On April 19 the Foothill Technology High School (Foothill Tech) Dragons boys’ basketball team faced their rivals, St. Bonaventure (St. Bonnie), in their first league game and also used their first home game at Ventura High School to honor their three seniors on the team. 

The seniors included Cooper Mecham who will be attending Ventura College, Brian Holloway who will be attending Multnomah University and Justin Razo who will be attending Santa Barbara City College. After the heartfelt ceremony for the seniors, it was time for tip-off. 

Kai Wilkes ‘22, Sam Noah ‘23, Mecham, Holloway and Razo stepped onto the court ready to play an all-in game. The Dragons started strong by winning the tip and immediately pushing their offense. The Dragons did a good job of keeping the ball moving and getting the first points of the game scored by Wilkes. St. Bonnie responds by making their first appearance on the scoreboard as well. Following a steal from Mecham that paved the way for an easy layup for Holloway, St. Bonnie responds with their own layup right after.

St. Bonnie has the next eight consecutive points until Holloway hits a nice fade-away jump shot trailing the Seraphs by the end of the first quarter 18-6.

The second quarter began and the Dragons picked up their defense but get called a foul on them and only make one out of the two free throws. Right after Razo has a nice baseline attack layup that brings the Dragons to eight on the scoreboard. Mecham also put up another layup for the Dragons and got fouled on the way, but failed to put up his free throw. Carrying the momentum, Even Conant ‘23 stole the ball and swished a three-point shot for the Dragons. 

At the end of the second quarter the Dragons are still behind the Seraphs 32-19.

Third-quarter arrived and the Dragons start with the ball. The Seraphs had the first eight points of the quarter, making layups left and right until Halloway responded with his own layup. To pick up the energy, the Dragons started pressing and putting more on-ball pressure against the Seraphs. 

The Seraphs and Dragons go back and forth making layups and by the end of the third quarter, it’s 51-26. 

The fourth quarter finally rolls around, and the Dragons brought the scoring energy they were lacking the previous quarters. To start, Mecham gets a steal and passes to Holloway who drew the foul on a made layup, giving him a three-point play opportunity. Building off of this momentum, Razo hit a three in the corner taking the Dragons’ scoreboard to 32 points. Noah added three more points to the boards right after he stole the ball from the Seraphs. With the Dragons taking control of the game the Seraphs call a timeout.

Coming out of the timeout the Dragons maintained their intensity and Razo showed hustle by diving on the ball and saving it for his team. They get the ball and skip it over to Wilkes who drains the three-pointer. Following this play, Razo gets fouled outside the three-point line giving him three free throws. He makes them all, causing the Dragons to only be down by ten points with a few minutes left in the game.

With the high-level intensity, the Seraphs can’t handle the defensive pressure and turn over the ball. Reading that the Seraphs are starting to get flustered, the Dragons continue to put up shots, including Razo sinking another three-pointer for the Dragons making it a seven-point game.

Razo continued to attack and drew a foul sending him to the free-throw line once again and making both of his free throws. By this point, St. Bonnie has put up a couple of layups and is still in the lead by seven. 

The last points of the game were by Razo which gave the Dragons a total of 48 points overall and the Seraphs ended the night with 60 points.

When asked about the difference in gameplay from the Dragons in the fourth quarter, Holloway said, “we just went on a big run. Shots started falling, that weren’t falling at the beginning of the game. I know if we play with that intensity the next time we play them, it’ll be a much different game.”

Coach Jamaal Brown commented on the boys’ tenacity, saying, “a coach can never be upset at a team that never gives up and never quits […] it was high school basketball at its finest.”

The next game the Dragons played was April 22 against Villanova where they redeemed their loss 65-44.