Butting heads against their district rivals the McNeil Mavericks, the varsity football team fell short on Friday, Sept. 12, suffering their second loss of the season 70-45. With defense weakening throughout the game on both sides leading to a massive point buildup, it was up to the offense to take the lead — and while the Warriors put up a valiant effort in the first half, the Mavericks swept in to claim a victory on their own Homecoming game. 

“[Overall], I feel like we did all right, but we just need to be better [about] fixing some [little] things up,” Canon Olofson ‘27 said. “We just need to have better discipline, [which we plan on fixing] by watching film and listening. We [definitely] have things to work on, and we’re building up to get better.”

The Maverick’s first touchdown was within the first minute of the game, setting the tone for the rest of the evening. However, the Warriors were determined to put up a strong fight. They strategically played out the first few minutes of the quarter, making a field goal to get some points up on the board. This maneuver gave the Warriors some confidence, with offense advancing their game and gaining the lead with a run and touchdown by Wade Allen ‘26. With McNeil now on offense, the Warriors continued their powerful defensive tactics seen in their game last week against Austin High. They pushed back strongly against incoming Mavericks, with Dre Kyles ‘28 playing a pivotal role in cutting off the opponent’s attempts at a pass down the field. But this high aggression from the Warriors resulted in a foul, delivering a significant blow to the Warrior’s defensive success for the remainder of the game. 

“They were a great team — we knew that coming in, but we didn’t come off strong from the get go, and that kind of came back to bite us,” Maps Mehis ‘28 said. 

Although the Warriors continued to get struck down with many flags thrown at them, they  continued to maintain their composure and focus on the task at hand. According to Mehis, this will help the Warriors supplement their strategic training with a positive mindset shift that will earn them holistic success in the future. 

“We had a major talk about staying classy — there were some [hard times] in this game, [but] we got to keep up what we’re doing, keep proving that discipline,” Mehis said. “It’s not about the game really, it’s about our behavior, during the play, after the play. I thought we did all right with that tonight, but we can always get better, especially if we’re playing an unclassy team — if that ever happens down the road.”

While defense continued to make powerful efforts, they no longer contained the same degree of aggression seen earlier in the quarter and in past games. This allowed the Mavericks to move easily down the field with consistent first downs. Their offensive drive culminated in a touchdown, passing McNeil the lead again and bringing the score to 14-10. With Warrior offense now on the field and trying to fill in the gaps left by defense, the Maverick’s own defense finally found their footing, creating an unbreakable line and preventing the Warriors from sneaking through gaps.. Warrior offense consistently lost a few yards, with their offensive drives being pushed to fourth down. 

“Offensively, we [ended up] executing pretty well — it was a little shaky at the start, but we got it together pretty well,” Allen said. “[The biggest] challenges were just getting the run game and getting beat deep over the top — if we can fix that, we’ll be successful this season.”

Both Warrior offense and defense were on incredibly shaky ground. While the Warriors impressively pushed the Mavericks to begin their offensive drive from their own one-yard line, this success was quickly trumped by the Mavericks’ record-breaking play: a 99 yard run down the field on first down, earning McNeil their most popular touchdown of the game. Failing to recover from this blow, Warrior defense continued to enable easy points for McNeil, with the Mavericks scoring yet another touchdown off a run just shortly after. 

“Things like defense — its definitely different [from playing as a freshman last year]. There are a lot of similar guys, so we all bring good chemistry and we’re all good friends, [but] we just have to have [a lot] more teamwork on the field,” Mehis said. 

With defense now strongly hit, Warrior offense had to work overtime to make up for the loss.. But, their continued inability to successfully pass the ball lead to continuous runs instead. This resulted in the Maverick’s offense getting the upper hand as McNeil defense quickly read the Warriors running plays and was able to shut it down swiftly. The first quarter ends with yet another McNeil touchdown.  The second quarter opens to see the Warrior offense beginning to build sporadic momentum. Mehis seamlessly gains 12 yards on first down, weaving around Maverick defense efficiently to run the ball closer to their end zone. This progress is matched shortly by Drew Norrell ‘26 shooting down the field to score a much-awaited Warrior touchdown. The play was largely possible by the team’s cohesion, with the O-line successfully tackling incoming defense, allowing for Norrell to gain access to a clear path.

“A specific weakness [of this game] was that we just need to be more focused,” Mehis said. “We need more discipline [with] those small things — Westwood teams [are known] for their discipline, so we need to [work on that]. Personally, I just need to [focus on] the small things, because those can always come back to bite us. There’s never something you can’t get better on — you can always [improve] on something.”

Hopes of a rejuvenated Warrior defense are brought down after the third quarter kicks off to the Mavericks making easy progress down the field. While the Warriors certainly were obstacles in the Mavericks path to the end zone, they failed to successfully tackle any of the incoming offense, leading to McNeil’s first touchdown of the second half, Leading to a  41-17 McNeil lead. With the Warriors now on offense again, they began making decent progress in their drives, with Mehis instrumental in finally moving the line of scrimmage into the opponent half. As a determined Warrior offense faced off against a staunch Maverick defense at third down and seven, the Warriors claimed the minor victory by moving for a touchdown. A quick series of high-powered runs followed, with yet another Maverick touchdown, and then another Warrior one — made possible by a persistent Allen who drove the ball into the end zone. 

“For the team, we want to [strategically] keep the other teams under 30 points, and a personal goal: I want to rush for a 1000 yards and have 10 touchdowns,” Allen said.

The game now in the final stretch, Allen and Mehis singlehandedly continued the Warriors offensive attempts, with Allen bringing the Warriors to third down and one, and Mehis sweeping in to claim yet another Warrior touchdown with a hand off and run to the endzone. Following this, the Mavericks claim yet another touchdown due to complete, long passes paired with a scattered Warrior defense. Then, Weston Franz ‘27 scored a touchdown for Westwood, a feat quickly mirrored by the Mavericks after a commendable 63 yard run. The final quarter saw Warrior offense making powerful attempts, hinting towards a possible comeback, but without the simultaneous support of defense, a recovery slowly seeps out of grasp. The Mavericks end their Homecoming game with a touchdown and two-point conversion, raising the final score to a mighty 70-45. 

“Given that we executed well later on in the game, on offense we scored a lot of points and we [were able to] bring it back into a close game,” Allen said. “Our defense was struggling in the run game, so they just got to start filling the gaps, and that’s how we’re going to win games [in the future].”

The varsity football team will return next Friday, Sept. 19 to play their own Homecoming game against the Cedar Ridge Raiders.