The JV football team took on the East View Patriots for their first game of the season on Aug. 30. Although they fought hard, the Warriors lost with a close score of 14-18.

After many attempts to carry the ball upfield, the Warriors turned the ball over to the Patriots. Quick tackles by Drew Goodall ‘21 as well as other stops by the Warrior defense weren’t enough to stop East View from scoring the first touchdown. Preston Neidhart ‘20 helped the Warriors gain around 20 yards, and a close catch by Nick Delgado ‘21 weren’t able to push the Warriors close enough to the end zone, and the quarter ended with East View leading 0-6.

At the beginning of the second quarter, the Warriors turned the ball back over to the Patriots after failing to complete a fourth down conversion. More tackles from Goodall and Jesse Hamilton ‘21 allowed Westwood to regain the ball, and Neidhart along with Tre Guerra ‘20 were able to carry the ball down the field. This allowed Alec Neville ‘21 to pass to Delgado to score the Warriors’ first touchdown, which put the score to an even 6-6.

“I think it went well, we played good defensively, but there’s still a lot to improve on,” Goodall said. “[We need to improve on] everything. Everyone can improve.”

To begin the second half, William Ramage ‘20 kicked the ball off to East View who later gained a large amount of yardage leading to their second touchdown of the game. A combination of efforts from Neville and Alex Rusch ‘21 led the Warriors up the field, but not enough to put more points on the board. Failing to make another fourth down conversion, the ball was turned over, and the Patriots were able to score another touchdown, bringing the score to 6-18.

“We did not do so well in the first half, but we picked it up in the fourth quarter. I feel like I did pretty good, got a few yards, but I feel like it’s mainly a team effort. We need to get out blocks better and see if we can throw the ball a little straighter,” Neidhart said.

As the end of the game came closer, the Warriors began to gain more steam and more yardage. In a quarterback keeper, Neville ran into the endzone for a Warrior touchdown as well as scoring an extra two points to raise the score to 14-18. Towards the end of the quarter, Devin Green ‘21 was able to recover an East View fumble to give the Warriors possession. The game ended with the Warriors gaining yardage thanks to Reece Frank ‘21, but the team was unable to score more points. The game ended with the Warriors barely losing with a score of 14-18.

“We fought hard, we came back in the fourth quarter, it was really fun getting to play our first game with a pretty good team,” Rusch said. “Well it’s not just me who played, it’s the whole team, but individually I think I did pretty good and as a team I think we did even better. [We need to work on] perfecting each and every play.”

For their second game of the season, the Warriors battle the Austin Maroons on Sept. 6.