by Austyn Esser

Tension was in the air Sept. 2, which marked the beginning of Friday night football games at South. Adrenaline surged through the senior linemen before the game even started; they were full of anticipation of plays to come. Prior to the game, the team huddled up to discuss how the game should go.

“[Brent] Pfiefer always says play every down like it’s your last. Play to the level you’re capable of. Play Maverick football,” defensive end Kyle Johnson, 12, said. 

The determination to win resulted in the team’s favor, with a score of 28-7 against Circle. 

“I just wanted to win. I just really wanted to beat them. That was the only thing going through my mind,” center and defensive tackle Cody Weston, 12, said.

Despite the win, the team still has goals to further improve their tactics.

“All the goals we have talked about as a team are reducing penalties and turnovers,” Johnson said. “We also talked about how we need to play strong through the whole game and whether we are winning or losing to play as strong as we can until the end.”

Defensive lineman Aaron Rudiger, 12, also feels there is room for improvement.

“We won our first game, but we still have a lot more improvements to make. Our goal is to reach State and win it,” Rudiger said.

The stakes for this first game were set to a higher level in Brian Huber’s industrial arts class that Friday during fourth block.

“In fourth block we had a competition on what the score would be, and I got it exactly right. So in the last few minutes of the game I was really hoping no one else would score because I really wanted my snickers bar,” Johnson said.

In the end Johnson got his snickers bar and the team got its first win of the season.