Last week Santiago had a varsity football game against Roosevelt High School.  Over the past couple of years, they have built up a pretty serious rivalry.  Their games throughout the past couple of years have always been a battle to the end.  There’s always trash talk between the teams but in the end, they are all friends and just overly passionate over the sport they love.

Starting off the game, Santiago wins the coin toss and decides to defer to the second half.  They kick it all the way down to the 10-yard line so they are off to a good start.  On top of that, Roosevelt only gains 15 yards and then is forced to punt.  Santiago now has to ball on about the 35-yard line.  After a couple of missed passes, Santiago gets the first down and is now in scoring range.  After a penalty is called on Roosevelt, Santiago scores on a run play to the outside and we make the extra point.  Santiago is now up 7-0 with 5 minutes to go in the first quarter.  Santiago is off to a good start.  Roosevelt now has the ball again and in a few plays, they are forced to punt. This time, they had a good punt so it put us all the way on the 20 in our own territory.  They do a good job keeping Santiago from getting any yards, and after Santiago’s QB gets sacked, forcing them to punt. In the first play Roosevelt gets the ball, they throw a deep pass to a receiver and he makes a ONE-HANDED catch for a touchdown. The score is now tied, 7-7 at the end of the first quarter. After a big play by Roosevelt, sacking the quarterback for a 15-year loss, Santiago is forced to punt again. With a chip on their shoulder, Roosevelt pushes back our defense and scores again.  The score is 14-7 with 9 minutes left in the second quarter.  The first pay Santiago gets the ball back, Roosevelt picks it off and returns it to the 20-yard line.  The very next pay they score on a run play up the middle. It is now 21-7 with 7 minutes to go. Santiago has some work to do but there is still a lot of game left so they still have hope.  Santiago gets the ball back, and they throw it over the middle to the tight end and he makes an outstanding one-handed catch for a 30 yard gain.  This gave Santiago the energy they needed and momentum. Later in that drive down the field, Santiago is able to score! Roosevelt still leads 21-14 with 2 minutes to go in the half. After the kickoff, on a lucky 4th down, Roosevelt is about to get a first down which puts them in scoring position. Santiago is able to hold them off from scoring a touchdown, but they convert on a field goal leaving the score 24-14 going into the half, Santiago trailing.

Santiago starts off with the ball in the second half. They need to pick up the tempo if they want to get the lead.  A couple plays in, a pass is thrown to Austin Kurts over the middle, and he breaks a tackle being able to score.  It is now 24-21 with 10 minutes to go in the third quarter.  Roosevelt gets the ball back and they drive down the field to score another touchdown.  They lead 31-21.  Nobody is able to score for the rest of the half so going into the fourth quarter both teams are going to fight for it all. For a couple of drives, both teams limit each other to only 1 first down and then a turnover on downs. When Roosevelt gets the ball back they score on a 60-yard pass play.  Roosevelt leads 38-21 with 7 minutes to go.  Later on, Roosevelt has the ball again and Santiago limits them to a 40-yard field goal.  Santiago gets the ball back and Tubbs (Santiago QB), throws a deep ball to Kurts and we score for a touchdown. The game ends to being Roosevelt winning 41-21.  It was a well-fought game, but Santiago couldn’t pull out the win.