Carmel High School’s varsity football team has started this season off with a real bang, holding an overall record of 3-0.
According to CHS head football coach Golden Anderson, this year’s team has really pleased the coaches by their strong level of commitment.
“This year we have a great group of hard working players who have made it easier for me as a coach because they show up to practices and never make excuses and luckily so far we have been able to win our first few of games,” Anderson says.
So far the team has played three non-league games. The first game came against Palma, a rival from the 2011 Central Coast Section championship, and ended in a 20-10 victory for CHS. This game was on Sept. 7 at the new Rabobank Stadium in Salinas. There were around five thousand football fans at this game. Carmel had 71 more yards than Palma in this game; total yards for Carmel were 346 and 275 for Palma.
“This season has been outstanding,” cheer coach and ASB advisor Leigh Cambra says. “There were a lot of people from Carmel at the Palma game even though it was all the way in Salinas.”
Carmel won the Friday Night Lights game against the North Salinas Vikings with a score of 57 to 35, which included a huge specialty from senior Shane Lackey who returned two kick-offs for touchdowns, totaling 176 yards.
230 students attended the Friday Night Lights game held at Monterey Peninsula College on Sept. 13, not including the cheerleaders and football team. This was the second game of the season against the North Salinas Vikings, who have an overall record of 1-2-0.
“The Friday Night Lights game was an event for the students and community to get one Friday night game and get pumped up for the season,” Anderson says. “Hopefully everyone had a good time.”
After trailing 15-14 at half time in the third game against the Christopher Cougars, Carmel’s defense forced six turnovers and was able to hold Christopher’s offense to one touchdown in the second half, which helped Carmel win the game with a score of 48-21. The game was held at Gilroy High School on Sept. 20.
According to Anderson, the team still has some things to work on and still has a long way to go to fix what they need to.
This week the team will not be playing a game because of powderpuff. The first MTAL game will be against King City on Oct. 4.
-Elexis Perez
