On Thursday, Sept. 13, the freshman football teams took on the Hendrickson Hawks at the Warrior Bowl. Despite their best efforts, they lost 18-0 and 40-0.

“The coaches were talking about how [the Hawks] were big but beatable and it showed in the game,” Marcos Henry ‘22 said.

The first quarter started off strong with a kick to the 40-yard line from Xzavier Miller ‘22. It seemed like the Warriors were well matched with Hendrickson’s team as Karsten Bresser ‘22 ran ahead with the ball, but got tackled. The quarter ended neck and neck at 0-0.

“We need to keep putting in more and more effort while working on the fundamentals,” Brian Lee ‘22 said.

In the second quarter, the Warriors lost their footing with Hendrickson scoring the first touchdown, leaving the score 6-0. The team fought back, with Gabriel Arana ‘22 and Eduardo Garcia Ortiz ‘22 working together to intercept the Hawks’ quarterback and Leo Kubelka ‘22 catching the ball at the 35-yard line.

“I think we ran the ball up well in the middle [of the game],” Bresser said.

In the second half, the Warriors were working hard, with Dylan Jansky ‘22 catching an impressive 10 yard pass and Marcus Clinton ‘22 helping with lots of intercepts. Miller also kicked the ball 20 yards but the Warriors still weren’t able to score a touchdown. Despite Westwood getting in some key plays, the game finished with a score of 18-0

“It was a good game, but we’ll get better than them,” Youngchan Kang ‘22 said. “We’re better.”

In the first quarter of the second game the team executed some strong plays. Carson King ‘22 managed a 40 yard kick that left Hendrickson scrambling to fight back, and Cody Nasrallah ‘22 and Rowan Larson ‘22 were constantly intercepting. However, the Warriors began to fumble towards the end of the quarter which gave the Hawks the lead. The quarter ended 8-0.

“As a team we have to improve on little things, we got some right but there’s definitely a lot of room to improve,” Henry said.

The second quarter brought the Warriors together as they were making some important plays and continuously working their way into the end zone. Haiyang Pang ‘22 tackled players and narrowly stopped them from getting a touchdown while Lee managed to catch the opposing team’s kick and run 20 yards. Jaiden Webber ‘22 also fought hard to intercept and catch the ball. The first half ended 20-0.

“Our defense did okay on stopping the extra points, but in the regular games it was just a couple plays where we fell short,” Kubelka said.

In the third quarter, the Warriors worked extremely hard to keep the Hawks on their toes. Lee fought to intercept and managed to get the team to the 35-yard line twice. Henry also ran 20 yards with the ball, which got the crowd on their feet, but still got tackled. Hendrickson scored another touchdown which left the quarter 26-0.

“We need to learn how to play and huddle up,” Lee Richards ‘22 said. “Overall, we have a lot of things we need to do.”

In the fourth quarter, the Warriors were starting to tire as the Hawks got two more touchdowns and a safety. However, the team still had fight left in them with Webber catching all of the Hawk’s scrimmage kicks. Nasrallah also caught a 20 yard pass and got the team back to the 50-yard line. Although the Warriors executed some effective plays, the game ended 40-0.

“The score might have said 40-0, but I think the team played with all they had,” Henry said. “It just came down to some people not doing what they’re supposed to do. [And] I think we could definitely improve as a team.”

The Warriors face the Vista Ridge Rangers on Thursday, Sept. 20 at 5 p.m.