The Patriot Pioneers’ football team is having a lot of success this season and it’s no shock to the team. They ended their season going 5-2, with a win in round 1 of the state playoff. The Pioneers ended the regular season 4-1 with wins over Unity Reed twice (35-0 and 27-0), John Champe (30-13) and Osbourn Park (55-0). Their only defeat came at the hands of the Battlefield Bobcats where they lost 35-12.

They certainly weren’t proud of their performance, but are high on a potential rematch down the road.

The team has been led by Senior Quarterback Cody Rogers, Junior Runningback Keith Jenkins and Sophomore Wide Receiver Gabe Bigbee. Rogers has passed for a total of 570 yards and 7 touchdowns while throwing only 1 interception and having a completion percentage of 68.4%, he rushed 32 times for a total of 251 yards and 6 touchdowns. The man who was beside him in the backfield was Keith Jenkins Jr. He rushed for 605 yards on 88 attempts with an average of nearly 7 yards a carry. He ended with 6 rushing touchdowns in his big breakout season. The Pioneers leading receiver Gabe Bigbee put up 308 receiving yards and 2 touchdowns.

The Pioneers made it to the 2021 VHSL 6A state playoffs and started with a bang. They traveled to Woodbridge and won 13-7 in a big game against 6-0 Gar-Field.

Tristen Claiborne, Junior Wide Receiver said, “We came out with a dub but I wouldn’t say that we played our best game.” He went on saying, “I think when we’re playing at our best we have a solid chance to go to the championship and maybe even win it.”

Patriot took on Massaponax (7-0) on 4/16 in a big second round game. Massaponax has throttled all of their opponents so far, they haven’t scored less than 38 points and they’ve won by an average of 41.3 points a game. This hadn’t seemed to scare many Patriot football fans. Tomas Rivera talks about confidence going into this game, “I think if we go in thinking we don’t have a chance then we won’t win. If we go in thinking we’re the best team in the state and go in with confidence, then we’ll have a significantly higher chance of winning.”

Patriot’s season ended up coming to an abrupt end following their loss to Massaponax. They lost 56-21 in a game that wasn’t so close. However, they did score the 2nd most points a team has put up on Massaponax so there were positive take-aways. Overall, this was a great season for the Pioneers, they’ll be back and better than ever next year looking for revenge.