Down by 21, the pressure was on to make something happen. It was the end of the second quarter, and the football team was driving. With 45 seconds in the first half, running back Jeremiah Williams ran for a touchdown, cutting the score to 21-7 at the half, but it was as close as Hagerty would get, losing 43-14 on Oct. 7.

“In my opinion, we can only do so much in our power,” wide receiver Jones Carbon said. “We definitely could have played better, but overall I think we all understand what happened in the game.”

Quarterback Anthony Benzija was the team’s main offense on the night, with multiple passes that led to short gains and eventually two touchdowns for the team. Wide receiver Caleb Barber also made plays happen with several first-down receptions, but never the long touchdown catches he had had in previous games.

“Overall, I think I played pretty well. There were a couple of throws I could have caught,” Barber said. “ Our offense in general came off timid and scared. It affected our game a good amount.”

Running back John Scarelli scored on a short run in the fourth quarter to make the score 35-14. Despite the effort, this wasn’t enough to overcome. Oviedo’s big plays led to six touchdowns.

“Communication is a big thing to work on for us, we need to be able to listen to each other to make things happen,” wide receiver Jeremy Jacobs said.

The team had proven all season that they could execute their big plays and that they could pull off longer passes for even larger gains, but Oviedo’s defense prevented big plays from happening.

 When the team couldn’t overcome that obstacle, it served as a block during the game for both the team’s morale and their ability to persevere.

“The offense struggled moving the ball, Oviedo’s defense was blocking our every move,” Jacobs said.

The offense struggled, and so did the defense. Despite stopping several Oviedo drives with sacks, pass break-ups and fourth down holds, the defense gave up a few long touchdowns: pass plays, run plays, and even a punt return in the first quarter.

The team’s next game is at home against Timber Creek on Monday Oct. 10 at 7 p.m. It is a quick turnaround to play on Monday after a Thursday loss to Oviedo, so maintaining morale will be a challenge. With the loss against Oviedo, it can be hard to keep the team morale up for the next game.

“Instead of getting frustrated with each other, we can try to uplift each other to play better in our next game,” Barber said.

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