Battle on the soccer field

DN Warriors and Arcata Tigers slug it out in a 1-1 tie

Facing the big, bad Arcata Tigers, known as the elite boys soccer team in the Humboldt-Del Norte Conference for years, the Del Norte Warriors displayed a lot of determination and grit as they battled the Tigers to a 1-1 tie at home on Wednesday.

Coaches and players could not recall the last time Del Norte tied or defeated the Tigers, who have soundly beaten the Warriors for quite a while.

While it would have been nice to come away with the victory, Warrior  head coach David Sanyaolu was more than proud of the way his team played in a contest that had the fans of both teams yelling and screaming with excitement from start to finish.

“I’m happy we did well, although I thought we had this one,” he said. “But we’ll take the tie. I think it’s a big boost to the team. We just fought.”

Del Norte improved to 0-3-2 for the season after coming off a disappointing 7-3 loss to Fortuna on the road on Saturday and showed that if they work together as  a unit they can be a squad on the rise.

A key part of the Warriors’ success was the way the defense bent but did not break against the Arcata attack, which was on the Warriors’ side of the field for the majority of the second half.

The Tigers had 19 shots on goal, including 12 in the second half.

A lot of the credit for the Warriors allowing only one goal — a penalty kick in the middle of the second half — was the play of Warrior junior goalie Jorge Leon.

Leon was a wall on the goal line as he leaped, slid and even made a terrific one-handed deflection. Almost nothing could get by him.

“It was my lucky day,” Leon said. To him, everything went his way and he felt confident in the goalie position and his ability to defend the goal.

Del Norte junior goalie Jorge Leon grabs the ball during a game against Arcata on Wednesday. Leon had a game to remember, as he had 19 shots on goal but allowed only a single goal. The Daily Triplicate/Bryant Anderson

While happy to get a tie after losing to Arcata for so many years, Leon said that he and his teammates were disappointed they could not come away with the win and committed “too many errors.”

But, Leon said, he believes the way they battled the entire time and tied the Tigers showed him and his teammates they can succeed.

“It will help a lot,” Leon said. “It will push us to do better.”

“He did excellent,” Sanyaolu  said about his goal keeper. “He did everything you could ask your goalie to do.”

The Warriors came out quickly as they attacked the Tigers from the beginning of the contest. With only eight minutes gone  in the first half, junior Juan Chavez got the ball into the goal on an assist from Szabi Sule, as the home fans went wild.

“It helped that we converted a scoring chance early,” Sanyaolu said. “It was a psychological advantage for us.”

The rest of the half it was a battle as  both teams had scoring chances.

Play was stopped for a few minutes when Del Norte center fullback, senior Colby Japp, jumped up in the air for the ball and fell the wrong way on his left shoulder.

Japp was carted off on a stretcher, his arm in a sling. Sanyaolu said after the game that it appeared to be a dislocated shoulder.

In the second half, the Tigers were the ones on the attack more often than not. While Del Norte had its share of shots on goal they could not capitalize as the Tigers took shot after shot but could not get the ball in until the middle of the half. That’s when the Tigers took advantage of a penalty kick situation and with a clear shot at the goal they kicked the ball in.

Del Norte next plays on Saturday on the road against Ferndale as they search for win number one of the season.

Next week, Del Norte plays at home against Illinois Valley of Oregon on Tuesday and at home on Wednesday against McKinleyville.