The McCallum Knights routed the Lehman Lobos, 35-10 on Sept. 1 at House Park.
Rushing 34 times for 140 yards, senior Andre Blakemore backed up his recognition as week one’s CostCutters Player of the Week by scoring four of his team’s five touchdowns in week two. Junior Max Perez added 83 yards rushing and 70 yards passing, including a 26-yard TD pass to senior Day’lon Byrd that started the Knights’ scoring barrage. Blakemore scored twice in the second quarter, once in the third quarter and once in the fourth. After leading 21-0, the Knights led Lobos at half, 21-10. Except for the short lapse in the second quarter, the defense stifled the Lobos all night, creating four turnovers and holding the team without a first down until the second quarter.
In his post-game comments, head coach Charles Taylor stressed the defensive effort as the key to his team’s victory.
“Our defense played great,” Taylor told a trio of reporters who interviewed him after the game. “They’re piggy-backing off how they played last year. Overall it’s a win, but we still have work to do.”
Defensive end Ronald Dotson agreed that the team’s success depends on everyone putting in the work every day.
“We work real hard in practice,” Dotson said. “We come out every day. I want to give a shout out to everyone on the defense from the D-lineman all the way back to the DB’s to the backups.”
Linebacker Jack Switzer also stressed that the defensive effort was due to everyone doing their part.
“We play as a unit and that’s what happens, you know? We completely shut them out in the second half,” Switzer said. “We just kept getting three and outs, we’d get tackles behind the line, and we forced a lot of turnovers,” Switzer said.
Dotson said that the team now sets its sights on Seguin, its next opponent, in hopes that this team will continue its winning ways on a path that ends with a special season in McCallum’s long football tradition.
— with reporting by Joseph Cardenas and Mia Orrick
Defensive end Ronald Dotson. Interview by Joseph Cardenas. Video by Mia Orrick.
Linebacker Jack Switzer. Interview by Joseph Cardenas. Video by Mia Orrick.
Photos by Charlie Holden, Adrian Pena, and Dave Winter.
![NEW CHALLENGE, NEW TEAM MEMBERS: Every season, VEX creates a new game that robotics team members are faced with and have to build a robot to compete in. This year’s game forces students to create a robot that is able to stack rings onto mobile goals in order to score points. The change in games each season is something that robotics teacher Audrea Moyers appreciates.
“One of the things that I like about VEX is that they have a new problem to solve every year,” she said. ¨Even though the equipment’s the same, they have to analyze the game, and they have to come up with solutions that are unique that year. They are using their knowledge from prior years, but they have to kind of redesign a problem.”
As returning teams were faced a new game, some new teams and members had to adapt to a uncommon playing field and game.
“Three of our four teams were competing for the first time this year, and they had very different experiences match to match, so I think they learned a lot,¨ she said. ¨It’s hard just watching a video online to know how it’s actually going to be in person, so they all learned a lot about what gameplay is like, how to work with an alliance partner [and] how to adapt during the day to changes.”](https://macshieldonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/IMG_9283-1-1200x800.jpg)
![WISHFUL WINDOW SHOPPING: Senior Mia Plemons observes the displays in the MAC during the 5x7 gallery night. Although not a member herself, Plemons feels a connection to the program through her friends and peers. “I have a lot of friends in art,” Plemons said. “And I’ve seen a lot of their work and it’s all really nice and beautiful, and I really enjoy seeing some of the nice pieces people have made.” Plemons didn’t manage to secure a piece of her own, but left impressed by all the ones she saw. “I didn’t [have a favorite], every piece of art I saw was just absolutely breathtaking,” Plemons said. “I think they should definitely do more things like this in the future. I think it’s definitely great for people in the art program to get their art out there and getting experience with making things that people buy.” Caption by Noah Braun. Photo by Lilah Lavigne.](https://macshieldonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/54188247349_62510240f2_o-e1733894950394-1200x976.jpg)
