The Niles West Varsity Football team played their annual game played against our rival school, Niles North last Friday, Sept. 6, 2019, and the game didn’t quite go the way that they were expecting.

The boys went into the game with high hopes of defeating the Vikings this year, but to almost everyone’s surprise, North came out with a bang and scored on the opening kickoff securing the lead for the entire game. In the end, the boys took a tough loss losing 49-14, and although for the most part things didn’t look like they were going their way, they were able to keep their heads up and take away some of the positives from the game.

“Well we played exceptionally better in the second half, and it was a complete 180 turn. Our passes started connecting, and our defense was making stops so if we continue that into next week, we should have a better outcome,” senior wide receiver Kevin Eslick said.

For all of the players and fans in attendance at the game, any loss is a bitter pill to swallow, but it makes it that much worse when it happens to be your rival school.

“I knew it wasn’t going to be pretty after watching the opening kick,” senior Myles Derbigny said.

Things just seemed to get worse and worse as the game went on, but in the end, the Wolves were able to put up two touchdowns.

“All of the offense, defense, and special teams just kept looking overmatched time and time again, and at one point towards the end, it just looked like they didn’t want to be out there on the field anymore,” Derbigny said.

Just as Eslick said, even though it was beginning to be tough to watch things seemed to get a little bit better in the second half when the team was able to put up some points and make a few good stops on the defensive side.

“Well the second half was much better than the first, pretty much only because the boys were able to score some points and play a little harder,” junior Alexis Kougias said.

Although it has been a rough start to the season, students still support their team and hope for nothing but the best in the next few weeks.

“It is still fun to go out on Friday nights for the football games, and I think that sooner or later things will start to go our way and we might be able to get a win or two,” Kougias said.

The boys will take on Prospect High School this upcoming Friday night, and even though they will be tough competition, the football team plans to give it their all and leave it all out on the field looking for a turn in the right direction for the remainder of the season.