The month of October was Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Many sports teams support breast cancer patients and survivors by incorporating pink into their uniforms. This could include socks gloves shoes wristbands, and other accessories. Malden High School’s Football team decided to host a Pink Out game of their own on October 22nd against the Lynn English Bulldogs where fans were encouraged to wear all the pink they could.. The Golden Tornados showed up donning all sorts of pink attire including socks, mouthguards, undershirts and gloves.
At this point in the season, Malden had a record of 1-4 going into their game against Lynn English. However, Lynn English were not looking their best either, starting their season with only one win against Medford from the previous week.
With the kick high in the air, the Friday night battle began to look like the coming out party for Malden’s offense, with the very first play of the game being a 20 yard pass right up the middle of the field to sophomore wide receiver, Gabriel Vargas Cardoso, from senior quarterback, Shawn Bartholomew.
The change in quarterback is notable for the Golden Tornados. The team started the season with Senior Jordan Rodriguez, but switched to the starter from last year with Bartholomew. This change looked to be one that would put up points especially after Bartholomew’s 3rd and 12 conversion to sophomore Davian Mcguffie. However, Malden was stopped by the Bulldogs and forced to punt.
Lynn English was determined to get the ball out of their own territory which was made extremely easy with their dominant offensive linemen. Not once did a Malden defender come close to sacking the quarterback and they only got a couple of pressures on him. The Bulldogs’ drive was capped off with a rushing touchdown followed by an unsuccessful two-point conversion to make the score 0-6.
Yet again at the start of Malden’s next drive, Bartholomew found a hole in the defensive coverage and was able to find Vargas Cardoso for 40 yards downfield. The Golden Tornadoes were not able to capitalize on another great play and the drive stalled out resulting in another punt. Towards the end of the first quarter, the Bulldogs ran an interesting play concept called a “Triple Option” which ended up picking up 10 yards to wrap up the first quarter with a score of 0-6.
The start of the second quarter was quite uneventful with Lynn English and Malden swapping possession of the ball. as it looked like Lynn would score again, the defense was able to step up and get a goal line stand to avoid going down two possessions for the time being. The one issue was that Malden was backed up in their own territory. Luckily, Bartholomew did a houdini impersonation and escaped the oncoming pass rush to pick up a new set of downs. This stroke of luck did not run too long for the Golden Tornados. As they fumbled the ball which led to the Bulldogs second rushing touchdown of the day, this time followed by a successful two-point conversion making the score 0-14.
With the end of the first half looming, Malden needed to get some points on the board since they weren’t getting the ball to start the third quarter. This gamble of going all in cost them an interception and trotting the fatigued defense back on the field. After some shorter run plays, Lynn English would send up a deep pass to get their third touchdown of the half, but could not get the two point conversion to have the score at 0-20 going into halftime.
If Malden wanted to come back from a three possession deficit, they would have had to play harder defense and be able to take care of the ball. On Lynn English’s first drive they ended up getting stopped and were forced to punt. To the Golden Tornados’ dismay, they fumbled the ball again and shortly thereafter the Bulldogs would score on a touchdown pass towards the back of the endzone, which looked very questionable and seemed to have made Coach Exilhomme more fiery than usual. The two point try was no good to extend the Lynn English lead to 0-26.
Whatever fire Malden needed to bring into their next drive was quickly extinguished by the Bulldogs’ defensive line as they sacked Bartholomew on 3rd down to get Malden to punt the ball away. As the third quarter was winding down, Lynn English hit a deep pass that was good for 20 yards and first down, which would later translate into the final touchdown of the game for both sides which was followed by a failed two point try making the score 0-32.
From the fourth quarter to the rest of the game, both teams did not do anything that would impact the rest of the game and the night would mercifully end with a final score of Malden 0, Lynn English 32.
The referees discussing the penalty call of the previous play. Photo taken by Nathan Dean. 
Senior Shai Cohen playing the trumpet for the school band. Photo taken by Nathan Dean. 
Juniors Anderson Joseph and Makhial Coulanges-Blaise on their way to tackle the Lynn English Quarterback. Photo taken by Nathan Dean. 
Running Back Makhial Coulanges-Blaise setting up a block for Senior Samuel Solorzano. Photo taken by Nathan Dean.
