Varsity football beat Rio Vista High School 33-13 Saturday night during their annual homecoming game on Davis Field, maintaining their undefeated record of 5-0.

Hundreds of spectators, including the pep band and cheerleaders, supported the home team throughout the entire match. The night was also packed full of entertainment varying from the annual tug of war competitions to dance performances by Varsity dance troupe, the Eaglets, and cheerleaders.

The night began with the third place tug of war between the sophomores and the freshmen. After a few seconds of hard pulling from both sides, the sophomores triumphed and claimed the third place title with the freshmen in fourth.

Next, the lower school cheerleaders performed a dance routine followed by a procession of Harker eaglets.

The Harker choir then sang the national anthem.

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Nicole Chen

Sophomores Kenya Aridomi and Joel Manning sing the school song. The Harker choir sang the school song and the national anthem prior the start of the game.

Upon the initiation of the game, Harker team captains joined the referees and Rio Vista team captains for a coin toss. Rio Vista won the toss but deferred the choice for Harker. The captains decided to begin on offense and receive the opposing team’s kickoff.

The game began to a quick start with Rio Vista scoring the first touchdown of the game midway through the first period. After the touchdown, Rio Vista kicker Dennis Carlisle kicked the football through the uprights, scoring the extra point conversion, bringing the score to 0-7.

The Eagles had a swift comeback in the second quarter with wide receivers Angel Cervantes (12) and Jared Anderson (11) catching touchdown passes of 5 and 37 yards thrown by quarterback Nate Kelly (12). Harker kicker Dominic Cea (12) successfully scored a conversion after every touchdown. Marcus Tymous (11) scored a one yard touchdown diving into the end zone as well. The Eagles gained an additional two points from a safety after the ball was snapped behind the goal line while in Rio Vista’s possession.

The score stood at 23-7 by the end of halftime, marking a significant comeback from a tough start of the homecoming game.

Ayush Vyas (11), a Harker defensive and offensive lineman, attributes the comeback to the team’s resilience and good training by the coaches.

“Resilience let us win tonight,” Ayush said. “They came out really strong, and we haven’t played a team of this difficulty, but we responded. We’re resilient in that we have great coaches, great players, and it is all about how you respond to a situation.”

The halftime entertainment commenced with the final tug of war competition between the seniors and the juniors. With the loud blast of a air horn, the two teams launched into action. After a few seconds of pulling, neither team seemed to have gained a significant lead, but as time carried on, the seniors gained more and more ground eventually overpowering the juniors and winning the match.

Following the tug of war, both cheerleaders and varsity dance performed for the crowd. Lastly, the homecoming princes and princesses arrived on the field in a procession of golf carts driven by Harker faculty. First the freshmen prince and princess, Arya Tandon (9) and Kishan Sood (9), arrived, followed by Arun Sundaresan (10) and Christine Tang (10), Matthew Hajjar (11) and Meghna Phalke (11), and finally seniors Vijay Bharadwaj, Aislinn Coveney, Kristin LeBlanc, Rishi Chopra, Eleanor Xiao and Peter Connors.

Head of school Brian Yager thanked the parents, football coaching staff, students, faculty, and event volunteers for all their help making homecoming a success. Dr. Victor Adler then crowned Peter Connors and Eleanor Xiao as the homecoming king and queen.

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The cheerleading team strike a pose at the end of the routine. The cheerleading team along with the varsity dance team performed during halftime during the game.

Dan Mollin, the head athletics director at the upper school, also thought home coming was a major success this year and loved the various groups that came out to watch the game.

“It is just another great Harker homecoming, where everybody comes together, Molin said. “It was great to see the alumni come back, and everyone having a good time. There was a large crowd, and nice warm weather out, which just led to a wonderful event.”

Nikki Solanki (10) enjoyed the large number of people that came out to support the home team and how spirited they were.

“This year, I thought it was a lot of fun being around everyone, a lot more people came out, everyone seemed to be having a lot of fun, and everyone was really spirited,” Nikki said.

After halftime, the game was tight with neither team scoring any points until kicker Dominic Cea (12) was able to score a field goal for the Eagles from a distance of 30 feet. The third period ended with a score of 26-7 with the Eagles’ lead increasing with every period.

Throughout every play, the Harker pep band played songs such as “Happy” by Pharrell Williams, “Skyfall” by Adele, and “Seven Nation Army”. William Rainow (10) played the bass guitar and liked that the band played for the audience and players the entire game.

“It was amazing seeing the pep band and the audience cheering on the football players during every minute of the game,” William said.

In the final quarter of the match, Jared Anderson (11) scored another touchdown with a 30 yard throw from quarterback Nate Kelly (12). This was followed by a successful extra point by Dominic Cea (12). With three seconds left in the game, Rio Vista quarterback Ethan Medders was able to throw a touchdown pass to tight end Hunter Apple scoring a six point touchdown at the very end of the game.

The game resulted in a victory for the Harker Eagles, with a final score of 33-13.

Daniel Eaton, the Eagles’ wide receiver and special teams coach attributes the win to team unity and cooperation.

“I think it is just that common understanding of what everyone’s role is on the team that allows us to win,” coach Eaton said. “From coach to player to everyone that is involved, they know how to go about that role, and how that contributes to the main goal of winning.”

Ayush Vyas (11) feels proud of entertaining the audience that has given so much support to the football team this season.

“It was an awesome experience,” Ayush said. “I haven’t seen this many people come out in a long while, and after we keep winning and winning, and we have people that keep coming out just to show their support, it is a great feeling to give back to the community with this victory.”

Varsity football’s next game is at Marina High School in Monterey this Friday at 6 p.m.