For the seniors on varsity football, it was the close beat by Lynbrook which kept them out of the CCS championships last year.

"Lynbrook has always played us tough," football coach Jeff Mueller said before Friday night's game. "Tonight, we're going to go out and play tough. It's always fun to play Homecoming games. It puts a target on them."

For fans, it was being defeated at the Homecoming game last year that kept tensions running high on Friday night. "Everybody wants to win their Homecoming game," said junior Kevin Nguyen. "Losing it was depressing because that's the epitome of school spirit right there, it's what Homecoming week leads up to. If we win against Lynbrook, it's gonna be pretty good."

According to Mueller, Lynbrook leans towards being an offensive team while MVHS is stresses both offense and defense. Strategically, MVHS was well prepared to meet Lynbrook. "Lynbrook has many offensive and defensive tendencies in certain conditions," said Mueller. "We're going to adapt to those tendencies." Statistically, with an undefeated 5-0 record in comparison with Lynbrook varsity's 1-4, Monta Vista was favored to win.

And win they did, 49-7. Lynbrook kicked off to start the game, and was nearly scored upon by MVHS with a return touchdown in the first ten seconds, but was stopped by a flag. MVHS scored quickly in the subsequent plays, senior Justin Rahn with the 15-yard run, making the score 6-0.

MVHS started the second quarter with a 17-yard pass touchdown from Rahn to Senior Max Ratkovich for a touchdown. After a two-point conversion by senior Aaron Turner, the score was 14-0. A tight MVHS defensive forced a punt from Lynbrook on the fourth down. The punt from Lynbrook was caught by senior Jason Kearns for a 90-yard punt return touchdown.Lynbrook was left trailing 21-0 with six minutes left in the second quarter.

Defensive plays on both sides stalled scoring in the second half of the second quarter until Lynbrook broke through the defense with two minutes left on the clock, bringing the score to 21-7. Turner returned matched Lynbrook with a 16-yard run, making the score 28-7.

The game resumed after half-time, with strong defensive plays on both sides. Turner scored a four yard run, the sole score change in the third quarter. The last quarter of the game saw Turner's third touchdown of the match up, a 9 yard run as well as Senior Nick Tong's 19 yard run.

At the end of the game, Turner had seven carries for 52 yards and three touchdowns. Tong finished with five carries for 48 yards, and Rahn had six carries for 47 yards in addition to 10 for 17 completed passes for 202 yards.

"The offensive and defensive lines played great," Mueller said after the game. "We ran the ball better than we thought."

This friday the Matadors, with their record of 6-0 will travel to Fremont to play against the Firebirds in their own Homecoming game.