The Crusaders look like a complete team heading towards the playoffs.
It’s also a team that has battled some adversity this season, but has come out of that a stronger unit, and on Friday night they continued to roll with a dominating 42-7 win against Arcata at McKinleyville High.
In other games on Friday night, the Del Norte Warriors enjoyed a nice bounce-back win in their final home game of the regular season.
One week after a disappointing performance at St. Bernard’s, the Warriors hosted a McKinleyville team that was coming off one of its biggest wins in years over Ferndale and won 26-14 to keep their playoff hopes alive.
With the win, which ended a two-game skid, Del Norte improved to 4-5, while the Panthers dropped to 6-3.
The Eureka Loggers also won on Friday night, traveling to Hoopa and coming away with a 33-14 victory.
With the win, the Loggers improved to 3-6, while Hoopa dropped to 1-8.
We’ll have more on that game on Saturday.
The Crusaders started fast once again and opened up a comfortable 35-7 lead going into halftime.
They enjoyed a good night on both sides of the ball, racking up five touchdowns on the ground, as well as a two-yard TD pass from Braylon Johnson to receiver Garrett Shanahan with just six seconds remaining in the opening half.
On defense, they pulled down four interceptions, two of which led to first-half TDs.
A pair of impressive sophomores combined for three touchdowns, two by Maddox Boham, both from inside the five-yard line, and one by Jack Omey, from four yards out.
Senior quarterback Trenten Hagler also had a 13-yard TD run to open the scoring, while Johnson added an 18-yard TD run in the third quarter to close out the scoring.
Cal Figas nailed all six of his PAT attempts to round out the scoring.
The four interceptions on defense all came from different players, one each from Mason Long, Shanahan, Boham and Robert Sirrine.
With the win, the Crusaders improved to 7-2, while Arcata dropped to 1-8.
The local weekend action continues with three more games on Saturday.
The big game of the weekend takes place at Ferndale, as the Wildcats host their neighbors and rivals, the Fortuna Huskies, in the annual Milk Can game at 2 p.m.
Also on Saturday, College of the Redwoods will host Diablo Valley at the Redwood Bowl at 1 p.m., while in eight-player high school football the South Fork Cubs travel to play Branson, with that kickoff also set for 1 p.m.
