A beautiful late summer evening, a stadium packed with fans to root on the local team in their first home game of the season and a homecoming dance, too.
This is the stuff American dreams are made of. What else could you ask for?
How about a win?
Ask and you shall receive, football fans.
The Bainbridge High School varsity football team trounced the visitors from Everett High School Friday, and claimed their first win of the season with a resounding 24-13 final score.
The critical victory advanced the Spartans’ season record to 1-2. The Seagulls fell to 0-3.
“They deserve it,” Spartan Head Coach Andy Grimm said of his squad.
“They work hard. When they get rewarded it’s fun. It’s tough when they get close like last week [against Cleveland], and they don’t get it. They played hard and for the most part were in the right spot.”
Bainbridge last won a homecoming football game in October 2012.
The Spartans scored first, and they scored fast. The early moments of the first quarter saw the game’s first touchdown scored by BHS quarterback Kyle Jackson on a 1-yard keeper. Kicker Cal Barash-David came through with the point conversion to ensure the Spartans an early lead.
“It was awesome,” Jackson said of the big win. “I’m so happy for the team.”
Everett bounced back, though, and the first quarter ended 7-6 BHS after the Seagulls connected on an 11-yard TD pass.
The second quarter saw the home team make signifiant point gains. Casey Brink and Oskar Dieterich both scored touchdowns from passes made by Jackson.
Brink pulled in a 7-yard toss for the score, while Dieterich got his big mits on a 5-yard throw.
The first half of the game ended with BHS solidly in the lead, 21-6.
There was a bit of a lull in the third quarter, Everett was unable to get back in the game and Bainbridge couldn’t seem to gain any further ground.
Eventually the Spartans did score with a 29-yard field goal by Barash-David.
Everett mounted a slight return in the final quarter, they managed to prevent BHS from gaining any more points and they scored the game’s final touchdown on a 12-yard pass play.
It was, however, too little, too late.
Jackson and Brink again shared quarterback responsibilities in the game. Jackson led the team to more points, he went 7-for-12 and passed the century mark with 115 total yards.
“I thought he did a nice job controlling our offense,” Grimm said of the BHS senior. “We really want the quarterback foremost to be the manager; that kind of mode where they manage the game and put us in position to score. Which he did.”
Jackson said that being quarterback had long been an aspiration of his, even as a junior player, but that the important thing for him was that the team did well.
“I love leading the team,” Jackson said. “But I’ll play anywhere the team needs me, or the coaches need me.”
Jackson said this year’s Spartan squad were working very well together as a team, something that he said will only mean more success as the season progresses.
“We had a pretty strong first half, which helped a ton,” he said. “We all know we will win as long as we do our jobs.”
Jackson picked O’Dea and Eastside Catholic as the Spartans’ toughest competition this year, and also explained that the early lead by BHS against Everett had been a priceless advantage that they needed to learn to replicate.
“It’s huge,” he said of the early lead. “And we did it so quickly, I think it was a huge confidence boost for us.”
Offensively, the team saw big contributions from many players.
Ben Fisher led the Spartan rushing efforts with 11 carries for 78 yards.
Sam Wysong managed 10 carries for 57 yards. Max Wickline had four carries for 38 yards, Carter Daniels also managed four carries for 24 yards.
Other notables in the Spartans’ ground attack: Adrian Rojas contributed six carries for 21 yards, Jackson had five for 10, Eric Jung two for seven and Brink chipped in four carries for negative six yards.
The Spartans did not have as good a game in the receiving department.
Dieterich led the team with three receptions for 28 yards.
Fisher managed two receptions and 29 yards; Daniels pulled in one for 41 yards while Brink finished the game with one reception and seven yards.
Defensively, things were working well for the team and Glodi Kingombe, Dieterich and Brink each managed a sack.
Sam Roth led the team with seven tackles and three assists. Kingombe completed five tackles and one assist, Gareth Grindeland managed four tackles and four assists and Max Thomas ended the game with four tackles and two assists.
Grimm said that fans and opponents alike should look at this win as a sign of things to come from the Spartans.
“It’s all about building positive reinforcement,” he explained. “If we do that again next week, that’d be great for the kids. Then it’s on to the next one. It’s nice being able to compete.
“They’re probably the same bench as us, [if] you look at bodies. They had probably bigger kids, but if you look at how many extras they had, that’s nice because you know you’re kind of in the same boat.”
“As far as conditioning and stuff, I think we kind of outlasted them a little bit,” he added.
“You want them to have that memory,” Grimm said of the excitement surrounding a homecoming win. “That’s what we talked about pre-game. These are the nights you always remember.”
The win pushed the already carnival-like atmosphere pervading the event to a whole other level as students flooded out of the stadium and into the homecoming dance while the band played on, to cheers and screams, for an extended encore.
Earlier, during the halftime festivities, BHS senior Paige Brigham was announced as the 2014 BHS homecoming queen.
Fellow senior Jack O’Neill was crowned king.
This year’s homecoming game also saw the first homecoming parade in many years hit the road Friday afternoon. Team members and cheerleaders toured downtown Winslow and the surrounding streets in trucks and on trailers, cheering and waving.
