Calabasas High School had a thrilling victory over Bishop Alemany in their first game of the season last Friday night, with a final score of 37-34. With a mostly road-heavy schedule ahead, the Coyotes made the most of their opportunity to shine early at home.
In the first quarter of the game, Calabasas was up despite a slow start. Alemany controlled possession of the game time with a long opening drive that ate up almost the entire first quarter, only 4 minutes remaining for Calabasas. Still, the Coyotes were able to take the lead ending the quarter with a score of 7-6.
At halftime, Calabasas clung to a 20-19 lead.
“We knew we needed to start fast and it’s something we didn’t do last year. So, first play in the third quarter, we got a long kickoff return for a touchdown and it set the momentum for the guys going into the second half,” said Cary Harris, Head Coach.
The second half of the game saw momentum swing dramatically in the favor of the Coyotes. Kingston Celifie had a 99 yard kick return touchdown, giving Calabasas a two-score advantage. He also added 70 receiving yards, assisting the offense.
In the fourth quarter, Calabasas was crushing Alemany with a score of 34 to 19. Then kicker Ben Chacham added a crucial 29 yard field goal in the fourth quarter, extending the Coyotes advantage by three points. This kick was imperative to the win of the Coyotes, because Alemany started to come back and closed the gap to 34 points. Without this field goal, the game could have slipped away.
“I would say that we were able to dominate on special teams and our playmakers on offense allowed us to move the ball downfield really well,” said Chacham. “On defense we were able to hold strong in the fourth quarter when Alemany started to come back.”
Throughout the game, Kayne Miller proved to be unstoppable, with three touchdowns, 187 rush yards, and extreme versatility playing defense, special teams, and offense.
“I’m most proud that we stayed together as a team throughout the whole thing and nobody got down on each other, only brought them up,” said Miller.
Next Thursday, Calabasas travels to Castaic looking to improve to 2-0 on the year. Last year, Calabasas hosted Castaic and comfortably defeated them 48-12 behind a combined 6 touchdowns from Miller and Celifie.
