Blake Football Recap

Our very own Blake football team had a great season with a season record of 8-4 and conference record of 3-3. Let’s do a highlight recap on their best games and best moments. The season opener was a big home win against Northwood, 58-13, with our quarterback Kirby Matson throwing six touchdown passes. Myles Miller, Kai Copper, and Zandrew Kamara racked up two touchdowns each along with Erick Olivares who hit seven extra points. This game was also Coach Marshall’s first win as head coach. How exciting! 

Our next game was away against Churchill. Our first away game proved to be a success. Last year our Bengals fell to the opponent 6-16 but this year they did not play around and came out on top 41-0. Churchill put up a donut that night while we ate them up and spit them back out. Jeremiah Seaton impressed with four touchdowns and an interception. Kirby Matson’s touchdown pass to Kai Cooper, Zandrew Kamara’s touchdown run, and Erick Olivares’ four extra points all contributed to our triumphant victory that night. 

Coming up next is our second away game versus our rival Sherwood.  BHS showed out at Sherwood with a raucous student section in the away stands. The amount of intensity this game had was unreal. Our Bengals were down 0-21 with our starting QB Kirby getting a collarbone injury that took him out of the game. Joey Faunteroy came into action for Kirby. Faunteroy threw an 80-yard touchdown pass to Kai Cooper and scored a running touchdown while on the field. With Jeremiah Seaton scoring a 49-yard run and Erick Olivares making all three extra points, our Bengals tied up the game 21-21. Unfortunately in the last thirty seconds, Sherwood scored again which gave them the lead of 27-21, and ended the game there. Our football team really did their best and fought really hard every second of the game and even made that epic comeback. Although it wasn’t a win, the team improved greatly since our last game against Sherwood, with a 21-6 loss. Good job guys! 

Fast forward to our homecoming game against Wheaton. That game was also senior night for our seniors Myles Miller, Jesai Mckenzie, Nehemiah McRoy, Mohamad Salamah, Kodjo Ahama, Jason Luk, Darius Cameron, Mark Merchant, Christian Olmedo, Arrion Clark, John Olawuyi, and Dante Smith. What a night of happiness with the score being 48-6! Touchdowns by Jeremiah Seaton, Jeremiah Ford, and Jesai Mckenzie, which were made with help from Faunteroy’s throws, made the homecoming game a night to remember.

Lastly, we have to highlight their second playoff game which was versus Wooton. It was a rainy day but that didn’t stop our boys from getting on that field and crushing the competition. This was definitely Kirby’s comeback game. After being forced to sit out most of the season because of his injury, Kirby showed up and played hard, proving to everyone that he was back and better than ever. He threw three touchdowns, two of which were caught by Myles Miller and one by Faunteory. Dennis Tebo also ran for a touchdown. Erick Olivares managed to get us one extra point. 

The Bengals made it to the state quarterfinals vs Dundalk but sadly did not advance. It was a great run guys and good luck to all the seniors next year. 

Coach Marshall gave an interview recapping his first season as head coach. Read below to check out his responses.

Question 1: What are things you miss about the season? 

I will definitely miss this group of players. They brought the “We Not Me” mentality from day one and were, in general, just a good group of young men to coach.

Question 2: What were the highlights of the season? 

For me, it was our win over Churchill [from] week 2 when we were heavy underdogs and won 41-0. Another highlight was probably winning our 8th game which is now a school record.

Question 3: What is something you would like to improve for next year?

I’d like to win a division and regional championship. Our football program has never done either.

Question 4: What was the biggest challenge you faced? 

We were so young. 5 Starters were seniors and everyone else was a sophomore. We also had some key injuries that we had to overcome which made things a bit difficult at /times.

Question 5: Any special message you would like to share? 

[I would] just like to thank Mr. Sinclair and Mr. Fribush for giving me this opportunity to lead this program and the students who supported us all year long, You have no idea how much it meant to our kids. More importantly, [I would like to thank] our student-athletes who laid the foundation for this program for years to come by showing up each and every day willing to work and showing that as a team, you can accomplish so much!

A self-reflection on how your first year of head coach went:

I’m my own biggest critic and I always think I could have done better to help our kids be more successful. However, reflecting on the year I would say overall it was a positive experience. I learned so much from the kids and hope they did the same from me.