The Falcons went into their Nov. 1 senior night home game against the Gunn Titans with a 6-1-1 record, but had no hope of qualifying for CCS due to a 24-0 road loss on Oct. 25 to Jefferson. They fought hard against the Titans but lost 17-3. In a non-league road game on Nov. 8, they fell 23-13 to Santa Clara. They finished the season 6-3-1 and earned a third-place finish in the nine-team Peninsula-Lake Division before Gunn and Jefferson.
As has happened often in recent years with a small roster, injuries took a heavy toll late in the season.
Starters such as sophomore linebacker Motekai Pahulu had a seizure against Monta Vista, keeping him out for the season; senior center Alessandro Kaypaghian suffered a broken fibula; junior defensive tackle Daniel Rodriguez had a dislocated elbow; and junior tight end Lucas Hawthrone suffered a shoulder injury.
Nevertheless, the Falcons stayed strong as a team in their last two league matchups against their toughest opponents yet — the No. 1 and No. 2 teams.
In under five minutes in the first quarter of the Nov. 1 game vs. Gunn, the Titans scored a touchdown and PAT. Adding to the injured list, center Benjamin Guo dislocated his shoulder in the early action. However, they responded before the end of the half after sophomore kicker Victor Mancuso nailed a 32-yard field goal to bring the score to 7-3.
The Falcons’ defense took another hit early in the second quarter, as they conceded both their second touchdown of the game and a PAT after, putting Gunn in a comfortable lead 14-3. Senior receiver Charlie Arman, who had four catches in the game, said that, despite giving up two early touchdowns, the team’s defense improved drastically throughout the rest of the game, during which Gunn only scored one more field goal.
“Our defense was pretty locked down, for the most part,” Arman said.
“We held them on a lot of drives, except the first half. They scored two, and then for the rest of the game, we were pretty good on defense, not allowing them to break through at all.”
Despite being on the Titans’ side of the field several times in the contest, the Falcons came away with only the three points from Mancuso’s field goal.
The Falcons’ offense, with their lengthy list of injuries, also put the team at a disadvantage according to sophomore quarterback Anson Hulme.
Hulme stayed consistent putting up 18 completed passesand producing 169 yards worth. Hulme felt as less experienced players stepped in, it was more difficult for the younger players to achieve at the same level as the starters. Additionally, he felt that the team never found the right plays to result in big plays.
“This game, I feel like we struggled to find plays that worked, because the other team had clearly done lots of film study, because they were able to call out and predict a lot of our run plays,” Hulme said. “I think things we could fix for the next game could be expanding our playbook to catch the other team off guard.”
Despite this, senior captain Doug Bettinger kept his strong season going with a big night, putting up 115 yards from 8 catches in the game. This totalled nearly half of his season’s receiving yards, as the other 325 of 573 of his yardage came from rushing. These stats almost compared to Gunn’s running back’s Yonatan Smolyar’s stellar rushing performance; he ran for 169 yards in 21 carries against Toga.
The defense saw stellar performances from two of their linebackers, senior Keion Ashjaee-Marshall and junior Brennan Pak, who each picked up 16 total tackles, and senior lineman Tevita Pahulu, who had 13 tackles. Pak ended up leading the league in tackles with 93.
The Falcons’ season was one of the best in the last five years and has developed largely through the Class of 2025’s continual commitment to head coach Archie Ljepava’s program.
“This must have been my 35th game or something; I’ve had so many memories, wins, losses,” said Arman, who finished the season with a league-leading four interceptions. “This is probably the best season we’ve had in terms of the wins, but it’s just been so much fun. We’ve learned so much as a group — as a family.”
Before the Gunn game, each of the seniors took the field arm in arm with their families as PA announcer Erick Rector recounted their favorite memories from being on the team. The honored seniors were Ashjaee-Marshall, Renn Blanco, Sawyer Chao, Arman, Bettinger, Rivan Dass, Arsh Tikku, Ben Haug, Alessandro Kaypaghian, Pahulu and Berk Gurleroglu.
