Puma party in the USA
The Puma football team gives thanks to fans who showed their support (Francisco Linares The Puma Prensa)
Written By: Francisco Linares, Staff Writer
The Varsity Maria Carrillo High School football team kicked off their season at home with an exciting 35-14 win over Freedom High School from Oakley, CA. The crowd scattered with red, white, and blue to show school spirit, excitement, and enthusiasm in their team.
The Prensa was fortunate enough to interview some of the players before and after the game and was able to capture the player's insights. In a conversation with Coach Jay Higgins before the game, he was asked what he would be saying to these guys before the game. He said, “The whole focus is on execution and that means we’ve got to be sharp with our alignments and assignments and our effort, and when we do those things well then that leads to great execution and team success.”
They sure did execute both offensively and defensively. Defensively, they only allowed two touchdowns, one in the first half, an impressive kickoff return touchdown, and a long run for a touchdown in the second half. Offensively, in the first half, the Puma offense was on fire and couldn’t be stopped, scoring five touchdowns. Estefan Ramirez opened up the scoring with a fourteen-yard touchdown run and a leaping catch for another touchdown due to a pass from Varsity quarterback Cooper Bluestone.
Estefan Ramirez leaps for a 30-yard touchdown pass from Cooper Bluestone to move the lead up to 21-0(Francisco Linares, the Puma Prensa)
After speaking with Bluestone after the game about his beautiful 30-yard touchdown pass to Ramirez about what made him decide to throw it deep. He said, “I saw Estefan being 6’2 over their 5’8 safety and I was like ‘Let me throw it up and let him go get it.’” People could not help but realize the Puma offense slowed down greatly, receiving no touchdowns in the second half. The lackluster second half had fans curious about what was happening with the players. Victor Hernandez, the varsity center, what he thought about the slow second half he said exhaustedly “We had a lot of guys working both sides (offense and defense) we just came out, tried our best, penalties held us back and that wasn’t good for us as a team.” Bluestone said, “I think we just started getting lazy, we started feeling like we won the game already, started getting too relaxed”.
Pumas line up defensively to stop Freedom High School.(Francisco Linares, the puma prensa)
Defensively, the Pumas held themselves very well, causing two fumbles in the game, one on a kickoff and another fumble on the opponent's side of the field that they were able to recover. In a conversation with Vicente Lopez, a defensive lineman on varsity who was not satisfied with their defensive performance regardless of how well they played. He said “We could’ve…done better, our coach told us that we could’ve definitely shut them out, so we’re kinda mad about that”. Overall it was a great game but the fact that they always find something they can improve on is such a great thing to realize about your game.
The Pumas then got to celebrate and embrace this team victory and continue to work towards their next home game against Washington High School.