On the afternoon of Oct. 9, the AWHS JV football team took on Redwood High School at the AWHS home field. After losing many of their key offensive players to injuries, the Falcons came up scoreless. The Redwood Giants were held to one field goal and one touchdown for a final score of 10-0. 

In a defensive stalemate, the Falcons sustained a powerful Giants offense, giving up a field goal with 45 seconds left in the first quarter, and a touchdown with 30 seconds left until halftime.

“Our defense was pretty tight. We were coming out for the tackle and we didn’t follow through. We had a couple of players out on our line, so the blocking wasn’t the best. Other than that I think we had a good fight on defense. We need to learn how to read the field better,” said sophomore running-back Isaia Rasmussen. 

Despite a strong defensive line, AWHS made a few mistakes. An interception in the first quarter enabled the Giants to score a field goal, and a fumble inside their five-yard line with 30 seconds left in the second quarter allowed Redwood to take a commanding lead of 10-0, which they held for the remainder of the game. 

“Take that away and it was an even game, which we haven’t done with Redwood for a long, long time,” said AWHS JV head coach Rafael Alonso. 

The Falcons offense was mostly silent, largely due to a copious number of injuries. After a tackle in the first quarter, Kyle Fredrickson, the Falcons’ star running back, left the field with a leg injury. 

“We were down some pretty key guys, basically two-thirds of our offensive line was hurt today,” Alonso said.

Despite a loss, the Falcons, now four wins and two losses, continued to showcase a bright future for the AWHS football program during Saturday’s game. 

“I’m really proud of these guys, they played with heart, they played with guts. Unfortunately, we had a couple of mistakes, but we’ll come back at it next week,” Alonso said. 

The Falcon’s JV football program hopes to end their two-game skid in a third MCAL game at Terra Linda HS on Friday, Oct. 15.