On Oct. 24, the University High School Boys’ Football team suited up for their annual Rivalry Week game against the Woodbridge Warriors. After a 3-5 start to the season, the Trojans looked to improve their record in order to win a bid to the CIF playoffs.
After a narrow win the year before, the Trojans spent lots of time watching film to prepare for their rivalry match.
“We prepared by watching past Woodbridge games,” junior Genco Keke said. “We tried to look for all the hints we could find about their offense and defense.”
To begin the game, the Trojans elected to receive the ball, but they immediately turned it over to the Warriors during their first set of downs. The Warriors were able to take advantage of the Trojans’ blunder and strung together five consecutive runs to put themselves within field goal range.
“I feel like we came out to a really slow start,” junior Dylan Elmer said. “It took a while until we were locked in.”
The Trojans continued to struggle with scoring, as they were only able to make one first down before being forced to punt once more. The Warriors continued to focus on their running game and wore the Trojans down, eventually punching the ball in for a score with a rare pass from their quarterback.
After a short return by Cruz McMullens, the Trojans once again were forced to punt after a quick three-and-out. The Warriors once again mounted a promising drive until one of their players acquired a penalty after an illegal hit on Marco Pablo Tirado, leading to a field goal-saving block just before halftime.
“DeAndre Miller’s block before halftime changed the momentum of the game,” senior Jacob Najar said. “It gave us hope that we could win.”
The Warriors began the second half with another rush-focused drive, eventually leading to another touchdown on the ground. However, Elmer led UHS on a 60-yard drive, capped by a touchdown by senior Zion Barreto. The Trojan defense stepped up by quickly stopping the Warriors and forcing them to turn the ball over, which led to the fourth quarter.
“As the game progressed, our team became more focused,” Keke said. “We started performing much better.”
With just ten minutes left in the fourth quarter, the Trojans put together two scoring drives, one ending with a catch by senior Jake Rabold and the other a pass from Elmer to senior Lucca Clouthier, resulting in a two-point conversion. This tied the score at 22-22, forcing both teams into overtime.
“One thing we practiced that ended up big was a goal-line play to Lucca,” Elmer said. “We were able to use it to get the game to go to overtime.”
The Trojans kicked off to the Warriors to begin overtime. Once again, the Warriors mounted a rush-heavy drive, which eventually allowed for yet another rushing touchdown for their star running back. This, coupled with an extra point, would require the Trojans to score a touchdown to stay in the game. The Trojans, fueled by an excellent passing sequence from Elmer, responded with a touchdown to tie the game at 29 points.
“Lucca had a really big game,” Najar said. “He had two game-saving touchdowns for us.”
Since the Warriors started with the ball, they now had the opportunity to kick off to the Trojans to start the second period of overtime. The Trojans marched down the field without much resistance from the Warriors and scored their fourth consecutive touchdown with a pass from Elmer to McMullens.
From there, all the Trojans needed to do to secure a win was to restrict the Warriors from scoring a touchdown, but the Woodbridge rushing attack could not be stopped. Being behind by one point, the Warriors had two options: take the easy field goal or risk it all for a two-point conversion. They decided to try for the two-point conversion and eventually sealed the game.
“It sucks we came a play short from winning,” Elmer said. “But I know this team had success and we kept a positive outlook on the season.”
