By Channing Whitaker | Staff Writer

On October 4 at TAK stadium, the Irvington varsity football team was looking for not only their first MVAL win, but their first win of the season. Unfortunately, Newark was too much for the Vikings on the offensive side of the ball as Irvington lost 41-13.

Irvington got off to a great start in the beginning as they scored a touchdown on their very first possession to make the game 6-0. Then, Newark came back and scored a touchdown with the made extra point to make the game 6 to 7.

After an Irvington turnover on downs, Newark went 85 yards in three plays capped off by a 44 yard touchdown run to make the game 6 to 14. Irvington responded back with a touchdown of their own going 52 yards in nine plays finished by sophomore quarterback Austin Walker who ran it in to the end zone on a four yard run cutting the lead for Newark to 13-14.

Newark then created separation in the second half of the second quarter scoring 14 unanswered points by running through the Irvington defense making it 28-13 as the first half concluded.

On the opening kickoff of the second half with Irvington receiving, senior Andrew Caso caught the football and ran about 30 yards before coughing up the football to Newark. As he was getting tackled, Caso injured his right ankle as he had to be carried off the field for the remainder of the game. After the game, he had a quick recovery and is now cleared to play for the remainder of the season.

After Caso’s fumble, the momentum shifted toward Newark for the second half as they wore out the Irvington defense scoring another additional 13 points to put the game out of hand.

Despite the loss, there were still many positives that Irvington took away from this game.

Head Coach Ross Eddings said, “The team fought hard to the end of the game. They never gave up, and kept playing.”

Senior wide receiver/outside linebacker Zulfiqar Khan said, “Throughout the game, we always stuck together as a team and never gave up.”

Their next game will be against American on October 17.