Touchdown Champs

By Rachel West

The junior varsity football team's successful season all began with its first victory aga inst city rival East, 7-0.

"East is our biggest city rival. They've always been our biggest city rival ," commented Chad Cessna

As a follow-up to the East game, the Rockets beat Southeast, 6-0 The only touchdown was a twisting , cutback run by freshman Amon Helmstadter

While the wins over East and Southeast were big , they paled in comparison to the 44-22 victory over Lincoln High That triumph gave Northeast its first city junior varsity championship since the 1983 season, when NE won the city reserve title

"Lincoln High couldn't stop us. They could only hope to contain us, which they couldn't do either," replied Helmstadter

Helmstadter scored the first touchdown of the game on a one yard run. Two plays later, he scored on a seven yard carry and added a 35-yard scoring run later in the game. Jeremy Bender scored two touchdowns and Ryan Masek added one

However, Northeast had its losses. In the f irst game, the Rockets fell to Fremont, 21-7 as Jason Francke scored the lone touchdown Kearney defeated Northeast, 28-7 with Jeremy Bender scoring the only touchdown on a three-yard run .

To deal with the early-season losses the team had to stick together . ''T earn unity is the main thing .... and wanting to win," said Zy

Pajnigar