Hazelwood West’s homecoming dance took place on Oct.5 this year, but before the dance, the football team played in their annual Homecoming game. This year the Wildcats faced up against their rivals, Hazelwood Central Hawks. Coming into the game, both the Wildcats and The Hawks were 1-4.

First Quarter:

The game started with the Central Hawks winning the coin toss and choosing to start with the ball. They quickly started the game off with a 30-yard touchdown in the first quarter. The Wildcats, unphased, quickly responded with Jabarri Lofton, 10, throwing a 65-yard touchdown to Antoine Luckie, 11, to tie the game up. The extra point kick was good the Wildcats took the lead over the Hawks end of the first quarter. 

Second Quarter:

Entering the second quarter. Both teams went back and forth with non-scoring possessions. The Wildcats gained the ball back after a Hawks punt and got their momentum started. Beginning in a third down at the 42-yard line, Lofton drives and is forced out at the 40-yard line, On the fourth down, Lofton completes a pass to Tae Robinson for the new first down at the 32-yard line. On the third down of this series, Lofton throws a completion to Tae Robinson for a 13-yard completion ending in a 3-yard touchdown to Robinson. The Wildcats take a 7-point lead towards the end of the first half of the game. As half is called, the score is 13-6 and the Hawks have the ball at the end of their 20-yard line  

Third Quarter:

In the third quarter, the Wildcats get important stops on defense responding to the Hawks’s punt ending the possession with a blocked extra point. The third quarter is concluded with no scores from either team and the Wildcats enter the final quarter up by seven points. 

Fourth Quarter:

In the fourth quarter, the Wildcats drove with force and put on a sack forcing a fumble, that the Hawks end up recovering. After a Hawk’s failed possession, Lofton recovers a punt and gets injured during the Wildcat’s possession, leaving the Wildcats to the leadership of their backup quarterback. With a blocked punt, the Hawks gain procession at the 5-yard line with a first down where the Hawks find a man open for a 4-yard touchdown. 

The game heats up at a rapid speed in the last few minutes, and confidence is increasing for both teams they are both ready to see who comes out victorious. The Wildcats had another failed possession and a blocked point, so the Hawks went into their last possession with a chance to tie the game. It’s first-and-10 at the 33-yard line and the Wildcats stop them from getting the first down on the first 3 drives. The fourth down with 1:46 left on the game clock, the Hawks attempt to run the ball to gain a first down, but come up short. The Wildcats Win the game 19-12. And, as the clock runs, the crowd is filled with excitement as they cheer happily for their team to win their first homecoming game in the last few years.

Player Q & A Post Game: 

Senior Isaiah Smith: Defensive Tackle

Senior Jerome Willaims: Cornerback 

Senior Mike Sykes: Center

Senior Jeremiah Dismuke: Offensive & Defensive Tackle 

Junior Antoine Luckie: Wide receiver 

Q:  How do you think your performance affected the game?

A: 

Smith: I don’t think I played to the best of my ability but I still played a major role in this win, I didn’t make a lot of plays but I still held my own and did my stuff.

Williams: I had a pretty good performance; I had a pass break up.

Sykes: To be honest I feel like my leadership and my ability to get the whole team together really gets us, but too many mistakes get us out of the game but we locked in at the end of the day for sure

Dismuke: I think I stepped up in the second half I messed up on a couple of blocks in the first half but second half we came out up by 7 and I felt myself getting right and came back and did my job.

Luckie: Just set the tone catch the ball and make sure you keep the offense going.

Q: Were there any poor decisions that happened that affected the outcome of the game?

A:

Smith: Are teamwork we put up a fight last week against Ladue but this week we stepped it up and fixed are mistakes from last week that’s how we came out with the win 

Williams: Yeah I made some questionable plays but there were only 3 plays I would take back everything else was strapped

Sykes: I  feel like that we got that to work on but at the end of the day we’re gonna step on that and do what we gotta do

Dismuke: I don’t think so not at all we kept on fighting and I don’t think the team did anything wrong and we kept on playing and I’m proud of them

Luckie: We won the game but there was some stuff that we shouldn’t have done like holding calls and penalties but that’s about it

Q: What do you think you guys did well as a team?

A:

Williams: Our Defense. Defense wins games are defense is like that

Sykes: We whooped the Hawks today

Dismuke: In  the 4th quarter we did get a little sloppy but they fixed  that so I think that’s the best we did because usually whenever we get sloppy we give up they didn’t give up they kept their heads up

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