By: Madeline Alvarez
On Friday, October 27th El Diamante played against Golden West for the annual Battle for the Saddle game. The game, as usual, was held at Groppetti Community Stadium at 7:00p.m. The El Diamante football team won the saddle the previous year, but unfortunately they had a tough 10-21 loss against Golden West this year.
Emotions were definitely a huge part of the game, especially for seniors who were playing their last football game of the season. Quarterback, Kaleb Konersman claimed, “I felt really pumped up from my adrenaline rush, but also emotional because it was my last game.”
This year El Diamante was away, but that didn’t affect the attendance of El Diamante fans. The entire away side was full with fans ready to watch their football team compete for the saddle. In the first quarter Edward Perez, the kicker for El Diamante, made a field goal making the score 3-0. Unfortunately soon after, Golden West made a touchdown to make the score 3-7. As halftime was getting closer El Diamante was looking to gain their lead back. Senior quarterback, Kaleb Konersman, threw a 54-yard pass to Anthony Noriega to score a touchdown for El Diamante making the score 10-7. El Diamante fans went crazy. This was very exciting for all of the fans because there were only seconds left until halftime. It was a great way to end the half for El Diamante.
After halftime it was time to start the second half of the game. El Diamante fans were hyped and ready for some more football. Throughout the game there were fumbles, a few interceptions, and lots of exciting plays but, unfortunately, Golden West made two more touchdowns making the final score of the game 10-21 and causing El Diamante to lose the saddle.
The night was very emotional for all of El Diamante. It was not the outcome they were hoping for. Although the game didn’t end the way El Diamante had hoped, it was still a well fought game against Golden West. Konersman stated, “I think the team played well last night and I think the only thing we could’ve done differently was establish the run game a lot more.”
Despite the loss of the game and saddle, the El Diamante football team battled well against Golden West making the night an eventful one for all of El Diamante and continuing the ongoing tradition of battling it out for the Saddle.