On Oct. 9, the Lady Barons defeated the Olympian Eagles 52-31 in a fiery matchup during a home game at Bonita Vista High. The Lady Barons not only received a win, but continued their undefeated title with a 15 game win streak as the only undefeated team in San Diego out of 69 teams, as stated in a report by MaxPreps. Junior linebacker Layla Schoen (4) explained that despite how hot-blooded their opponents were, BVH still outperformed with grace.
“[Olympian] may have wanted it, but we wanted it more. We worked hard at practice, we worked hard during scrimmages and we worked hard for our win today,” Schoen said. “We excelled today no matter if we were on offense or defense.”
During the first quarter, the game commenced with an aggressive push from the Eagles. Through multiple flag pulls and difficulties gaining yardage, Bonita seemed to struggle to push back. However, our Lady Barons eventually pushed past Olympian’s tough defense as junior wide receiver Gabriella Meza (15) caught a pass from junior quarterback Mia Ramirez (6) and ran a touchdown, gaining leverage with the score of 6-0.
“It felt really good to get the first touchdown of the game because it set the tone bringing my teammates up. You cannot explain the feeling of a touchdown–it is just unexplainable,” Meza said.
As the quarter deepened, however, Olympian bounced back scoring a touchdown for a score of 6-6. But just as the Eagles celebrated, junior linebacker Sofia Garay (8) scored another touchdown for the Barons 13-6, with an extra point after. It seemed as if BVH was in a comfortable position, until the Eagles scored another unexpected touchdown immediately after with the score of 13-12, a one-point margin giving the Lady Barons no room for error. Senior center Sy’ana Trotter (24) expressed that although the first quarter was vicious, the team needed to bounce back.
“We started off rough, but we already knew we could [bounce back] because we have done it before multiple times,” Trotter said. “We had each other’s back and kept the motivation needed for the game. The more we scored, the more we kept on pushing ourselves.”
In the last few minutes of the first quarter, Schoen scored another touchdown, giving the Lady Barons the motivation they needed with the score of 19-12. Throughout these plays however, Olympian parents and spectators started jeering at Bonita players and started blaming their potential defeat by bashing the referees for unjust scoring. These comments escalated through such a grand magnitude of rage that the box score announcer had to remind parents to “Let the children play and let the coaches coach.” Trotter described how the comments did not affect how the Lady Barons played, and still kept persevering throughout the match.
“We tuned out the [comments] and did not really care. We knew we were better skilled than them, so the cheering and bantering at us did not really affect us at all,” Trotter said.
Ignoring the complaints from the stands, the second quarter was no different. Each team scored a touchdown, with only Bonita gaining one net point due to Olympian’s failure to score a point after touchdown. The score was now 26-18, and the Barons were more energetic than they were the quarter before. Senior rusher Ella Gomez (14) elaborated on how the enthusiasm during the match was important in order to maintain their lead.
“We were getting into [Olympian’s] heads. We were the loudest and we kept our girls up so we could never be discouraged from the game. Our energy was the most important thing to keep us fighting,” Gomez said.
As the third quarter went underway, it was evident that Olympian had lost all hope—with the Barons scoring three touchdowns in a row forcing the score to 46-18. Bonita decimated the Eagles in the third quarter, even though Olympian scored a touchdown with less than a minute left in the quarter with a score of 46-24. Schoen explained how the Barons plays, both offense and defense, derived from team effort.
“Our team is stacked. The third quarter became the most crucial of the game, because it was all because of our players,” Schoen said. “No matter what player went in, nothing ever changed. We just kept playing hard.”
The fourth quarter became a lost cause for Olympian, as both teams scored a touchdown, cancelling each other out. As the clock counted down to zero, the scoreboard remained with a clear Baron win with a score of 52-31. Gomez unfolded how the team’s morale became the center of the very game.
“Our energy was there from the start [and] we ended up doing what we needed to do,” Gomez said. “If there was one thing I learned from this game, it was to never give up, to never be discouraged and to always be yourself.”
