in the playoffs.
“Today was a good start on what we hope will be a successful second half of the season,” he said. “I feel like over the last few days this team has found new energy and today it showed in our play. Still little things to fix and work on.”
This was the fourth straight time the Loggers responded to a loss with a victory.
Next up, the Loggers play at South Fork on Wednesday.
