With the sun glaring down and the scent of synthetic turf in the air, junior Tristan Castillo sprinted toward the endzone with a football in his hands.
Having made it into the endzone, he celebrated his game-winning touchdown for the SHS unified flag football team against the Whiteland High Warriors on Saturday, Sept. 27.
They celebrated the hard-earned senior-night win by pouring a bucket of ice water on their head coach Kerry Simpson after the game.
“Getting that last touchdown, I think that was the best moment of the game,” Castillo said. “We were short (on) time, and again people were thinking that we are not going to score that touchdown.”
The game started off strong with high temperatures and the crowd cheering. On the sidelines, the team was constantly encouraging each other and lifting each other up.
“This team is my family. I will protect them,” Castillo said. “I’m the team captain of this team, and I kept telling them never give up. We always have faith.”
At the start of the game, juniors Harrison Scheidt and Josiah Bryant scored two touchdowns.
For most of the game, both teams were clawing their way to victory, with the teams essentially playing tug of war with the lead, trying to stay ahead.
Although they scored two touchdowns, the Cards were still behind at halftime with a score of 20-14.
After halftime, the Cards put in the work to reclaim the lead.
“They did great,” Simpson said. “They got the spirit to keep going, that’s wonderful.”
Castillo then made his first touchdown of the game, putting the Cards ahead 20-22.
Shortly after, sophomore Jace Miers made an interception, putting the Cards offense back in. Then, Bryant scored his second touchdown which brought up the score to 20-28 for the Cards.
After the touchdown, the Warriors regained possession of the ball. But this would not last long because sophomore Elias Herwehe made his first interception of the game, bringing the Cards’ sidelines to cheers.
The tension of the game rose after the Cards didn’t score and the Warriors took back possession of the ball.
After taking back the ball, the Warriors scored a touchdown, which brought the score to a tie of 28-28. With not much time left on the clock, the Cards didn’t score, giving the ball right back to the Warriors.
With only a minute left in the game, the Warriors managed to score another touchdown, putting them in the lead, 34-28.
Just when all hope seemed lost for the Cards, Castillo made a game-tying touchdown.
The crowd anxiously watched as the Cards attempted for the one-point conversion to win the game.
Castillo ran into the endzone as the time ticked off the clock, celebrating the winning one-point conversion that put the Cards on top with a score of 34-35.
“We just didn’t give up,” Simpson said. “We was (were) ahead, and they caught back up, and then we just didn’t give up.”
The Cards yelled and cheered as Castillo performed a celebratory roundoff back-handspring and ran to commemorate the last-second victory.
The hard work and dedication that the team showed throughout the game displayed the team’s true passion to not only win, but to have a good time and support one another.
“We got great athletes and we got great partners,” Simpson said. “Unified, we are unified.”
