At first onlookers may have wondered if the historic freshman football game against Episcopal High School’s JV would take place, as the rain falling from the darkened sky was quite prominent.
The game did happen despite the rainy storms.
Kinkaid’s new freshman football team led 6-0 in its historic first game against rivals the Episcopal Knights going into halftime and the game stayed that way until the last few minutes of the fourth quarter, despite injuries on the Falcon offense.
“Going into the fourth, I was confident in our defense to hold them down to help our offense out, who had lost our starting quarterback Shea Morenz,” stated head coach Bobby Eggleston said.
The Falcon defense had Episcopal offense 3rd and 8 from the 4- yard line. Pressuring their opponents with a blitz, the Falcon defense almost reached Episcopal’s quarterback, but he got the ball off and the throw slipped past Falcon cornerback John Massey’s hands and into the arms of an Episcopal receiver, which gave Episopal the lead 7-6.
All within the last few minutes of the game, Episcopal High School pulled through for the win.
“We did everything right, so I wasn’t mad at all. EHS scored a TD late to go ahead 14-6, but we still had a chance to tie the game,” Eggleston said.
“The freshman Falcons fought hard against the Episcopal JV,” said Mrs. Ashley Flack, whose son Bear Flack plays for the freshman team. “The boys wanted to make Coach Egg proud and not break his undefeated streak.”
While this game ended in a loss, it was just the beginning of the rivalry games between Kinkaid and Episcopal for the 2024-25 school year.
The football programs for both schools are set to face each other once again on Oct. 17, 2024, with the junior varsity teams. The following day, the varsity teams play Oct. 18 in a highly anticipated game that is set to determine their standings in the Southern Preparatory Conference.
The Falcons had two consecutive SPC wins under their belt out of their record-holding 32 wins. Their 2023 championship game was the second consecutive face off between Episcopal and Kinkaid. In 2023, the Falcons had a 35-25 loss against the Knights, but as rivalries go, the Falcons beat Episcopal 21-13 for the championship win in 2022.
Despite this year’s first Episcopal game ending in a loss, coach Eggleston said he remains positive about the freshman team’s performance.
“It did not go our way in the end, but that’s how games go sometimes,” he said. “I was proud of the boy’s efforts and told them that after the game. Our boys played their hearts out and wanted to beat one of our rivals, but it just didn’t happen.”
The following week the team played St. Thomas High School and bounced back with a 27-8 win,
“Our motto is one practice, one game at a time. We lost two weeks ago, and we flushed it away. We won last week and we need to forget it…,” coach Eggleston said.
At the time of reporting, the Falcon’s freshman team’s record stood 2-2.
