Friday night football has returned and the Taft High Wildcats are looking more focused and set to win than ever before. The first match-up was against the California City Ravens, who finished 5-6-0 last season. This didn’t seem to throw off the Taft High Wildcats who seemed very confident. Everyone’s game face was on and, most notably, starting quarterback Jackson Van Roekel, who felt he had something to prove. His thoughts going into the game were to “Play hard, have everyone do their jobs, stick to the game plan, and simply prove everyone wrong.” His point came across loud and clear by leading the Wildcats to a 54-30 victory over the Ravens.

The Wildcats started off the first half on a bad note with one of their receivers fumbling the ball during kickoff and allowing the Ravens’ offense to take the field only a couple seconds into the game. The coaching staff told players coming off the field to shake it off and made sure to keep the moral high as their defense took the field. This led to outside linebacker, Jordan Miranda, coming up big early in the first quarter and tipping a quick pass that teammate Alex Delgado intercepted. This was only one of many defensive stops that happened throughout the night.

Some notable players who had a great night were Nick Vargas and Brett Walls who both played great defense and smacked down multiple passes throughout the game. Another player was Kody Garay who recovered a fumble midway through the second quarter, giving the Wildcats another chance to score. Lastly, the player took over defensively was Jordan Miranda. Jordan ended the half with an interception on the two-yard line. This prevented the Ravens from closing up the lead the Wildcats had built up in the first half. The score at half was the Wildcats up 21-8 over the Ravens. Players who had scored up to this point were Austin Massey, Coletin Hamblin, and Alex Delgado. The players looked happy, full of energy as they left the field for the halftime show.

The second half had a much smoother start compared to the first half, and this was due to the defense starting off super aggressive. Just three minutes into the second half, Kody Garay gets a big hit to cause a fumble and teammate Christian Burleson coming up with the loose ball. This was followed up with Jordan Miranda getting his touchdown for the night only one minute later. The Wildcats kept this momentum throughout the third quarter with players Brett Walls, Alex Garcia, and Coletin Hamblin making plays both on offense and defense. Player Brett Walls finished the third quarter with his only touchdown of the night, and teammate Alex Garcia finished the third quarter with two consecutive touchdowns. They went into the fourth quarter up 47-16.

The Wildcats started having some troubles on defense, which resulted in a couple of Raven touchdowns as the game started to come to an end, but this didn’t stop players from pushing themselves as far as they could. The offense continued to pound the ball up the field multiple times, but only once did they make it all the way. Oscar Arellano ran the ball past the defense for the Wildcats last touchdown of the game. This would lead to the final score of 54-36. The team was ecstatic about their victory, and Wildcats head coach was very proud of his men. His thoughts about their performance were, “They started off slow after that mistake that happened during kickoff. We regrouped and pounded the ball offensively. Defense did great and we had five big defensive stops.” He also wanted to highlight Alex Garcia for the amazing night he had.