Led by a swarming defense that stepped up with two key interceptions, football (7-1) defeated Northwood High 13-10 at the Legacy Game on Oct. 18 in the stadium. While all football games draw a large crowd, the student body was told to show up at 6:30 in order to witness a special surprise. As the marching band performed “The Star Spangled Banner,” a skydiver came flying down with an American flag, immediately invigorating the crowd with energy before the football team took the field to begin the game. With this victory, the team is undefeated in league (3-0) and has upcoming games against Irvine and Woodbridge high schools to try and qualify for PCL for the first time.

“I think we come out with the same mindset every week, and our goal, one of them at least, was control the line of scrimmage, get our big dogs to show up on O-line and D-line, and we had to play the ball better in the air,” head coach Peter Abe said. “Fantastic defensive gameplan we had this week, and that’s no credit to me, that’s all credit to our defensive coordinator Jimmy Welker and our fantastic assistants. They literally locked themselves in that office for hours this weekend to find something that was gonna work, and they did that.”

The Bulldogs’ defense held the Timberwolves’ explosive offense that previously averaged 32 points per game to three points until around three minutes left in the fourth quarter. This stellar defensive performance was led by key interceptions from cornerbacks and juniors Miles Wat and Andre Quiroz, as well as 44 total team tackles.

“I felt that our defense contained Northwood’s offense well,” running back and junior Trevor Yue said. “The turnovers our defense made limited Northwood’s production and put our offense in a great position to win the game, which ultimately led to our success.”

While the Bulldogs’ offense was unable to score a large amount of points, a touchdown from wide receiver and junior Andy Lo and two field goals from safety, wide receiver and senior Kaveh Wojtowich helped elevate the team.

“I think playing against Northwood is different because we know each other much better as they are the only team we played against all four years, and a lot of our players know a lot of their players personally,” Wojtowich said. “We also have very similar strengths and weaknesses, and we were in basically the same situation this year as far as record and player personnel, so this game came down to executing the game plan and who wanted it more.”

With the end of their senior season approaching quickly, the nine original players who have been with the program for all four years will depart from the team. With their picture hanging in Coach Abe’s room, the seniors have been able to create a promising legacy and foundation for the team for years to come.

“[This season] definitely has gone a lot faster compared to previous years. It’s just push the pace. That’s our mentality. You always want to move forward,” center, defensive end and senior Joseph Kim said. “Even though we’re seniors, it doesn’t matter. We’re one big team. It’s not like seniors and then juniors and then sophomores. We’re all just one team…It’s bittersweet that we’re almost done with the season, and so all of us really want to take that next step and get to CIF.”