After building a 14-0 halftime lead, McCallum led by only a touchdown with less than 10 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, and those pesky Akins Eagles were driving for what would be the tying touchdown when quarterback Nick Cagle lofted a pass into the outstretched hands of receiver Sergio Madrigal.
It looked for a moment that the Eagles had landed in the end zone to tie the score.
Senior quarterback Brandon Wooley had other ideas.
Before Madrigal could bring the ball under control, Wooley ripped it from his grasp. The dislodged ball hung in the air behind Wooley’s back as he faced the back of the end zone. Somehow, he reached for the ball behind his back and cradled it for a tide-changing, game-deciding, 4-and-0-season-preserving interception.
The catch would have been on SportCenter had ESPN been there to record it. In their absence, Tony Lavorgna’s still MacJournalism photos of the play will have to do.
After the game, Wooley expressed self-deprecating humor, telling reporters that it was the first time in his football career that he caught the football during the game. Even in practice, he joked, he can’t catch the ball.
But Wooley caught the ball when his team needed him to catch it, and because he did, the Knights are 4-0 for the first time since 1966.
The team rides a hot defense and a scorching running back in Andre Blakemore (who added 195 yards an a touchdown to his amazing four-game tally of 646 yards and eight touchdowns) into Friday’s Homecoming game. The Knights open district play with a bang as they face a showdown with perennial arch-rival LBJ.
GAME NOTES: Shout out to senior Luke Whitefield who achieved a rare trifecta in the game, kicking a field goal and an on-side kick that he also recovered, leading to the Knights’ second touchdown (scored by Alex Julian).
Reporting by Joseph Cardenas. Photos by Diego Gutierrez, Persophone Harris, Greg James, Tony Lavorgna, Mia Orrick, Adrian Peña and Ramona Sever. Video by Mia Orrick.
![A PRIDE-FUL WEEK OF CELEBRATION:
As part of AISDs week-long celebration of PRIDE, students of the McCallum Spectrum Club worked to create a week full of activities, prizes and helping hands to support the schools LGBTQ+ community. The club is widely available for anyone to join, and specializes in creating a safe space for students to share and give advice. While Pride month itself isn’t until June, AISD designates one week in March to celebrate and commemorate the importance of this part of the student body.
As part of the week of festivities, the club held a booth in the front hall handing out pride stickers, pins and merch to passers by. For junior Zane Joly, the booth idea was brought up as a way for students to engage with one another, and connect with the community.
“I call out to people in the halls, ‘hey, do you want stickers?’” Joly said. “We just give out free pride stickers and sometimes other free pride merch to the students of Macallum because everybody likes pride stickers.”
While the week itself is packed with a variety of different activities, the overall goal is to bring students closer together and create a safer environment for self expression at McCallum.
“The idea for the student panel largely came from the black [history] student panel that is done during Black History Month,” Joly said. “And the idea for giving out free stuff was developed at Spectrum last year.”
Joly is not only a member of the Spectrum club, but also holds a leadership position giving them a more hands-on role with the projects and Pride Week activities.
“McCallum has a very high queer population,” Joly said. “I think Its nice that we get a chance to celebrate Pride because Pride Month is during the summer, and I think its just a nice thing for the community and getting to just celebrate it.”
While the merch table at lunch was only a small part of the numerous parts of McCallum’s Pride week, for Joly this small impact made all the difference.
“The purpose of Pride is to make people not feel alone and to make them feel safe,” Joly said. “The goal is [to make people] happy about a part of themselves that theyre often conditioned to not feel good about.”
Caption by Chloe Lewcock. Photo by Shila Gill.](https://macshieldonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/53597258192_6e7168d8ae_o-1-1200x676.jpg)
