On Friday, Aug. 25, the varsity football team faced Eastview High School to open their season, putting 34 points up on the Patriots to take home their first win of the season. The game remained fairly close until the final stand of the game when Fred Fisher ‘24 and the rest of the Warrior defense held strong as the Eastview defense was blown back by an explosive finish from Westwood’s offense, putting up three touchdowns in the fourth quarter to run away with the win.

“When you’ve got some young guys on a team, there are bound to be some offensive mistakes,” Head Coach Anthony Wood said. “That’s when you let your defense step up, and I really think they did.”

Westwood had a strong defensive start to the game with neither team being able to find any points until the second quarter. However the Warriors were showing signs of life with some explosive runs from Demani Stewart ‘24 to finish the quarter.

The offensive struggles ended in the second quarter when Eastview’s offense started to pick up, putting 14 points on the Warrior defense. Westwood also found the endzone, answering the Patriots with 10 points of their own before the end of the half, however the Warriors struggled to catch passes leading to a bobbled interception caught by Eastview.

“For these first games you never really know what to expect,” Coach Wood said. “I think after halftime we came out strong and picked up the pace to finish out a really good ball game.”

To start the second half Westwood’s defense started to pick up right out of the locker rooms with forced punts and heavy hitting tackles. However this did not stop Eastview who still found some success, putting up another 6 points on the Warriors . The Warriors were able to find an answer with a clutch interception by Scott Uffelman ‘25 to give Westwood the chance to score, closing the gap going into the fourth quarter.

The Warriors came out strong and determined, scoring a total of 21 points in the fourth quarter alone, with a long touchdown run by Stewart that juiced the Westwood offense. At the completion of the game the Warriors extended their streak of high scoring first games for the 7th year in a row. The Warriors were not only sound offensively but they kept up the pressure defensively with multiple clutch tackles for losses and two game changing turnovers to keep Eastview from putting up any more points.

“Defensively with that amazing stand to hold them to no points in the fourth quarter was amazing to see and was one heck of a job by the entire team,” Coach Wood said.

The Warriors will play again next week Thursday, Aug. 31, at 7:30 on the road against Austin High.