The football team’s historic 2024 season came to an end with a 17-14 loss to El Capitan in the Division IV CIF championship game at Southwestern College, Nov. 29. Linebacker Gavin Donnelly (10) said he is proud of the teams’ success this year.
“I was happy about how far we got and how well we did against El Capitan, especially because they are such a good team,” he said. “Playing this year was great and gave me life-long memories that I didn’t want to end.”
The team scored two touchdowns and kicker Troy McMurrey (12) converted one point on both. The first six points were put on the board by wide receiver Miles Miranda (10) who scored a 60-yard touchdown on a pass play in the first quarter and tied the game 7-7. The second touchdown was scored by offensive lineman Mateo Bresenden (12) on a jet sweep play, where he ran the ball eight yards to score.
To prepare for the game, the team prioritized intensive training for both their offense and defense,studying their opponent’s strategy and playing habits for the most effective practice. Running back Langdon Mullica (11) said the extra time over Thanksgiving break allowed them to adequately get ready for the game, and emphasized that their underdog status fueled their hard work.
“The game was over break, so we had more time to watch film, practice and lift weights,” Mullica said. “It was more of an intense week, not just based on practices, but based on how much training and mental prep we were doing. We went in the game with the underdog mentality like ‘We’re going to go in here, we’re going to fight and we’re going to win and prove everyone wrong.’”
During the playoff games, Mullica said that the team implemented different assertive strategies to try to counter the strong defenses they would face.
“We have two separate offenses, so in the game, we utilized whichever was working,” Mullica said. “In our semi-final game, we had to pass the ball more because we weren’t gaining many yards running, and then in the finals, we were able to run the ball better. So knowing this, we stayed on a running offense.”
In order to eliminate home-field advantage, both teams had to travel to Southwestern College in Chula Vista. Donnelly said that despite the unfamiliar atmosphere, the team stayed grounded and remained confident.
“This game felt different physically because we were in a different place, but based on energy, it felt the same,” Donnelly said. “Once we had everything on and we were getting the pregame speech right before we actually walked out, that felt a little different. But everything before that was nice. We were jittery, a fiery kind of jittery. We were confident in our abilities, and no one was doubtful or had any fears about what we could do. We played our best.”
Donnelly said that one of the team’s strengths was its running attack. He said he believes that their success this season is a reflection of how far their team has come and anticipates continuing to perform well next year.
“Our running game was our strong suit, and that’s what we changed in the playoffs; we went to a Wing-T offense, which is a heavy running-based playing style,” Donnelly said. “Next year, we’ll probably keep some of those styles, especially with the roster we have right now. I think our momentum this year will help encourage people wanting to play football to come to Westview because they see what we can do now.”
Despite their efforts, what would have been the Wolverines’ game-winning touchdown was called back after a questionable chop-block penalty on the play in the 4th quarter, which lost them possession of the ball.
“The penalty was a chop block, which means hitting someone under the knees,” Donnelly said, “[It] is obviously a penalty because you could blow someone’s knee out. But what happened was our guy was pulled down and tripped so he fell on [an El Capitan player’s] leg, and then our tight-end kept pushing him. So it maybe looked like a penalty from the ref’s perspective, but from where we were, it didn’t look like that. It was disappointing knowing that it cost us the game, but that’s just the way it ended up.”
With this season’s lengthy run, Mullica said he hopes that this momentum can help push their team to continue to be successful.
“Last year we made it to the semis and we all had that feeling like, ‘We were so close,’” Mullica said. “This year, to be actually in it and have everyone know what it takes to get to the CIF finals, we can use that as our motivation to push extra hard this summer and into the next season and win it.”
