Shafter Intercepted Our Win
Fano Maui escapes a Shafter player’s grasp.
To start the night off, Shafter paid a moment of silence for both Taft and Shafter’s losses of staff/loved ones killed in the Las Vegas massacre shooting. Shafter lost a loved one Victor Link, a former student of Shafter High. He was killed at the age of fifty five. After the peaceful moment of silence for Victor Link and Kelsey Meadows and all of the Las Vegas victims, the chosen captains for both teams went out onto the field to decided who would be receiving the ball.
With the first quarter under way Taft received the ball with Shafter leading the kickoff. Zack Tuaila #5 received the kick and ended up placing the ball on the 45yd line . Setefano (Fano) Maui takes the handoff from #6 Jackson Van Roekel, Taft’s quarterback, getting a big first down for a ten yard gain and putting Taft on Shafter’s 45 yd line. Fano Maui breaks through Shafter’s defense for a gain of 20 yards but was brought down at Shafter’s 25 yd line. Jackson Van Roekel threw a pass for a touchdown but the ball is intercepted by a Shafter player. A flag is thrown on the ground for the recent play, but luckily it is against Shafter for a personal foul. Taft, on defense, held Shafter at thier 27 line while another flag was thrown on Shafter’s 3rd down; the flag was thrown on the defense for encroachment, thus giving Shafter the first down while putting the ball on Shafter’s 32 yard line. Shafter tried, with a first down, to make a pass attempt but Taft was called by the refs for a “pass interference” on the play and this set the ball near the 50 yard line.
The home crowd was roaring with excitement. For the following play on the 50 yard line, Shafter received a penalty for blocking in the back and this caused sending Shafter back 10 yards, but to make up for that lose, Shafter comes back with a big run that puts the ball on Taft’s 20 yard line. On the next play yet another flag is thrown on Shafter for a false start. Shafter’s team makes another pass attempt but Zack Tuaila intercepts the pass before meeting its intended target and this helps them by putting Taft on their own 30 yard line. Taft was on offense when realizing it is more difficult to gain some positive yards where Shafter is holding the line. Fano Maui takes the handoff for a short gain of yards on 3rd down. With the four yard gain not being enough, Taft decided to punt. Taft punts the football where it is put on Shafter’s 30 yard line. With only two minutes left on the clock, the score is 0 to 0. Shafter handed off the ball but fumbled it, yet still managing to recover before Taft could get to it. Taft’s own Maino Maino tips Shafters pass attempt with thirty one seconds left on the clock. Shafter then punted the ball on 3rd down with the ball on Taft’s 25 yard line. Taft tried to push for a first but were unable to do so, thus ending the first quarter.
Now going into the second quarter of the game, Taft kicked off to Shafter. Taft rushed and stopped the running back and his helpers on their 30 yard line. Shafter then makes a big run with the ball on Taft’s own 30 yard line. Taft was called for holding and were sent back to the 20 line. Taft was able to hold Shafter on 4th down with Taft on offense. Fano Maui takes the ball once again and allows Taft a first down while putting the ball on 45 yard line. Taft was stuck on the 45 yard line, 2nd down when they were called to stop because of a holding foul. This put them on the 35 line. Being called for a “false start” started the following play with them now on the 30 yard line, but Fano Maui took the ball for a short gain on 3rd down on Shafters side line. Shafter’s own #9 was injured during the play. The ambulance took #9 off the sideline for a possible head injury. The game was put on hold at 8 minutes and 45 seconds on the clock into the 2nd quarter. The teams both waited until another ambulance vehicle arrived.
After quite some time of pausing the game, it was finally resumed. Taft punted the football to Shafter. On punt return, Taft’s #17 Derek Amorteguy blows up Shafter’s #29. The ball was then on Shafter’s 29 yard line. Taft was on defense when their own #1 Nick Vargas was assisted by #55 Seth Friedrichsen in stopping Shafter with their gain of 16 yards. Taft came close to an interception when the ball was targeted to Shafter’s #24. Shafter passes the ball to #12 allowing the first touchdown of the game. Shafter’s home crowd cheered hysterically in awe of this moment while Taft fans seemed to be very angry and upset. Taft’s #3 Jordan Miranda received the kick and travelled with the ball to the 40 yard line. Fano Maui ran the ball again when he was tackled behind the line for a loss of 3 yards. Fano #9 pushed through Shafter’s defense line as strongly as he could to help his team but Shafter is flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct, which stopped his play.
With close pressure from the Shafter defense and all eyes glaring on him, Van Roekel threw an incomplete pass, leaving Taft stuck on 4th down and forcing them to punt the ball. #8 Jacob Gonzales came in and halted Shafter’s punt return runner at the 35 yard line. Shafter then threw a short pass for a gain of six yards. Shafter next received a false start on the following play which is an advantage for Taft. Using the flag thrown as an advantage for them, Taft managed to hold the opponent at the 36 yard line. Shafter punted the football, setting it on Taft’s 20 yard line. Fano Maui struggled to get the first down through a few plays but he finally got the ball near the 30 yard line. Zack Tuaila took the handoff from Van Roekel for a loss of 1 yard, but Jackson made another pass attempt that was intercepted by Shafter, making the score 14 to 0. Zack Tuaila received the kickoff but was brought down at the 25 yard line. Jackson Van Roekel made another pass attempt but he was rushed by Shafter defenders; As he was still throwing the ball, Van Roekel was sacked and his pass was intercepted once again by Shafter. Shafter’s #19 dropped the ball on a pass, though. Next, Taft’s #24 Zach Self came close to an interception at the 25 yard line but didn’t reach quite high enough, unfortunately. Shafter then got another touchdown at the end of the 2nd quarter. The score by this time was 21 to 0, which made this uphill battle tougher.
At this point Taft and Shafter had entered into the next half of the game while things looked bleak for Taft. The Wildcats kicked off to start the 3rd quarter. As the ball is on Shafter’s 30 yard line, Taft #34 Harley Morgan and #65 Alex Garcia manage to make a tackle keeping Shafter from reaching a l yard gain. Shafter made a short pass for 4 yards but is stopped by Taft Wildcat Jacob Gonzales. Taft holds Shafter at the 34 yard line with shafter punting the ball on the 35 yard line. Fano Maui took the handoff by Van Roekel for a first down on the 45 yard line.
Shafter’s defense was holding strong and working to keep Taft on their 45 yard line. Taft gained a few yards by now, so Van Roekel got 3 yards that put Taft on Shafter’s 45 yard line. Fano Maui took the ball for a 3 yard advance himself with 4th down. Taft failed to get the first down, so they switch over to offense; the ball near about the 41 yard line. Shafter #18 gets past Taft’s defense but is stopped and brought Shafter close to the goal line. The Generals continued to push Taft’s defense back to the goal line. Shafter broke through Taft’s defense line, making the game a more difficult one for the Wildcats as they scored yet another touchdown. The score was then 28 to 0 with 5 minutes and 32 seconds left on the clock. One of Taft’s well known players Zack Tuaila received the ball from the kick off by Shafter and worked hard on putting the ball close to the 35 yard line. Van Roekel was struggling to throw a pass to his intended target which caused an incomplete pass. The Taft Wildcats had difficulty trying to find its momentum to come back with 3 minutes and 49 seconds left in the bottom of the 3rd quarter. On offense, Shafter’s quarterback attempted to make a pass off but they received a penalty for “holding”. The Generals made up for the penalty by achieving a first down. Shafter next got a huge run that put the ball on the 35 yard line. Taft defense was holding strong and not allowing Shafter to get a first down. The ball was on the 25 yard line with Taft on offense with 1 minute and 21 seconds left until the end of the quarter. Fano Maui was cut short when trying to expand 5 yards to reach the 30 yard line. Taft was unable to get a first down punt to Shafter at their 40 yard line. The game finally reached the end of the third quarter and the situation was starting to look better ad less stressful for Taft.
The teams entered the beginning of the 4th Quarter. Shafter gets the ball on their 45 yard line after kickoff and started off by making an incomplete pass at the 45 line. Shafter was pushing Taft back to the 30 yard line with a punt on the 4th down. Van Roekel threw a complete pass to #81 Blake Johnson at the 38 line when he was refrained from accelerating anymore. Johnson obtained another complete pass from Van Roekel putting the ball on the 41 yard line. Jackson Van Roekel seemed to finally gain some momentum. Fano Maui also captured a complete pass but lost 2 yards. #25 Thomas Stark stepped in and completed a pass on Shafter’s 40 yard line. Van Roekel was sacked for a 4 yard loss and Taft also got a flag for holding. Taft decided to punt to place the ball near the 30 line. Taft was getting pushed back once again but Nick Vargas helped by getting an interception that put Taft back on offense at their own 30 yard line. Taft kept pushing up the field to the 40 yard but they were taken back with a loss of 7 yards. Soon after, Maui made up for the loss with a gain of 10 yards. Taft, unable to get the first down, switched to defense on the opponent’s 40 yard line. Shafter threw a pass but it was deflected off of Wildcat #3 Jordan Miranda’s helmet. Taft called for a timeout with 5 minutes and 26 seconds left in the fourth quarter. Taft turned the ball over at the 50 yard line where Fano Maui picked up a few yards. Taft was stuck on the 45 line before they punted to Shafter; the ball on the 27 yard line. Shafter then got a huge run where Fano Maui caught to tackle the ball carrier before they acquired another touchdown. Shafter was at 1st and goal but Taft continued holding. #73 Josh Newer got a sack with a flag also being thrown on Shafter bringing the ball to the 23 yard line. Shafter threw the ball for a touchdown but it was incomplete. Shafter went for another pass attempt but it became another incomplete pass. Shafter made a complete pass on 4th down but it was not enough, turning the ball over to Taft at the 10 yd line. Taft called a timeout at 1 minute and 32 seconds to fix offence. Maui picking up 3 yards then makes a complete pass but was tackled at the 15. Maui was taking the handoff for the first down with the clock at 45 seconds. The teams were lining up at the 50 yard to shake hands at the end of the game to wish each other luck in their future games. The final score 28 Shafter, 0 Taft.
