On Oct. 25th, the school geared up in the locker rooms to enter enemy territory against their oldest rival, Lake Mary high school. The music played, the band was in uniform and the courage was tangible. Except not for our team, who despite their best efforts ended up losing to Lake Mary with a final score of 12-52.
Though the score was met with shock and dismay, it was not the first time that the team had been badly defeated by the Rams. On Sep. 10, 2021, the final score was 6-38. The Rams had prevailed. But on Sep. 17, 2022, the team prevailed over the Lake Mary Rams. It was for the first time after almost fifteen years of defeat after defeat.
“Beating Lake Mary felt like an achievement. Like an honor to our school. It felt like something special with the players. It was just a good group of kids with a lot of spirit,” senior linebacker Porter Craig said.
The 2023 game was fast approaching with a pep rally on the day of. During the week of the 2023 game dress up days were announced to show the Patriot pride that everyone took in stride. Everyone was thrilled to see how the team would do. That is, until the game was played and the score was called.
“We lost really badly last year and I think that everyone just kind of gave up on us,” senior Cora Falvey said.
After the defeat, the 2024 game was met with no banners and no pep rally. The players that had triumphed over Lake Mary in 2022 had transferred to Lake Mary. The game was here and yet no one knew because the school didn’t care enough.
“People leaving just really devastated us because we did really badly last year and I guess people just sort of gave up on us this year,” senior Julien Aponte said.
The school has to give back to the players that gave them that victory in 2022. After a fifteen year streak of loss after loss, the win that broke that horrific streak brought the school and players pride. The win streak didn’t last and the school gave up. Celebrate those players and give them the confidence to win over the Rams or the loss streak will only continue on for another fifteen years.
“And I felt that was the reason we won two years ago. It was the confidence of the team and the school behind us,” Craig said.
