With the Ninth Grade Football season coming to a close earlier this month, now is the perfect time to reflect on the team’s highs and lows of the season. They enjoyed starting from the hot July to the cold and rainy November. The season started with a small and humid summer camp under coach Tom Tri. The Camp taught the new player routes, plays, calls, formations, and team building with many push-ups. After the two weeks, they returned to off-season training with speed and strength training. But on August 16th the wheels started turning again with preseason training lasting until the end of September. Cavelero eventually went to their field, finished training, and went into the first game.
Cavelero got off to a slow start by losing its first two games losing at Bellevue 50-27 and losing at home against Bothell 28-0. Cavelero held their own in both games but couldn’t meet expectations. With stellar performances from both sides of the ball, little needed to be done to win and execute at the level needed. However, that rough start didn’t last for long. In game three against Bellingham, under the light at Lake Stevens High School, they dominated the gridiron by jumping to an early 0-21 point lead. With back-ups coming in and out, they won the ball game 12-48, winning the season’s first game. The following week, leading up to their game at Cavelero against Jackson High School, practice was more energized than ever with the recent win and the team planned to come out and do the same against Jackson. The time came on Wednesday, October fourth, at 4 PM. Cavelero jumped to a lead no man had ever predicted and kept hamming Jackson with their pads and intensity, ending the game with a whopping 55-8.
Entering game five at Eastlake, it was going to be a tough battle. Back and forth, both teams down the field dropped touchdowns until halftime. Both teams came together and regrouped, took a closer look at their performance so far, and changed their game plan. Cavelero came out of halftime tied 7-7. On the opening drive, Eastlake forced two incompletions making it third and ten. It was dead silent. The huddle broke and the ball was snapped. Ayden Hobbs Quarter Back dropped back and fired a pass on a deep pass to Cayden Deelena and jumped and came down with the ball, walking into the endzone and taking the lead. It quickly became a shootout with both teams going into each end zone for 19 minutes. Down by eight points and in need of a touchdown, Hobbs once again lined up with his teammates and gave it their all, but alas it wasn’t enough. Eastlake gained a turnover on downs and knelt to win the game 28-20.
After another week of focus and work, Cavelero was on the road again, this time against Mariner. After the coin toss and kickoff, it was clear this game would be tough from Mariner’s play to the referees’ missing calls and scoreboard cheating by adding 7 points when no touchdown was scored. Again, Cavelero went into the half tied this time 20-20 after missing a key touchdown to close the first half. Both teams returned with the sundown and light on for a close and tough match. With two interceptions combined, Marinier marched down and scored 34-32 with 1:48 left. After the kick return, Cavelero got the ball to the thirty-six Ayden and the ten best guys for the offense, they came up short and were stopped at the Mariner 40, coming up short again losing 34-32.
After that, Cavelero had their final home game of the season against Kamiak. This would be the last time they represented Cavelero as freshman football players; they had to win this one, for the school and themselves. Before the game even started – before a pad was popped, before a whistle was blown, something was different. Not the air, not the weather, not the bleachers. The team was in a different mentality and because of that, the Cavelero Colts had an explosive start, dropping touchdown after touchdown. After putting their backups in, the rate of touchdowns slowed down, but it ultimately ended with Cavelero winning 39-20.
Next week would be the week to prove everything. Cavelero was slated to play at the 7-1 Glacier Peak.
This would be their toughest battle yet; during a film session Coach Erik Solbakken said “It’s GP. Nobody likes a GP game.” The game started and it was loud. Fans were roaring their hearts for this big rivalry game. It was tough, with both teams dominating on defense and offense it was a low score of 7-7 going into halftime. Coming out of half was a different story, with both teams exploding for a tight 4th quarter score 21-21 with Ayden Hobbs again leading a game-tying drive. The night would soon be over with it being overtime. Glacier Peak got the ball and was harshly stopped at the end zone. With one last chance, Cavelero got the ball. Players had one sight and One goal in mind: the end zone. Knees were weak, arms heavy, every play could either be a jump for joy or a heart attack. Play after play after play, Colten Fink got the ball, nearly fumbled it, and ran into the endzone getting the game-winning touchdown with the final score being 27-21.
The season wasn’t perfect nor was a Cinderella story but ended in the way everyone wanted, beating the big rival under the lights.
