Okemos varsity football scored their first points against East Lansing in seven years at the East Lansing Homecoming game on Sep. 20. EL had a strong start to the game, but were quickly thrown off by the unexpected scoring from Okemos. 

Starting the season off with three losses in a row was unexpected not only for the team, but also for the student section. Winning against Okemos left the whole team at ease, giving them hope for the rest of the season. 

“It’s only a matter of time,” Assistant Coach Gianni Feraco said. “You know, you just gotta roll with it. And that’s sports.”

The victory provided a foundation for the team to move forward.

“I think there was a sense of relief, you know, to finally get the one,” Feracco said. “Something to build off of.”

Anthony Green (11) had just recently returned after two weeks on break. He helped lead the defense and run the ball alongside Tyree Anthony (10) and Baylor Shanski (11).

“I think it felt pretty good, especially because it was homecoming,” Shanski said. “So we were all happy that we won.”

In the second half, an Okemos player was taken off the field by paramedics on a stretcher due to a suspected head or neck injury. Although the sight was alarming for all players and fans, the player was later found to have suffered no major injuries. The injury delay and penalties caused the game to take over three hours.

“It was sort of mellow at the end because it was not your normal flow of a game,” Feraco said.

Despite finishing with a win, the post-game energy was dampened by the extended game time and frustration with allowing Okemos a scoring opportunity.

“We were all happy about winning, but it was not as pretty as we wanted,” Shanksi said. “We know we have to step it up a little bit and stop making as many mistakes as we were making.”