The Northwest varsity football team played against Kapaun Mt. Carmel at Stryker Sporting Complex on Friday, Sept. 28. Head coach Steve Martin and one of his varsity players, Ja’Mari Bland (12) were confident about the game. Martin and Bland both agreed Northwest would win but Martin’s final score prediction was 42-14, Bland’s was 34-14.

They also had confidence when asked to predict scoring.

Martin guessed 6 touchdowns with a halftime score of 21-7 and Bland guessed 10 with a halftime score of 28-7.

Both believed NW is capable of beating Kapaun. They expressed a need to prepare for going into Friday’s game and talked about what strengths Kapaun has.

“[We need to] limit certain mistakes we’ve made in the past few weeks” and be “mentally ready for a physical game. They run the ball probably 97% of the time so that’s something different we don’t see every year,” Martin said.

Bland’s had some thoughts on this as well.

“We need to be a physical team and run the ball. [Their strengths are] their physicality, their capability of wanting to run, and their discipline,” Bland said.

Bland said he was optimistic about his senior season saying it will be “Good, starting off 3-0 hopefully 4-0 at the end of tonight.”

At the game, the Grizzlies got off to a strong start with a 28-14 lead at halftime but then fell to Kapaun in the end with a score of 43-42.

Losing such a close game was an attention-getter for players like junior Jaelynn Ligon.

“This is a wakeup call for the team and me,” Ligon said.

Ligon said catching more balls was the key to winning the next game against West.

“It’s alright; we’re going to bounce back,” Ligon said.