On October 11, the rain was pouring down hard on the field, but greater than that was the rain of yellow hankies. The Highland Rams and East Leopards had their rivalry football game and although it felt that Highland was outplaying them on the field, the scoreboard shows a different story as the Leopards beat the Rams 25-7 in a game that was much closer than the final score indicates.
The rain pounded both teams during the first half, leading to a lot of fumbled snaps and slipping sliding on the field. It even caused the Highland cheerleaders to flea for their bus in the second quarter, never to return.
But the flags came down even harder in the first quarter, as both teams combined for 12 penalties – half of which were either personal fouls or unsportsmanlike conduct penalties.
The game started with the Rams kicking it off to the Leopards. The kick was out of bounds at the 35-yard line. Both teams came in with a lot of energy, but East started off with more drive. In their first play, East had a long run of 50 yards.
On their third play, the Leopards scored their first touchdown. Many Highland players wanted to hang their heads down, but together as a team they lifted each other up with high fives, hyped dances, and screaming from the sidelines to cheer their team on.
During the first quarter, the Black Hole started small, but progressively grew and truly ramped up their school spirit! The East student section started off strong, but when the winds started to blow, they scattered and went away.
Highland’s offense started with power, but not enough. On their first fourth down, they were saved by a flag on the play, boosting them up the field. When Highland got to their second fourth down with one yard to go, they were not able to make it. East took over the ball at the 40-yard line.
While offense might have been struggling in the rain with a total of seven bad snaps, the most damaging of which was recovered in the end zone by East for its second touchdown and a 13-0 lead, their defense was dominating. The powerful wind was pushing East back but not nearly as forcefully as the Highland defense. With an incredible stop at the beginning of the second quarter, East decided to punt the ball to Highland on their fourth down at the 17-yard line.
Even with making a few mistakes, the Rams defense kept their heads high and continued to push hard through the pain of numb hands, slipping and sliding on the wet turf, and the rage coming from East. Despite being down two scores, the defense continued to give our offense multiple chances to score, trying to urge them to put points on the board.
A few plays later, the ram’s offense lost the ball again being forced to kick the ball of to the leopards. With the rain still pounding on their helmets and jerseys, the rain of yellow hankies kept coming. After Highland had punted the ball to East, the leopards were charged with a holding during the following play.
During the second quarter, with 8:45 left in the half, the referee abruptly stopped the game, calling both of the Highland and East head coaches to the field to tell them to get their teams together and try to tame the rivalry. After the ref’s actions the rain of both yellow hankies and the weather dramatically decreased.
As the third quarter began, and the rain stopped, the Highland offense came out strong. With two big plays, the first a 24 yard run by quarterback Manasa Pela, and the second a 27-yard pass to Sefa Brown who scored their first and only touchdown of the night.
As the third quarter continued the game was led by both teams’ defensive play. The ball was continually stopped and punted on both sides of the rivalry. Highland could never get the score to put the Rams ahead, and eventually East broke through for a pair of late touchdowns.
Despite the loss, Highland players were encouraged with the effort. They knew they were one or two plays away from winning the rivalry.
“I feel like this was our best game yet,” Brown said. “Our defense was really solid, our offense was putting things together, and now we’re coming together.”
With the playoffs in mind, Highland will prepare for its next game knowing that the team is close to breaking through.
“I honestly feel like we will be a better football team in general,” Brown said. “The offense will figure it out, we have a lot more practices to go. And defense I feel like we’re pretty solid, but we will win our first playoff game for sure.”
