The Falcon Frenzy is hosted by Rochester annually, which is a community tailgate filled with festivities run by local organizations and school clubs. This year, some organizations in attendance were the Falcon’s Nest selling RHS spirit wear, national honors societies running games, and local Rochester law enforcement and fire department with emergency vehicles. Following the community tailgate was the home opener for Rochester Varsity Football against Lake Orion, and the theme for the student section was USA. Being the home opener, the atmosphere of the game was electric. According to Senior Soldiers of Fortune leader Nolin Dadou, “The spirit in the stands was absolutely unreal. Not only did everybody show out, we made sure we were heard all game.” Not only was Falcon spirit and patriotism showcased in the student section, but on the field as well as the team wore their USA jerseys. Senior Stella Marlow claimed, “The spirit in the student section was top tier, everyone brought their all and stuck to the USA theme.”
The Falcons fiercely battled the Dragons on the field, with Dadou claiming that “The game against Lake Orion was unreal. The Falcons started hot and later in the game went down, but it was nothing short of expected for the Falcons to fight back and bring it home”. When asked about the atmosphere on the field, Senior Yanis Moulaoui said that the atmosphere changed throughout the game in many different ways, but was heavily influenced by the energy of the fans. “At the beginning of the game, it was a really good environment, very loud. Getting into the beginning of the second half, it was a little bit quieter as Lake Orion drove down the field and scored, but near the end, the stadium noise peaked as the Falcons fought hard to win.” Obviously, the fans make a huge impact on how the team plays, and the student section leaders play a large role in that. Along with setting the theme, SOF leaders also kept the noise high with chants to encourage the team. Dadou stated, “I think one thing we have done to make SOF different this year is going all out, because we believe the more serious we take it, the more it will positively reflect on the rest of the Falcon student section”.
In all, the Lake Orion Dragons were slain by the Falcons in a close 23-21 score. Despite the win, the Falcons still had to work hard to change their strategy to get the win. According to Moulaoui, “The biggest change we had to make was at halftime after Lake Orion came out running zone and we had to change defensively to force them to be unsuccessful in their offense.” When Moulaoui was asked to name the Most Valuable Player who had the biggest impact on the trajectory of the game, he claimed, “It’s hard to pick an MVP because the entire team needs to be MVPs to win games, but down to a player, I would say either Nate Tandy or Gael Cruz. Gael got us down to the one-yard line to score a game-winning touchdown, and Nate had 90 receiving yards and two touchdowns.” Teamwork and collaboration were key to running the pregame festivities, as well as to winning the home opener for the Falcons and making for an incredibly exciting game.
