Varsity Football fell to Mills High School 6-14 on Friday, Oct. 13. With an interception by sophomore and safety Justin Chaahoub in the first quarter and a 63-yard touchdown run by senior and running back Ace Chow within the first minute of the second quarter, the Matadors were off to a strong start against MHS. However, they failed to pull off a two-point conversion following the touchdown, allowing MHS to
take the lead after scoring a touchdown and successfully converting the point after attempt in the last few seconds of the second quarter, sending the game to halftime with the Matadors down 6-7. MHS scored another touchdown in the third quarter and the Matadors were unable to regain momentum, ultimately finishing the game with a final score of 6-14 and bringing its overall record to 2-5-0 and league record to 1-3-0.
Coming off of a 0-42 loss last week against Saratoga High School, Defensive Coordinator Preston Heen believes that the team played much better against MHS. However, Chaahoub doesn’t share the same sentiment about the team’s overall performance. His discontent stems from the contrast between the team’s dominant opening and the final outcome of the game.
“I was really excited,” Chaahoub said. “They’re supposed to beat us [because] they’re ranked higher than us, but I thought we were really going to come through this time. [That being said,] offense couldn’t drive and it just makes me mad that I can’t do anything about it and it makes me feel helpless, but that happens sometimes.”
Having given up many points due to poorly executed plays, Heen acknowledges that the Matadors may not have had the best performance. He argues that these blunders were the most significant contributing factor to their loss.
“We just didn’t have it in our cards tonight to win the game,” Heen said. “There were just a couple mistakes that caused us to give the ball up or let up the score, and that’s just the nature of the game with this league: it’s going to be who messes up the least and who has the least amount of brain farts.”
Even so, Heen remains steadfast in his belief that the team gave it its all. As a coach who has watched the current seniors grow from their freshman years, he sees and appreciates the team’s commitment and dedication to football, despite the disappointment following each loss in the season.
“Not a lot of them played a lot of football up until high school, but they’ve already come so far,” Heen said. “For these seniors right now, when they first started, we didn’t have a JV team: they were just on Varsity as freshmen playing [against] seniors. [They would] get intimidated and weren’t learning and gaining experience because of that mental block that ‘they’re huge and I’m small.’ This sport takes a lot of practice to get really good at, so I’m happy with them because I know where they came from and where they started, and seeing them now, I’m proud of them. Looking at the last three games of the season, I just want them to play hard and never give up.”
