DOLPHINS FOOTBALL MAKES SCHOOL HISTORY

By Paradis Fejerang

The Southern High Dolphins are 4-0 in high school football. When have you ever heard that before? Probably never in our lifetime, because it hasn’t happened until now.

The upstart Dolphins rolled over the Guam High Panthers 35-6 Saturday night in the ISA Football League to keep the south side of the island in a buzz over the impressive start to the season.

Senior Jaden Escuadra and junior Donte Salas led the balanced Southern attack with touchdowns against a young Panthers team that has only a hand full of upperclassmen. It was the first win over Guam High for the Dolphins since a 31-21 win in 2014.

The Dolphins raced out of a 6-0 halftime lead with a big 22-point 3rd quarter to put the game away, giving up a late-game touchdown with under two minutes left, the first score they’ve surrendered this season.

Despite his team’s loss, Guam High’s Noah Harris was nothing short of impressive as he worked on the field. Displaying a fight like no other, with every tackle that came his way, Harris refused to stop moving until the whistle was blown and leading to multiple examples of keeping the ball moving when both his own team and his opponents have given up with the assumption that the ball was dead before realizing Harris was still making his way down the field.

It was during the second quarter of the game that Dolphin Escuadra caught the pass from his Eden Del Rosario just in bounds of the end zone line and scoring the first points of the game with no extra points scored as Guam High’s defense blocked the kick from taking course.

Southern’s big moves came during the second half as they found their way into the end zone during their first offensive run of the third quarter and adding a 2-point conversion with the help of Donte Salas taking the handoff to make the score 14-0.

Eyes were on Guam High’s Colton Engling to keep his passes connecting with Harris, working together to move the ball down the field. Unfortunately for Harris, his offensive team was lacking when it came to protecting the running back as they seemed to be light on their opponents who were constantly headed for Harris.

The physical size of Southern’s O-line seemed too much for any agility and play that Guam High’s defensive team could throw back as Escuadra scored yet another touchdown with one min, 19 seconds left in the game and adding the extra point on top for a score of 35-0 to the Dolphins.

A last hoorah came from the Panthers led by Isaiah Salas as his fight to the last second of the game showed through with an impressive follow-through after an attempted interception by Southern that Salas was able to recover. This allowed for Panther Braden Flinn to get the ball into the endzone in the following play during the last few seconds of the game. An impressive fight from Guam High, but nothing near enough to even the score as it ended with a 35-6 win for Southern High.

Escuadra and Salas are more than thankful to their coaches for how far Southern’s team has come since they were first entering high school. The two leaders have never succeeded in beating Guam High before and are proud of their teammates for how they are able to show how much their work every day has been able to pay off and they are going to keep it up.

“We’re just going to get back to the usual – from working out on the field to hanging out off the field,” Salas shares about how the Dolphins are planning on continuing the season with the same mindset.

“Our coaching staff expects a lot from us and we’re just going to get back to the grind for our upcoming game against FD,” continues Salas to share that just like how he had yet to beat Guam High and faced them, he is looking forward to face the Friars and seeing what happens.

This much success for the south side would probably date back to the mid 1980’s when Oceanview Middle School was then the brand new Oceanview High School Knights and high school football was divided into two divisions – large schools and small schools – and the Knights were kings of the small school division.

Southern will be put to the ultimate test as it faces the record-setting FD Friars next Saturday night at the GW field. The Friars are on a 76-game win streak and have yet to be truly tested in a couple of seasons, winning the last eight titles.

GECKOS CRUSH SHARKS

In the other Saturday night game, the GW Geckos led 35-0 at halftime before the Sanchez Sharks chose not to take part in the second half.

A host of Geckos took part in the scoring party: Rayn Rios, Nizayah Untalan, Avian Gumataotao, Jaeden Indalecio and Justin Sablan all found the end zone for GW. Eduardo Whitman was a perfect 5-for-5 in PATs.

The Geckos play the JFK Islanders this coming Friday night.

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