The Chaparral’s Men’s football team ascertained a win over central Iowa on Saturday here at the Glen Ellyn campus. Although the first quarter was strenuous (they played the kind of football akin to watching my alcoholic family try to play two hand touch in the front yard at a reunion), the clock ended in the fourth quarter with a score of 20-13, establishing the team’s first win of the 2016-2017 fall season.

Our early field goal in the first quarter filled me with hope for a better semester, one in which I would get to write about a new caliber of athlete.  A semester in which I didn’t feel like a harbinger of doom for our sports programs. These whimsical notions seem to hang on a tightrope for a duration of the game.

It was a shaky start. The first quarter was littered with errors, including the fumble of a snap by number two quarterback Evan Scales (pictured), a five-yard punt return accosted out of bounds by number eighty-nine Jason Newton, an interception produced by our aforementioned quarterback and the injury of offensive line number 70 Chris Moran, who later walked off his injuries on his own accord. These blunders all happened within minutes and were incredibly demoralizing to the team and fans, who although clapped at Moran’s resilience, probably felt the same sort anxiety I was feeling.

These series of unfortunate events must have lit a fire in the bellies of the Chaparrals, as they went on to score seventeen more points over the next three quarters. This included a rush touchdown by running back number thirty-five Jordan Brown in the second, a clandestine 95 yard interception return for a touchdown in the fourth quarter by defensive back number thirty six Myles Plummer, and dead shot field goals and extra points courtesy of kicker number seventeen Casey Bednarski in all three. As of right now, Bednarski is the No. 1 kicker in our division, as he has a 100 percent field goal percentage. Iowa Central went on to score two field goals and one touchdown, but it would not be enough to combat the new found veracity of the Chaparrals.

As the game concluded, I realized my worries in the first quarter were preemptive. The Chaps went from playing like my worthless family to genuine athletes over the course of minutes. This win has established a great precedent for this new semester and the Chaparrals. A win is most significant when it is hard earned, and the Chaps fought for almost three hours, sustaining injuries and embarrassments in the blaze of summer. My cynicism had me convinced they were doomed and they proved me wrong. When the game finally concluded, the team hooted and hollered as if they had just won the super bowl. It was humbling.