CIF Football Journey Ends in Loss

After two months of morning practices and Friday night games the Wolverine’s season has come to an end with a loss to the Crean Lutheran High School in the first round of CIF. After a successful league run where the Wolverines placed 3rd in the Sea View league with a record of 1-2, with a win against El Toro High School. The Wolverines went out to the Saint’s home field to play their first CIF game in 3 years. 

The Wolverines spent the week leading up to it focusing their game plan around taking out Creen Lutharans best players. Most of the players had never played in CIF before this game. Playing at this new level would intimidate most teams but Coach Callahan thought the team was more excited than nervous. 

“We had a great week of practice… when the game got close a little bit of the pressure started to steep in but going into it I thought we were in a good place.” 

Through the first quarter, Creen Lutheran started with a lead score by kicking a field goal in the first couple minutes of the game. With three minutes to go in the quarter, they kicked another making the score 6-0 going into the second quarter. 

The second quarter didn’t bring the results they had hoped for with the Saints scoring a touchdown and leading the game 13-0. With 3 minutes to go the Wolverines made it on the scoreboard with an 11-yard rushing touchdown by #Jarett Sabol (10). With the extra point, the Wolverines ended the first half down 6 points with the Saints leading 13-7. 

Going into the second half down, Coach Callahan wanted to focus the second half around fixing the team’s mistakes. Cleaning up their defense and focus on getting points on the board. 

The third quarter starts off strong for Aliso with quarterback #9 Hunter Najum (11) passing to #11 Dylan Kissen for a touchdown in the first two minutes. Allowing Aliso to take the lead and lead the Saints by one point 13-14 The Saints replied with a 10-yard rushing touchdown paired with a two-point conversion making the score 21-14 with the Saints in the lead. 

Neither team scored for the rest of the quarter.

Entering the 4th quarter the Wolverines started on an offensive high with a touchdown by #24 Jarrett Sabol (10) and with a kick by Gavin Nobels, the Wolverines tied the score. In the last quarter of the game, the two teams were both within reach of completing their first CIF win of the season. 

With both teams scoring another touchdown with 8 minutes left in the game the two teams were still tied now at 28-28. 

Jared Sabol made his 4th touchdown of the night with a 54-yard rushing touchdown. Jared was his team’s leader in touchdowns for the night and his performance was the highlight of the game.

“Jared was on a different level,” Coach Callahan said, “sometimes that happens as an athlete and you can do no wrong and that was him that night. When you have a special player and a special moment like that you just ride that and that’s what they did”

The Wolverines missed the kick for the extra point and now they had a leading score of 34-28. With 2 minutes to go the Saints to the lead again and held on to it in order to win the game by one point. The game ended 35-34 with the saints moving on to the next round of CIF and the Wolverines ending their season. 

Ending the season was hard on the team as a whole but Coach Callahan wanted them to despite the outcome he was still proud of the team’s accomplishments. 

“It was definitely emotional after the game, I don’t think they were ready to lose and that hit them hard. I just told them how proud I was of them and their growth throughout the year. We were so young to start and how much we’ve matured as football players and young men is very impressive”