By Emma Moriarty
As fall finally reaches Arizona, pumpkin spice lattes are not the only thing on peoples’ minds. Football season is starting up again and Tempe Prep’s team is already doing phenomenal. With two amazing victories for the first and the most recent games, it is obvious that all of their hard work is paying off.
Brenden Phaelen speaks on how the season has gone thus far: “The season started out great! The first game was super fun. Mohave was outmatched because we were much more physical and our whole team ended up being able to play. The next two games were rough because both teams were a division above us, but we still put 110 percent of our effort into the games. We also saw this as a chance to improve because we don’t really get to go against other divisions very often so early in the season.” It is great that the players have such positive attitudes towards improvement!
One of the most exciting games so far in the season was the one against Northwest Christian. Tempe Prep students were dressed in all black and cheering powerfully from the bleachers. During the first quarter, our team started out 7 points ahead, but then Northwest got 7 points in the second quarter. Neither team got any in the third quarter but finally in the fourth, both got seven! The game had to go into one round of overtime in which Northwest gained 14 points and Tempe Prep 7. This was a very intense game played well by both teams. Eddie Pivonka shares what the game was like from the team’s perspective: “We had some really great defense but our offense didn’t start until the last quarter and we tied it up. We went into overtime. This is when our team definitely struggled but Northwest are one of the best teams out there so it was a great experience to be able to play them and learn how to improve from this game.”
Especially for Northwest being such a talented team, the Knights did astonishingly well. Northwest seems to have helped them improve, just as the team states, because it is exemplified in the most recent game against Arizona Lutheran Academy with Tempe Prep ahead by 47. When asked his prediction before Friday’s game with ALA, Louie Riese confidently answered, “We are expecting to beat ALA because of the game last week we have been able to see our weak spots and eliminate those while also making ourselves stronger. The two losses so far are just opportunities to get better. We will definitely win this game and get closer to the playoffs!” Louie’s prediction about the outcome of the game was completely true. It really helped that so many Knights came out to cheer for their team. All of the hard work and dedication of the football team shows every single day in practice, but is put on a stage every Friday. We know that this season will be amazing and we will cheer on our team to the playoffs. Go Knights!