On the cloudy evening of Sep. 25, Buena’s varsity flag football team played the San Marcos Royals in what they hoped would be a redemption match from their previous game with the team. Unfortunately, the final score was 6–35, San Marcos.
The game proved to be intense, with the Bulldogs fighting to gain points against the relentless Royals.
The team huddled up at the Buena stadium minutes before the game started in front of the depleted stands. As the refs blew the whistle, players got into action, ready to sprint for the ball.
In the beginning, San Marcos showed an inspiring start, stealing the ball every chance they got. However, Buena was quick on their tail, stopping nearly all plays, much to the appreciation of the fans.
However, San Marcos gained an early lead, one that they kept throughout the remainder of the game.
“San Marcos is a really, really good team,” head coach Mike Gianelli said. “We had some goals of just trying to score on them and make them punt.”
With their previous loss against Santa Barbara High School on everyone’s minds, Buena gave San Marcos a hard time, with senior and wide receiver/linebacker Alyssa Gomez tackling right and left in the first half.
Despite all of their attempts, San Marcos remained a formidable force, managing to score a 28 point lead by the end of the first half.
“We were just playing as hard as we possibly could and giving it our full effort,” junior and center/defensive back Avery Pena said. “We knew it was a good team going into it. [San Marcos] is nationally ranked, [so our plan on defense] was to ‘play as best as you can,’ and just ball out.”
Sophomore and running back/linebacker Jaida Thomas was also a force to be reckoned with, accomplishing complete passes multiple times during the duration of the game.
“This game, we did better than last time we played them,” Thomas said. “We put some points on the board … [The game] tells us we need to work better with offense and moving the ball, but we did well with defense, making sure we’re covering in a matter of minutes, and just making sure we’re there to make the play at them.”
As the second half started up, discouragement in the stands was noticeable, yet the optimism for a potential Bulldog score was still there. Much to everyone’s shock and delight, the Bulldogs scored a touchdown with only five minutes left in the game, leaving the stands erupting in cheers.
Buena seemed to gain a burst of energy in the last remaining minutes, putting in all their might to stop San Marcos.
Junior and defensive back Sydney Pena dived in for a tackle with one minute left on the clock, preventing the Royals from any further scores. Cheers and whistles soon followed her play.
“They’re fighting all the way to the very last play,” Gianelli said. “We have [S. Pena] diving for a tackle on the last play of the game, even though the score was already out of reach, just showing how much they care about the game, and they’re going to fight all the way to the end, no matter what. I was so proud of them for that, for the fight.”
