Festivities for the 2014 Pride Bowl were in full swing up at Foothill last night. The Spartans took down Los Altos 34-14 to take this year’s Pride Bowl.

The varsity game kicked off at 7 p.m. and, for the first quarter, Los Altos and Mountain View battled it out equally. The quarter ended with a score of 0-0. Though the score was tied at 0, Los Altos junior quarterback Kyle Gounod hurt his knee, putting him out for the rest of the game, a game-changing injury. Sophomore quarterback Max Higareda filled in for Kyle.

“Once our QB Kyle got injured, the game went downhill because we had to move our players around and we just haven’t practiced with another QB,” senior captain Sean Lanoza said. “Our team was confused and we all felt we had lost the game as our top players kept getting injured.”

As the second quarter began, Sean got a run and scored the first touchdown of the game. The score of 7-0 score in favor of the Eagles held until the end of the first half.

“[During] the first half, we did great defensively and suffered offensively due to penalties and some missed opportunities,” sophomore Sione Moli said.

During the halftime break, Mountian View celebrated with Homecoming festivities. Both the cheer team and the dance team performed, and Mountain View’s Homecoming King and Queen were announced. The Los Altos cheer team and color guard also put on performances.

Mountain View fought back in the third quarter and scored its first touchdown to make the score 7-7. The two sides continued to go at it with the tied score until the last few minutes of the third when Mountian View scored a running touchdown bringing the game to 14-7. From here on out, Los Altos had difficulty containing the Spartans.

“In the second half we came back and we fought as hard as we could, but sometimes your hardest isn’t always enough,” Sione said.

Mountain View got another running touchdown in the first few minutes of the fourth quarter as they extended their lead against Los Altos. The score of 21-7 kept for just a few more plays until Mountian View intercepted the ball and got another touchdown, but missing the field goal. With the score at 27-7, Los Altos rallied a bit; Max passed the ball to senior Matt Schonher for a touchdown, but it would not be enough.

As the fourth came to an end, Mountain View made another run for it and scored again. Mountain View’s 34-14 lead wouldn’t be touched again.

“[It was a] tough game and Mountain View played well,” Kyle said. “Max stepped in as quaterback and did an amazing job… Our defense played good the first half and shut them out then we struggled second half. It was a tough game but it’s still long season.”