Touch down! South Lakes varsity football took home another big win against Yorktown High School this past Friday night for the first round of regionals. They not only beat them in the first round of regionals winning 24-17 but also pre-season at the Seahawks first home game winning 29-28.
“It felt pretty great winning, beating them twice in a year. They were ranked number two and we were number seven so we did them pretty good,” said senior Eric Kowalcyk. South Lakes is now ranked fourth in the region.
Two years ago in 2023 the team was undefeated in the pre-season going 10-0 being the first school in history to achieve this in their current district. Their season ended shortly after in the first round of playoffs as they lost to Yorktown 6-7 “on a very last minute touchdown,” said coach Hescock.
To win you must put in the work at practice and that’s what the Seahawks did all week to prepare for the game against Yorktown. Junior Nick Picarelli said “We had already played Yorktown that season which is kinda unique and it’s hard to beat a team twice so we had to look back at film looking at all the mistakes we made and prepare for the second time we played them.”
Through the game the Seahawks played “complementary football” where all aspects like the offence, defense and special teams helped each other out to get the win. “Football is ultimately a team sport and no one person can carry a team so we had to work together and come together as a team and have each other’s backs to get the win,” said Picarelli.
Not only did the Seahawks win against Yorktown, players set new school records. Junior Christian Wyatt who plays quarterback set a new record for south lakes for pass completion in one singular season making 186 completions. Some outstanding players of the game were Picarelli catching 12 completions, Dalton Blakeney running the ball, linebackers Logan Legler and Colin Wall, Cameron Soto leader in defense secondary, Labeed Zaib and one of the leaders on defense Eric Kowalcyk. Touchdowns were made by George Zarechnak, Dalton Blakeney, Joshua Dagbe and a field goal by Nick Bertoni.
South Lakes takes on Westfield High School for the second round of playoffs. In the preseason game against Westfield they lost 40-13. Coach Hescock said “Our goals for the upcoming game against Westfield are to really make sure that we are the more physical team on the field and keep our mental focus especially with gap integrity.”
He compared it to a piece of pie saying “Talk about eating our piece of the pie. Split up that pie into 11 slices and everyone’s got to eat their piece. Don’t worry about anybody else’s just eating ours and we should be just fine.”
