There’s no “I” on a football field, and last Saturday, the Frederick Warriors were a united team hungry to win and willing to do whatever it took to be successful. It took six years to get back to the playoffs, and they didn’t do it alone–they did it together. They enjoy victory together, and they endure defeat together. After a riveting game against Discovery Canyon that ended in a narrow loss in overtime, Frederick Football saw both their postseason hopes end and their new future as a team begin.

​The Warriors, led by Dante Ciaravola (#1) and Logan Robinson (#77), were hand and hand as they walked onto the field. The energy in the air was electric. Trey O’Dell (#27) expressed that, going into this game, “the biggest motivators were our community and each other, we really wanted to play for the guys on and off the field and wanted to show out for the community.”​The first quarter gets underway with the Warriors winning the coin toss. Brandon Hornby (#22) caught the punted ball but it was a touchback and the Warriors start with the ball at the 25-yard line.

The ball was quickly handed back to the Discovery Canyon Thunder in which they scored and kicked a field goal to make the score 0-7. But the quarter wasn’t over for the warriors, at 2:33 Brandon Hornby made a touchdown to make the score 6-7. Followed by a field goal kick by Luke Dunker (#11) making it a tied game. At just under two minutes the Thunder take back the ball but are quickly stopped by Joseph Notaro (#9) as he causes them to fumble.

The Warriors start with the ball in the second quarter and quickly take the lead at 10:12 when quarterback Jake Green (#2) walks into the end zone to make the score 13-7 and the kick is good by Luke Dunker to make it 14-7. Again with 25 seconds left, Jake Green walks in for his second touchdown making the score 21-7 as they go in for halftime.

The third quarter starts off sluggish as the warriors struggle to make it down the field. At 6:15 the momentum shifts to the opposing side when Discovery Canyon score a touchdown making it a one-score game to tie. At 4:18 Dom Schleif (#4) is wide open but fumbles the ball, setting the stage for the fourth quarter and moving the momentum back on the other side.

A quick pep talk by Coach Peeples gives the guys more energy to get back on the field and play hard. During the last quarter, only one touchdown and field goal were made and that was by Discovery Canyon to tie the game at 21-21. With only seconds to spare in the fourth, the game was forced into overtime(the first overtime that the Warriors have gone to this season). Each team got a chance to score and field goal attempt from the ten-yard line.

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Jordan Anders

Joseph Notaro’s victory after causing the other team to fumble.

A coin toss once again won by the warriors started the fifth quarter off as they decided to defend the goal first. Discovery Canyon made their touchdown and field goal no problem. Now it was Frederick’s turn to try and tie the game. It was like being in a movie, everything turned into slow motion, everyone was on their toes waiting and cheering that someone would get this touchdown. It was the fourth down and Frederick’s last chance to tie. Jake Green calls for the ball and hands it off to Brandon Hornby. Brandon then fights his way into the end zone and everyone goes ballistic. But Luke Dunker still has to make this field goal to tie. With no problem at all, he kicks the ball straight down the middle of the goal post.

The game then goes into double overtime and Discovery Canyon wins the coin toss and decides to defend first. The Warriors fall short and rely on Luke Dunker to make this field goal to bring the score to 31-28. Now it was all up to the defense to stop the Thunder from making a touchdown. At fourth down Discovery had one more shot to score but a call is made on the field. A penalty made against Dante Ciaravola for grabbing an opposing player’s facemask. The third down gets repeated and the Thunder use the previous call as leverage to score a touchdown and the game is over at 31-34. After the game, Trey O’Dell stated that “I feel like we played our best, we put our hearts out there and left it all on the field.”

As for the next season, Joseph Notaro explained, “our plans for next season are to definitely go deep into the playoffs and take a championship but it all starts now; we’re already going to start working hard for that goal.” To add on to that Luke Dunker says, “our plans are just to go F-12.”