Homecoming Game 2023

By: Sean Chavez '24

The Homecoming game for the SOCES Knights was last Friday, October 27 and the team went up against Fulton. Before the game started, Ms. Tabares announced a shout-out to the senior players on the football team. These players were #69 Darshan Zala, #7 Muhammad Huzaifa, #13 Sebastian Aquirre, #11 Philip Nguyen, #13 Samvel Sargsyan, and #9 Gamlet Melkonyan.

The Knights' defense started off strong, but Fulton was quickly able to break through and score a touchdown. As SOCES struggled to keep their defense strong Fulton would continue to score and get the follow-ups leading to a score of 14-0. The defense did pick up midway through the first quarter when #25 Samuel Coltress was able to come in strong and tackle Fulton’s offense, which slowed down Fulton from gaining more points for the time being. Unfortunately, an off-side penalty was called on SOCES and Fulton managed to score another touchdown. When the ball switched possession, SOCES came in strong and had gotten to a 1st down. Unbeknownst to the Knights, during a pass to #3 Daniel Truong, Fulton would intercept the ball and end the first quarter with a turnover.

Fulton started the second quarter with a touchdown but got a foul, taking away said touchdown. SOCES hoped to come back with a stronger defense and kept it up for a while, but Fulton’s offense pushed through even harder as they kept scoring. SOCES had a small comeback, as they intercepted one of Fulton’s passes. Later in the second quarter, #11 Philip Nguyen came in strong as he tackled Fulton’s offense. Fulton brought the score up to 50-0, ending the first half of the game. SOCES cheer started off halftime with a performance and after the show, Ms. Tabares gave a shout-out to the senior fall athletes from Flag Football, Cheer, Tennis, Girl’s Volleyball, and Cross Country.

To start off the second half of the game, a player from Fulton got injured while the ball was kicked off to SOCES. A timeout was called and the player was switched out with a substitute. The Knights were able to get a 1st down, but quickly had their next pass intercepted by Fulton who scored a touchdown right after. Fulton ended up with another foul right after giving SOCES possession of the ball. #11 Philip ended up catching a long toss and gave the Knights a strong push for their offense. #7 Muhammad was tackled when he had the ball but got a 1st down when Fulton got another foul. By this point, the game was coming close to an end but SOCES was able to strengthen its defense to prevent Fulton from scoring any more touchdowns. The game ended at 20 seconds and SOCES sadly lost with a final score of 56-0. Although SOCES didn’t win this game to win 1st in the League finals, they proved to be resilient and came in second in the valley. SOCES Knights will be able to advance to the City Championships, where they will go against USC Hybrid.