The crowd seemed more riled up than ever as the ghastly clouds seemed to match the Fright Night theme as a major event in the spirit week festivities.

Already wild from the JV team’s Homecoming victory over Rio Americano 62-12, the crowd cheered as silver sports cars drove by with the freshman, sophomore and junior princes and princesses.

The crowd went wild at the three Homecoming king and queen nominees drove by in red classic sports cars. In a new twist, balloons released from the trunk of each car indicated which couple won King and Queen. Jasmine Beck and Andre Scott, known at rallies as the Voices of Whitney, had the orange balloons compared to the two sets of black balloons, and the crowd cheered in approval as they accepted the top honors.

Matthew Dunn sang the national anthem while ROTC performed their drill. Then the football players got ready to start the game.

The game started off with #28 Jordan Traynor scored the first touchdown of the game making the score 7-0. Rio Americano attempted to score but failed giving the ball back to Whitney. In response Whitney scored another touched down ending the quarter 14-0, Whitney in the lead.

With in the first few minutes of the second quarter #4 Nolan Squyres scored a touchdown making the score 21-0, Whitney leading. Rio Americano responded with #18 Chris Moor making a touchdown making the score 14-7. Whitney got possession of the ball and #28 Jordan Traynor took it down the field to score a touchdown. Rio tried to score again and failed and Whitney scored one last time ending the second quarter 35-14.

Halftime included fright night themed performances from the dance team, cheer squad and marching band.

“I thought half time was good, some of the stunts were pretty impressive. [Like the one the cheer squad did] when the flyers fell forward, got pushed back up and fell back and then got pushed on their feet,” Lindsey Yip said.

Third quarter both teams worked hard to score but only Rio Americano was successful making the score 35-21 Whitney ahead. Squyres scored again for Whitney making the score 42-21. With only a few minutes left in the game Rio Americano made an attempt to score again. They succeeded and the game ended with a 56-28 win.

“I feel like we did really well; they worked hard. The other team never had the lead. It was a good game,” Zane Tarabochia-Martin said.

#11 Noah Corbitt felt that the team did a great job playing.

“We played hard. Fought our way through, we had an injury on our offensive line but Blake Garrett stepped up and filled in and played great,” Corbitt said.

Varsity head coach Mike Gimenez commented on the boys’ game, saying they still need to work out the kinks.

“We have improved a lot. They have been working hard. Right now it’s the little things that are killing us. We need to tighten up [the loose ends]. [Our goal is to] win league. That means we’ve got to win the next three games,” Gimenez said.

The last home game is Nov. 1 against Cordova.

by ARIELLA APPLEBY