Football: Falcons vs. Knights

Football is America’s most beloved sport. Millions of people flock to watch games, whether it be professional or college. In almost every high school, football is the pride of the school. Fortunately for Frazier Mountain High School, the amazing coach Mark Sandel has put together a stable Varsity football team for the second year in a row. Our team of no more than 17 guys recently had their first 2016 preseason game.

It was a windy night in Lancaster, but the cold was the last thing on the minds of excited football players. The Frazier Mountain Falcons met their opponent, the Desert Christian Knights at Lancaster High School for a 7 o’clock night game. Tonight the teams were using 11 players on the field, lining up against the Knights in black and blue. They too were short on numbers.

After the kick off, it was clear to see that the Knights were the stronger team tonight. Although the Knights held the lead 20-0 by the second quarter, the Falcons were not ready to give up yet. Garen Smith, one of the team captains and quarterback was on fire, showing several attempts at running the ball in for a touchdown. The good sized crowd of Frazier Mountain fans on the away side were ecstatic when Smith finally had his glory in earning the first touchdown of the season so far. It was only 8 minutes into the second quarter as well, the score only 26-7. Not much changed by the fourth quarter, besides our defense doing their best to keep the Knights back.

In the last 30 seconds of the game, Austin Duhm caught a beautiful pass from Steven Siewert #8 in the end zone to make the final score 52-13. Duhm, #21, said the touchdown “felt really good.” His favorite part of the game, like many others on the team, was those two touchdowns our Falcons managed to score.

We may have fallen to the Desert Christian Knights, but there was a lot of improvement to be seen. To compare this year’s Falcon football team from last year’s, judging by Saturday’s game, Coach Sandell tells us how he feels. “It’s very difficult to judge… We were more athletic last year. Saturday night we played a team that was down on numbers too, so they were hurting like we were as far as numbers.”

Coach Sandell also has set expectations for his team. “Expectations is to learn a brand new offensive system and defensive system within a week, and try to be as competitive as we can against other teams that have been doing it for quite a while.”

It should be a good season for our small Varsity football team. If the boys work hard and pull together, there is no doubt that we will win some games, especially in an 8-man league. Let’s go Falcons! Let’s make this season a great one!

#football