Football beats Cupertino High School 28-14 in the Helmet game
Matadors reclaim the Helmet trophy after six years
Posing for a celebratory photo, seniors Greyson Mobley and Isaiah Dimaya hold the Helmet trophy while the other team members raise up their helmets.
November 5, 2022
“The Helmet’s home, baby,” running back senior Greyson Mobley said.
After losing the Helmet trophy to CHS in 2015, the Varsity Football team was unable to take it back for six consecutive years. However, this year, MVHS dominated the Helmet game, winning 28-14, finally achieving a long-held goal of bringing back the trophy.
At the start of the game, MVHS successfully maintained possession of the ball and scored late into the first quarter. MVHS kept its momentum going into the second quarter, scoring again to create a 14-0 lead. By half time, MVHS was winning by a large margin of 21-7.
“I think when we were up a lot, we just decided as a team that we weren’t going to let them come back,” senior and offensive lineman Jason Yang said. “ There was a feeling that we couldn’t let up, and I remember everyone was like, ‘We need to stay focused.’”
After an intense back and forth, MVHS scored again in the third quarter, with senior and wide receiver Alex Lee running 93 yards to score the team’s final touchdown of the game. Despite CHS managing to score in the fourth quarter, the Matadors brought home the win.
For the graduating seniors, the Helmet game marked a victorious conclusion to their last season.
“[It] feels awesome to finally get that win against [CHS] and get the Helmet back where it belongs,” Greyson Mobley said. “It’s the best way that I could have wished to end the season and to end my high school football career. [I] couldn’t have wished for anything better.”
Yang adds that by winning the Helmet game, the team was able to put aside its previous losses and set a trend to continue to keep the Helmet trophy at MVHS in the future.
Defensive coordinator Preston Heen says that the Helmet game win was thanks to the dedication from the players. Heen recognizes that in previous years, the team has had challenges getting players committed to practice, due to the strong academic culture at MVHS. However, he says that he had “the confidence in them to be competitive [and] win games,” and he believes that in this game, the team was able to pull through and improve.
“It was nice to see that they put together a good four quarters because we don’t usually put together a full game,” Heen said. “At half time we’ll [usually] start turning it up a little bit. So it was good to see that [drive] from the beginning. Seeing them grow and take what I teach them and apply it, it feels good for me as a person and as someone trying to be their mentor, or teacher, [or] coach. So I’m just proud of them, and I love them.”
Yang agrees with Heen, recalling the team’s first practice of the year and comparing it to where they are now.
“[At] the first practice, a lot of people were late and then Coach got really mad at us, and so that created a sense of urgency like, ‘We need to focus,’” Yang said. “And then [recently] we heard that Cupertino didn’t practice on Monday. They already assumed that they were gonna win, so suddenly, that just created motivation.”
Acknowledging the fact that the team has made strides over the course of the season, Heen says that he has high hopes for the future of the MVHS team.
“We got a line on the JV team that’s gonna come up to Varsity next year, and they’re pretty solid, and I have a lot of confidence in them that they’re gonna do well next year,” Heen said. “Our quarterback is gonna be returning and we have a few skilled positions returning. So overall, it looks like we’ll be an experienced squad next year. [The team is] promising.
