This fall’s final Friday night lights football game celebrated seniors and faced the rivalry, all at once. In the annual Los Altos-Mountain View game Friday, Nov. 7, Eagles varsity football fell 7–35 in a bittersweet loss to end their season. Supported by a student section decked out in blue and white, 16 seniors made their last passes, blocks and plays on home turf — and ever.
“The team has become like my family and a community,” senior captain Gavin Wu said. “Looking back on all those hard workouts and grinding it out with them, that’s what I’m going to miss the most.”
This wraps up another building season for the Eagles, who finished third in the El Camino League with a 3–2 record and just missed earning a bid to the CCS playoffs. Their victories include a three-game winning streak over Santa Clara, Gunn and Fremont — all with comfortable leads. Even after a loss to South San Francisco last Friday Oct. 31, the team was ready fight the Spartans on Friday.
However, Mountain View — who plays in the higher, more competitive De Anza League — remained tough to beat as they have been in the past.
“There’s some bad blood with Mountain View, but I still put in a lot of hard work during the week and played my best game,” Gavin said.
Despite Los Altos getting first possession, just a couple of minutes in, Mountain View took control of the game and scored its first touchdown almost instantly. Despite steady advances from the Eagles, an interception led to another touchdown for Mountain View, and the first quarter ended 0–14, Spartans up.
“The first quarter was definitely an ‘Oh shoot’ moment,” Gavin said. “But you have to work with your team to keep going for the win.”
With the stands packed following kickoff, cheer kept the energy high with new routines and Eagle spirit.
“We’re here to support our football team,” cheer senior captain Dana Gowdy said. “We do everything we can to make sure they know we’re here to cheer for them even when it’s rough.”
The second quarter followed similarly, with every Los Altos play shut down and Mountain View scoring two more touchdowns to leave the score 0–28. With 50 seconds left in the half, the Eagles made a run for it and, with a catch by Gavin, scored their only touchdown of the game to end the half 7–28.
Despite the score gap, halftime speeches in the locker room emphasized to every senior that, win or lose, this was their last game.
“At halftime, we reminded the seniors that we only have 24 minutes of gametime left in high school football,” Gavin said. “It was a reminder to sell out and play as hard as we can to give the last hour all that we’ve got.”
The team also aimed to refocus its mindset to improve second-half offense and defense. And it worked
“We tried to focus like the score was 0–0,” senior captain Colin Chin said. “We wanted to try and get it back little by little, and the bleeding definitely slowed in the second half.”
After a halftime performance from the marching band and cheer team, the Eagles held down home turf, allowing only one Spartan touchdown in the third quarter and none for the rest of the night. The game ended 7–35 to the Spartans, concluding an emotional night for graduating seniors — football players and cheerleaders alike.
“I’m happy with the effort that I gave tonight,” Colin said. “While I’ll miss it and I know I made a few mistakes, it’s not going to keep me up at night.”
“It was really surreal to dance and perform with the team for the last time,” Dana said. “I’ve been on the team since freshman year, so I’ve experienced lots of senior nights and helped with them, but it didn’t feel real for it to be my own.”
The final whistle indicating the end of the game brought up lots of emotions for the seniors who have been playing together for up to four years.
“This week I tried to take in the small moments like the sunsets during waterbreaks with the team,” Colin said. “I’m going to miss those memories with unlikely friends and bonding over our shared love of the best game ever.”
