File photo – The Crusaders won on the road on Friday night.

The top two local high school football teams each continued their impressive starts to the season with big road wins on Friday night, albeit in very different fashion.

The Del Norte Warriors rolled to an easy 49-7 at Petaluma, pulling away with a strong second-half performance, while the St. Bernard’s Crusaders had to battle all the way to the end to hold on for a 43-41 win at La Salle.

Also in action on Friday night, Ferndale upset the odds in an exciting and hard-fought Milk Can showdown, winning 13-7, while the Eureka Loggers got their first win of the season at Montgomery by a score of 32-7.

Rounding out a busy night of local action, McKinleyville fell 48-14 at Lower Lake.

For more on Eureka’s win, see Loggers conquer the Vikings for first win …

For more on Ferndale’s big win, see Wildcats prevail in entertaining Milk Can …

Del Norte 49, Petaluma 7

The Del Norte Warriors continued to roll over the opposition and set a physical tone, running out to a comfortable win at Petaluma and improving to 4-0.

Once again their ground attack just wore down the home team, with four players rushing for 72 or more yards.

All of this despite a less than stellar first half.

“We played really well on defense, and offensively we hung in there and we executed better in the second half,” head coach Nick White said.

Kobe Mitchell led a deep backfield with 112 yards rushing, while teammate Levi Cox Cooley finished with 105.

Chase Blackburn added 74 yards and Giovanni Gonzalez 72.

“It was well balanced,” White said of the running game. “The kids ran hard, and the O-line, they do what they do and get after people.”

All in all, it’s been a very impressive start to the season for the undefeated Crescent City program.

St. Bernard’s 43, La Salle 41

The Crusaders won an entertaining showdown in Oregon against a far bigger La Salle team, putting up plenty of offense as usual and holding the Falcons at bay late in the game with a couple of big defensive stands.

Talimaivao Fonoti capped a huge game with a late fourth-down sack to help seal the win, after Peyton Smith had ended another late Falcons drive with a key interception.

“It was an amazing game,” SB head coach Matt Tomlin said, before adding with a chuckle, “We like to play offense and we hope to play defense. Just a fun, fun game.”

In fairness to the Crusaders, their defense has been close to flawless for much of the early season, and while they gave up 41 points on Friday night, they did so against a Falcons team that was “tremendously bigger than us,” according to the coach, and a roster that featured almost three times the number of players.

Offensively, there was no stopping the high-flying Crusaders, who paved the way for the big plays with a great effort from their fullback.

“I thought Fonoti ran the heck out of the football tonight,” the head coach said. “He rushed for over 100 yards so you’ve got to give credit to the offensive line.”

Quarterback Will Omey was sensational again, accounting for more than 500 yards of total offense, including four TD passes and a TD run.

Justin Hagler added a TD reception and  TD run, while Bode Joyner had a touchdown reception.

Senior Lane Thrap continued his big start to the season with two more touchdown catches despite being doubled-teamed all night.

Thrap set the tone once again, taking a reception 88 yards to the end zone on the opening offensive play of the night.

He finished with around 170 yards despite being double-teamed.

Eli Moon added a key sack late in the game as the SB defense stood firm.

McKinleyville 14, Lower Lake 48

The Panthers were unable to make it two straight wins, falling to the Trojans in Lake County.

McKinleyville scored a pair of touchdowns in the first quarter, but gave up 29 in the second quarter and trailed by 28 at the interval.

A few early injuries didn’t help matters for the Panthers, who had to shift players around, nor did an early fumble.

The Panthers also gave up a kickoff return for a TD for the third straight week.

Kyler Carr and Jack Patton each ran in for a touchdown for the visitors, who fell to 1-3, while Lower Lake improved to 2-1.

Freddie Sundberg did a nice job running the ball for the Panthers after Caleb Martinez was sidelined early on.

One bright spot for the Panthers were the JVs, who won their fourth game in four matchups this season, 32-0.

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Ray Hamill writes at humboldtsports.com, where you can read lots more about sports in Humboldt County.