Losing by a field goal in overtime, the Warriors (4-2) were defeated by the McNeil Mavericks (3-4) in their second district game 27-24. The Warriors went into this game with confidence and drive, but couldn’t hold them off in the end.

After receiving the ball first, running back Te’shon McGinnis ‘17 ran a 60-yard touchdown within the first 25 seconds of the game. Now with 10:27 on the board, the Mavericks got a flag called on them for being offsides resulting in a five yard deduction, moving the ball to the 34 yard line. About two minutes later, there was holding called on number 66 for the Mavericks, this resulted in a 10 yard deduction, 14 yards from the end zone. Only 10 seconds later with 8:19 on the board, Beau Brown ‘17 caught the first interception of the game on the Mavericks own 14 yard line. With 5:13 left in the quarter, there was a flag on the play when quarterback Will Jennings ‘18 attempted a pass to wide receiver Trevor Smith ‘17. The Mavericks interfered the pass resulting in an automatic first down on the Warriors own 18 yard line. To end the quarter with a score of 14-0, McGinnis runs the ball for the second touchdown of the game.

“I feel the game went poorly and some things didn’t go out the way we wanted them too, but we gave everything we had,” Aiden Asal ‘17 said. “I don’t feel we got cocky, but I think we may have gotten a little ahead of ourselves. We need to take it one game at a time. The highlight of the night was Kaeden Roberts ‘18 when he made the field goal to send the game into overtime. We have faced adversity before and bounced back big. What’s stopping us now?”

To begin the second quarter, the Mavericks kicked a field goal to place the score at 14-3. About four minutes into the quarter, the Mavericks then scored their first touchdown leaving the score at 14-10. A few minutes later, they then scored their second touchdown of the game, bringing the score to 14-17. With only 2:17 left of the half, McGuinnis was on the carry when a flag was called; holding on offense, resulting in a 10 yard penalty. Shortly after, the Warriors called their first timeout of the half. The score at the half was 14-17.

“I felt we beat ourselves, I didn’t feel like they beat us,” Dylan Frazier ‘18 said. “At the beginning of the game, we had good momentum but then we lost it because we felt they were just going to lay down for us and get pushed over easy, but they didn’t, they came back because they were more excited than us and they wanted it more than we did. I feel like we were over confident and thought it would be an easy win but it really wasn’t. We felt it was going to be an easy win because they were an easy team, so we didn’t perform at our best.”

During the half, the SunDancers danced with the Mavericks for the annual sister kick, and announced the SunDancer of the week, Mar Ruiz ‘17 and McKennah Robertson ’18 as sunshine girl. They also announced McNeil’s homecoming king and queen as well as Westwoods winning of the annual sock drive against McNeil.

To kick off the third quarter, Colin Iguchi ‘17 fumbled the ball but inevitably ended up catching it again. Shortly after, the Mavericks scored their third touchdown bringing the score to 14-24 with 6:27 left in the quarter. Now on the second down with 11 yards to go on the 43 yard line, there was a pass interference and holding on offense when Iguchi threw to Frazier, this resulted in a repeat of the second down. After a complete pass was thrown to wide receiver Smith, a flag was called on the Mavericks for a pass interference resulting in an automatic first down for the Warriors from their own 36 yard line. With 3:24 on the clock, a personal foul was called on the Mavericks number 24, resulting in an automatic ejection from the game and a Warrior first down on 15 and goal. This ended the quarter with 14-24.

“The game didn’t end up going in our favor, but we still played hard until the end so I can be proud of what my team and I did,” Smith said. “We probably were a little cocky but I like to think we were more confident than anything else. The highlight of the night would be how we came out in the second half and were able to take the game to overtime instead of just giving up after the first half didn’t go our way. We are disappointed with the outcome, but we are going to work harder to get the win next week.”

To start out the fourth quarter, the Mavericks began with possession of ball. With 7:06 on the clock, there was a flag on the play. The Mavericks were off sides resulting in a five yard penalty and the ball moved back to the 33 yard line. Shortly after, McGinnis scored the third and final touchdown of the game for the Warriors. Only about a minute later with 2:46 on the board a flag was called, the Mavericks had a delay of game which resulted in the ball being moved from the 39 yard line to the 34 yard line. To tie up the game with 0:12 until the end of the game, Roberts scored the final field goal for the Warriors to go into overtime. The final score before overtime was tied at 24-24.

Now in overtime, the Warriors started with the ball on the 25 yard line, with the Warriors on the fourth down with eight yards still to go, they attempted a field goal but inevitably missed it. With the Mavericks now in possession of the ball, on their fourth down they scored the final field goal to end the game with a score of 24-27.

“This loss will not change the way we prepare,” Coach Anthony Wood said. “The boys worked hard all week to win the game, they just came up a little short. You have to give credit to McNeil and how they played. When we tied the game, I felt that the momentum had shifted to us and I really believed that we were going to win the game. Sometimes things don’t work out the way we want or expect them to. You use this a learning experience and build from it. I believe our guys will use this game as an opportunity to grow closer together as a team and finish the year strong.”

The Warriors will face off at 7 p.m. against the Stony Point Tigers on Friday, Oct. 14 at home at Dragon Stadium. Go Wood.