On Friday, Sept. 15, in the battle for the bell, the varsity football team failed to bring the bell back to Westwood, losing to the Round Rock Dragons 24-21, after a heartbreaking last-second field goal. Both teams played a close game with explosive offensive drives and strong defensive stands, keeping the game close.

“Every game is a unique game, even from week to week,” Head Coach Anthony Wood said. “Unfortunately all we got this game was outscored in the fourth quarter.”

The game started off slow with multiple three-and-outs by both offenses and a fumble in the red zone by Round Rock, holding the Dragon offense from scoring until the last minute of the 1st quarter. However the Round Rock offense wasn’t the only team putting the ball on the field, as Westwood had three dropped passes over the middle of the field, forcing Westwood to punt three times, and keeping them scoreless through the first quarter.

Westwood found some signs of offensive life in the second quarter with their first score coming from Demani Stewart ‘24 who was the only player to gain yards the entire drive. With strong runs up the middle, averaging 5 yards per carry, and accumulating a total of 7 broken tackles on the drive, Stewart finally ran it in, tying up the game at 7 all.

“Demani is one heck of a football player,” Coach Wood said. “He’s got great strength behind him, and he’s got an even better line up in front of him to clear the way.”

Coming out of halftime the Warriors played their strongest football of the night, putting up 14 unanswered points in the quarter. To start off their scoring run, a well-timed interception at the 40-yard-line set up a huge breakaway run by Stewart to put the Warriors up by 7 in the first moments of the second half. The Warriors didn’t let up defensively, with three straight stops giving the Warriors the ball back. This set up Westwood’s first and only receiving touchdown by Brain Perkins ‘26, giving the Warriors a 21-7 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

With both teams gassed and trying to hold the other to a minimal fourth quarter, small mistakes would prove themselves vital for the outcome of the game. While the Warriors continued to play a strong defensive game, the Warrior offense didn’t seem to have much energy left. This led to a streak of forced punts, each of which being forced under pressure by the Dragon special teams unit, throwing the Warrior punting unit off. This poor punting led to very little breathing room for the Warrior defense, and multiple fast-paced scoring drives from the Dragons. In the final offensive drive of the game for the Warriors, a blocked punt set the Dragons up for a last second field goal to walk off with the win. The Dragon’s keep the Bell another year, winning the rivalry game 24-21 in a heartbreak for the Warriors.

“All we gotta do is just overcome and look forward as a team,” Wood said. “Hopefully we can get over this and learn from our mistakes from this week and apply that to next week.”

Next week the Warriors will have their open week to work on what they need to in order to get back in the win column, on Friday, Sept. 29 at Cedar Ridge.