Santa Gertrudis Kingsville Academy will win its first varsity game of the season - and in school history - before any of the other area teams conclude their contests this Friday night.

Santa Maria, Academy’s opponent this week, has already forfeited their game versus the Pride because of an inability to field an adequate number of players.

“Technically we will be 1-8 after next week,” Moon said this past weekend. “It is not the way you want to get your first victory but it is what it is.”

Academy is coming off of a 38-14 loss to Agua Dulce this past Saturday. In just its third season of existence – they played an abbreviated junior varsity schedule in 2007 – Academy is going through their second baptismal varsity season under fire.

Still, the Pride showed some bright spots on Saturday even if they were sporadic.

The Pride scored their second touchdown when Quarterback Connor DeLaney connected with Uriah Luna on a 16-yard pass.

Prior to that, DeLaney completed a long pass to Joel Obregon which set up a short scoring run by Aaron Ramon.

On defense, Emilio Martinez recorded two sacks against Agua Dulce.

“We played much better in the fourth quarter even though it was not against Agua Dulce’s number one guys,” Moon said. “But we began to see some of the fruits of our labors and what can be done when we do our assignments.”

Academy’s fan base on Saturday was good as family and friends cheered for every single accomplishment; first downs, hard hits and especially touchdowns.

Many of their Pride’s offensive series went two steps forward and three steps back which is understandable at this point. Still, the Pride faithful cheered.

One of the Pride’s biggest need for improvement comes in opening holes for their running backs and protecting the quarterback.

“We have to block everybody and we are almost getting there,” Moon said. “We are still letting that one defensive guy loose and that is what is causing us disruptions but that is part of being young and inexperienced.”

This Friday’s bye will give Academy two weeks to prepare for their season finale against Bruni. One more game before it’s all over Academy…so leave it all on the field.

(Rey Sifuentes Jr. can be reached at rataman2@ yahoo.com)