Football loses 22-14 to South San Francisco High School on senior night
Matadors end their last home game with a close score
Senior Isaiah Dimaya is escorted by his family, junior Sai Patel, junior Ace Chow and Fremont High School senior Ana Vallejo.
October 24, 2022
Varsity Football fell 22-14 to South San Francisco High School on Friday, Oct. 21 during the team’s senior night, bringing its overall league record to 2-4.
The senior night celebrations began at 6 p.m., an hour prior to the game, and consisted of the seniors being escorted down the field with their loved ones. The seniors stopped to take photos with their family, friends, the coach, Monty and El Toro, before joining the rest of their team.
The game began with senior Greyson Mobley scoring a 6-point-touchdown within the first 20 seconds, which senior Miransh Das says “set a good precedent for the rest of the game.”
However, with the opposition scoring the next touchdown and the kick that followed, the score soon became 6-7, and by halftime, SSFHS was still in the lead.
El’Hajj Malik, the team’s offensive coordinator, believes that the team put up a good fight but that game was ultimately not their best performance, acknowledging how the plays could have been cleaner with fewer penalties and missing assignments.
“We matched [the opposition’s] physicality, but it was going to come down to who made the least amount of mistakes,” Malik said. “And tonight, it wasn’t us.”
With the last game being the team’s Helmet game against Cupertino High School, Malik says that “[the goal] coming into the season was to win the helmet,” and the team will continue to push through to win. Junior, corner and wide-receiver Maaz Zafar agrees with this, saying the team’s offensive strategy will need to be polished in order for them to win the game. With this being the team’s last home game, High reflects on the season and his appreciation for the seniors on the team.
“I appreciate them,” Malik said. “I appreciate their effort, I appreciate them being here for practices and the sacrifices that [go] into being a student athlete — it’s not easy,” Malik said. “Here on this campus, everybody [takes] an AP course or two or three or four or five, and [the players] being able to put in the time to get their studies and keep their grades [up] plus be able to play a sport is pretty amazing. And I wish them the best. Every one of them.”
