On Friday, October 14, Independence High School lost a highly anticipated homecoming football game to Briar Woods, with a final score of 21-12. This game is known as a major crossroad rivalry, as the two schools are closely located. The stadium was packed, and what furthered the rivalry game even more was that Independence had a blackout theme for their student section, whereas Briar Woods had a whiteout.

Coming into the game, Independence was on a roll, winning 6 games in a row to start the season. Briar Woods was 4-3, but that wasn’t going to slow them down. The game started off a little slow, with the defenses showing out, but soon enough, Briar Woods got great field position and was able to take a lead. They never looked back.

Although Independence lost, they played a hard fought game and are looking to put this game in the past and move on to the next. Havish Juvvadi, a sophomore who plays offensive and defensive lineman, says the team is attempting to fix up the little mistakes they made. “The mood is just fixing our mistakes and getting ready for next week. After the tough loss we are trying to eliminate all errors and make sure we come out with a win.”

Another player on the team, sophomore Jishnu Bachala, said, “We want to improve more on coming out into the second half with just as much energy as the first half and to overall focus on the minor things,” referring to how the team looked less energetic in the second half.