After a tough one point loss to Weiss 41-42, varsity football is focused on its next game — Lake Belton, another state-ranked team, and they have an eye on district play. The Mavs play Lake Belton at 7 p.m. Thursday at Tiger Field in Belton.

“Lake Belton is our first road game of the year,” Head Football Coach Scott Hermes said. “It will definitely be a challenge.”

Hermes said the team’s goal is to win district, win playoff games, practice during Thanksgiving and “ultimately win a state championship.”

“We’re a very good team,” Hermes said. “I expect us to be very successful.”

Senior running back Joshua Williams believes the team can win a district championship, Vandegrift won the district championship last year.

In the game last Thursday, the Mavs tied Weiss late in the fourth quarter to go into overtime. In overtime, the Mavs took a bold move to go for two — to win the game instead of playing it safe. The Mavs came up just a few yards short. 

“We played well Thursday night but made too many mistakes throughout the game,” Hermes said. “Weiss is a good team, and you can’t make as many errors as we did when you play good teams.”

Players were frustrated with the loss, but still look ahead to the rest of the season.

“I was mad because we lost, but I had to keep my cool and show my teammates we put up a good fight against a really good team,” junior wide receiver Jarell Gary said. “I just tried to encourage our team that next week we’ll do better.” 

Despite the errors, the stats show a positive outlook for the varsity team. When comparing the stats between the two teams, the Mavs had 255 passing yards and 222 rushing yards for a total of 475 and Weiss fell short with 223 passing yards and 211 rushing yards for a total of 434 yards.

“We didn’t stop, we continued to fight even though we were down and we had everything against us,” Gary said.  “We didn’t give up. [What happened] won ‘t happen again.”