A rare sighting for Los Banos, California is a city with both high schools, Pacheco High and Los Banos High remain undefeated through the first half of the regular football season. It is an amazing accomplishment, and the teams bring joy and excitement to our little town. Pacheco High football captains and Los Banos football captains shared their take on their football season, team, and team goals for the remaining of the year.

The Los Banos Tigers captains took time to speak about their teams on their undefeated league season so far this year. 

David Herrera, (11), is the Varsity quarterback and captain. When asked about his expectations for his team during the 2022 football season, he responded, “I honestly didn’t have  too much high expectations just seeing how we didn’t have much size, but after the first game, I realized that we had some dawgs. We are going to have one hell of a team this year.” 

Having high expectations for his team this year, David makes sure to give credit to his teammates. “ I  think we have a better record and team because this year we have a lot of leaders and players who are dedicated and willing to put in the work.”

The young quarterback continued, “It honestly feels really good being that we’ve come such a long way and no one really had high expectations for us because we lost a lot of talent from last year.”

Jamison Braniff, (12) is a Varsity captain. When asked about his expectation of this year’s team and how he felt they would do his answer was straight forward and honest. “My expectations are to go undefeated and to play as a team. It feels good; hard work does pay off at the end of the day. This team has a better record because we play as a family, like a brotherhood. I think we will win out and make a deep playoff run as long as we keep playing as the team we are.”

Pacheco High player Abel Bravo (11), Varsity captain and starting running back is ranked number one in the state for the 2024 class with 1172 yards and 147 carries, the main focus point in the offense, had this to say when asked about the Panthers upcoming season expectations. 

“Going into the 2022 football season, expectations as a team were high. We had a really good off season. Leaders stepped up and changed the way things were ran from last year,” Bravo said.

He had a lot to say about being undefeated, the team, and the goals for this year. “I think anyone can say it feels great being undefeated in league, especially after the disappointing season we had last year. It’s a huge step up and a great feeling. I feel the main reason our team has improved is because last year we were a team full of sophomores and juniors. We were all young and not as developed/knowledgeable in the game. Three out of five of our linemen were sophomores and all of our linebackers  were juniors/sophomores. I think the rest of the season will play out as it has so far. I think we’re going to have a couple more close games, but in the end, I think we can go undefeated and have a good game to end the season home against LB, and then head into playoffs. My overall goals this year is to continue putting up the numbers that we are, and take our team to the playoffs. as long as we show up and play like we know we can, we will be good.” 

Starting QB and captain Aiden Huerta (12) leading the Pacheco Panthers to success had this to say on their expectations after last year. “My expectations on the 2022 season was to survive and find a playoff spot. Being the new starting quarterback, there was a lot of pressure on me and trying to lead this team. I haven’t played quarterback since I was a kid, like 12 but coming back into a kind of easy offense to know it has brought my rhythm back and got us undefeated in the league.”

Then he started talking about on how it feels being undefeated in league, team chemistry, and goals. 

“It feels great being undefeated in the league. I would go to all the Pacheco home games in the stands just thinking about how I could help this team. Last year’s record wasn’t that good. I wish I was out there and could have helped. But last year is in the past and all I’m worried about is going undefeated this year and winning the league. I think we might be a little better than last year team because its more than a team its like a brother hood. We all hung out with each other and we all got great chemistry with each other. I think we have a couple hard games coming up, but I think we can sneak past a couple more wins and hopefully stay undefeated until the crosstown rivalry and battle it out there for the league title. My overall goal for the season is just to have fun and win as many games as we can and make playoffs maybe win section and league.”

The rival game between Pacheco High and Los Banos High is scheduled for October 28 at Pacheco High.  With three games out, and deciding which team wins league, one or both of these teams have the potential to make playoffs.