By Jennifer Trend, Staff Writer
After a hopeful 2-0 start to the season, the Barons varsity football team lost at home to Trabuco Hills Mustangs last Friday 14-24.
“I thought we fought really hard. We never gave up. As far as execution, I thought we were really sloppy tonight,” said Head Coach Jimmy Nolan.
The Barons began the game strong and secured a touchdown halfway through the first quarter, and successfully converted the extra point. The Mustangs scored a touchdown of their own and the score was at a draw of 7-7 at the end of the first quarter.
Trabuco Hills started off with the ball in the second quarter and quickly advanced and made a field goal to give them the lead. Later, an interception from wide receiver Kishaun Sykes (‘19) allowed for quarterback Nick Welch (‘18) to advance 50 yards to the 42 yard line. After a few missed passes, Welch passed to Sykes, who ran in for a 38-yard touchdown and allowed the Barons to catch up to the Mustangs with the score 14-10. After a few plays, the Mustangs scored after they caught interception from the Barons to give the Trabuco a 14-17 lead at half time.
The Barons came into the third quarter with strong defense and quickly tackled the Mustangs’ offense, but with this brought more penalties and injuries on the field. Bobby Stephen (‘19) caught a pass from Welch at the 25-yard line and ran the ball 53 yards before he was tackled by the Mustangs at the 22-yard line. During the quarter, the Barons missed snaps and passes which resulted in interceptions, but the Barons defense shut the Mustangs’ offense down at the 3-yard line before they were able to score a running touchdown. But this was to no avail as the Mustangs scored a running touchdown with the point conversion, and further lead the Barons 14-24 at the end of the quarter.
Strong defense from both teams lead to a scoreless fourth quarter. An interception from the Barons in the end zone kept the Mustangs from scoring a passing touchdown. More fouls from both teams along with missed passes from the Barons, delayed any opportunities to score. Nearing the end of the quarter, a passing touchdown was almost completed from the Barons, but was intercepted from the Mustangs. Again, Mustangs punt, but the Barons intercept, which prevented any more scoring from Trabuco.
With the end of the game, the final score turned out to be Trabuco Hills 24, Fountain Valley 14.
“They [Barons football] had an awesome lead. They had every right to go out there and win tonight. But I feel like we lost confidence during the game… Between mental mistakes, running the wrong play, running the wrong route, missing tackles, lining up wrong, penalty after penalty after penalty, after penalty, you don’t deserve to win. Trabuco deserved to win that game. They played smart, they executed, we did not,” said Nolan.
The next varsity game is at Westminster High School against Foothill on Friday, September 15.
