Off night for the Warriors

Fall to Huskies 55-28 to drop to 5-1 for the year

Favored heading into Friday night’s homecoming game, things could not have gone much worse for the previously undefeated Del Norte Warriors.

In Big 5 Conference action the Fortuna Huskies wore down and beat up the Warriors 55-28 to earn the win.

With a packed Mike Whalen Field full of Warriors fans, the Huskies quickly silenced them by taking a 21-0 advantage by the middle of the second quarter.

“Fortuna was better than we were tonight, bottom line,” Del Norte head coach Ray Rook said.

Fortuna manhandled Del Norte, rushing the ball for 490 yards. The Warriors rushed for a solid 246 yards. Prior to this game, the most points any team put up against Del Norte this season was 16 points.

A bright spot for the Warriors was senior running back Collin Taylor, who rushed for more than 100 yards. He also returned a 95-yard kickoff return for a score.

The Huskies received the ball first and marched down the field. A key play occurred when Fortuna went for it on 4th and 1 on its own 43 and got the first down. Eventually the Huskies scored on a quarterback keeper by Brady Shaha from two yards out with 5:32 left in the first quarter.

Late in the second quarter, with Del Norte down 21-0, the Warriors finally sustained a drive thanks to a long run from Taylor from around Del Norte’s own 40- yard-line. A flag against Fortuna moved Del Norte to around the 8-yard line of the Huskies.

Darien Simpson has the ball in his hands after catching a 15-yard touchdown for Del Norte in the first half against Fortuna. For more photos, go to triplicate.com/photos Del Norte Triplicate/Bryant Anderson

In the third quarter, Del Norte came back when sophomore Jordan Carpenter scored from 37 yards out to make things 28-14 after the extra point.

The Huskies continued to get the ball into the end zone as Del Norte had no answer for the Huskies’ running attack.

In the fourth quarter, with 9:35 left, Markussen found Carpenter from 22 yards out with the extra point good, making things 41-21.

The Warriors got into the end zone one more time. On a kickoff return Taylor ran 95 yards for the score to give the fans something to cheer about with 1:28 left.

Fortuna scored once more on a 55-yard run to end the game with a 55-28 victory.

Del Norte fell to 5-1 overall and 2-1 in the Big 5. Fortuna improved to 5-1 overall and 3-0 in the Big 5.

Del Norte has a bye next week and will face Eureka at home on Oct. 21.

What does Rook hope his team comes away with from this loss?

“That we’re human,” he said. “We need to go to work on Monday and get ready for Eureka.”

Things went a lot better for the Warrior junior varsity team, which improved to 6-0 with a 14-13 win over the Huskies.

Dylan Pease of Del Norte found Napooi Shorty on a screen pass for a 56-yard touchdown with 9:03 left in the game to give the Warriors the lead for good.

interception on defense in the 2nd half. Jackson Evans had a 16 yardd touchdown run in the first half.