After suffering from a loss of their homecoming game last year, the Warriors came back to prove their worth. On Sept. 16, the Warriors defeated the Vista Ridge Rangers 34-0 without allowing the Rangers to put any points on the scoreboard.

Before the game began, Mrs. Missy Martinez introduced all of the homecoming beaus and sweethearts to the Warrior stands.

“It’s feels great to win our senior homecoming because you realize it’s our last one,” Lucas Madden ‘17 said. “And after losing the last couple of them it makes it feel even better. The Tribe turnout was amazing last night and I couldn’t be prouder to help lead it and share our school spirit. My favorite part of the game is watching Prince run over everyone on Vista and chanting Te’shon on.”

The Warriors won the coin toss so Vista Ridge punted the ball to the Warriors and was caught at the 29 yard line. The first down of the game was achieved by wide receiver Aiden Asal ‘17. Shortly after, the Warriors caught their second first down of the game passed from quarterback Will Jennings ‘18 to wide receiver Trevor Smith ‘17, with 10:11 on the clock. Now with four and 10 to go and 9:19 on the board, Jennings ran the ball 22 yards for their first touchdown of the game. About 45 seconds later, there was holding called against Vista Ridge on Sam Zientek ‘18 resulting in a 15 yard penalty, and moved back to the 48 yard line with a first down and 20 yards still to go. Towards the end of the quarter with 2:14 on the clock and on the third down with two yards still to go, Jennings passed the ball to Smith for a seven yard gain. Following this, Jennings ran the ball two yards for a first down. Now only 56 seconds later, Jennings passed the ball to wide receiver Colin Iguchi ‘17 on the second down with two still to go on the 42 yard line. With the clock just under a minute, Jennings then passed the ball to Smith for a 15 yard gain for the Warriors, concluding the first quarter with a score of 7-0.

“It felt amazing to finally win a homecoming game, and I couldn’t have asked for a better team to do it with,” Beau Brown ‘17 said. “The shutout was just icing on the cake. My favorite part of the game was Will Jennings when he had the 30 plus yard quarterback scramble for a touchdown. We played very well and I’m extremely proud of this team, but as the coaches always say, ‘it’s never as good as you think it was, but it’s also never as bad either’.”

At the beginning of the second quarter, Prince Ugwu ‘17 scored the second touchdown of the game, leaving the score at 14-0. With 10:35 on the clock on the 33 yard line, a flag was called against the Rangers resulting in a 15 yard deduction. Shortly after, a penalty was called against the Rangers on the 40 yard line for a false start, resulting in a 10 yard deduction. Now with the Rangers in possession of the ball on the fourth down with six yards still to go, the Rangers decided to punt the ball to wide receiver Reid Carrier ‘18. With 8:27 left on the board, Jennings passed the ball to Smith for a 12 yard gain. Only 25 seconds later, Jennings did a fake hand off to Ugwu and threw the ball for 12 yard gain. Following this with 3:01 on the clock, Jennings threw the ball from the 43 yard line to the 21 yard line to Dylan Frazier ‘18. With 0:59 on the clock, the Warriors called their first timeout of the game, and nine seconds later they called their second timeout of the half, ending with 14-0 at halftime.

During the half, the homecoming court was introduced and crowned the king and queen. The 2016 homecoming king and queen were Ally Bayer ‘17 and Jack Mischnick ‘17.

“I was shocked when I won but it was so great to see Brittany standing there with her big smile waiting for me and that made me really happy,” Bayer said. “I don’t know what I expected. The whole situation of being nominated and then being a part of certain events with the court seemed to go by very fast. Winning wasn’t really on my mind, I was just enjoying the experience with some friends. I was really proud of football, I think it was a great game that allowed them to gain some of their confidence back that they had at the beginning of the season. They work hard and definitely deserved the shutout. As for winning queen, it was just a happy experience, like I said, seeing Brittany’s smile and how happy she was really made me realize what I had just won. The support of my friends and classmates was incredible and overall it was a great experience.”

At the start of the third quarter, the Rangers started in possession of the ball. Shortly after, a penalty was called against the Warriors resulting in a 15 yard penalty. With 10:09 on the board, the Rangers attempted a touchdown but wasn’t counted due to a holding call, and was turned over into the Warriors possession. Only seven seconds later, an interception was caught by Ethan King ‘17 on the five yard line. Following this, Iguchi caught the ball to gain the warriors seven yards with 7:50 still in the clock. Only 13 seconds later, Ugwu ran the ball over 70 yards for a touchdown bringing the score to 21-0. Now with the ball in the Rangers possession, the Rangers punted the ball to Reid Carrier ’18 on the Warriors own 44 yard line. Towards the end of the quarter with 0:39 on the clock, the Warriors called their first timeout of the half. Only 16 seconds later, Asal caught the ball and ran for another touchdown, bringing the score to 28-0 at the end of the third quarter.

“It felt really good knowing that we won the last time that I’m able to play a homecoming game,” Miles Webber ‘17 said. “My favorite part of the game was when Mario scored a touchdown because that shows how good of a football team we are that our backups can go in and do the same thing as our starters. I feel this game went great not only because we held the other team to zero points, but because everybody got to play and the team as a whole had a great time.”

The Rangers began the fourth quarter with the ball in their possession, and only 44 seconds into the game, Brown caught an interception on the 21 yard line. With the Rangers on their fourth down, Aaron Gonzales ‘17 pushed the Rangers wide receiver out of bounds at the 24 yard line. Now with 5:36 left in the game, the Warriors called their third and final timeout of the game. To end the game, Mario Debs ‘19 ran the ball 30 yards into the end zone to score the last touchdown of the game, to end with a score of 34-0.

“Our players were disappointed in how they played last week and took the loss personal,” Coach Anthony Wood said. “They came out this week and focus on the little things to make sure they were prepared to play. I do not like to predict, but I do believe if we come out and execute the plays called and give great effort, we will have a chance to reach the playoffs. The shutout by the defense was great. It was only our third shutout since 1999 and first since 2010. That is really hard to do. I do believe that our student section played a big part in our success, they make our guys want to play harder and I know we want them to continue supporting us.”

Come out and support the Warriors at their next game against Hendrickson at the Dragon stadium at 7 p.m. on Friday Sept. 30. Go Wood.