In a game that came down to the final drive, the John Essex Hornets came away with an 18-10 victory over the Sunshine Tigers.

The Hornets players (13 in all) dealt with cramps all throughout the game, but were able to hold onto an early lead to seal the victory.

Senior Dimitri Brock of the Hornets played a stellar game, finishing with two interceptions, one of which he returned for a touchdown in the second quarter. The other interception was in the endzone with four seconds left on the clock as Sunshine was trying to tie the game.

This is Brock’s first season playing football, and head coach Jerome Antone was impressed with his performance.

“My hats’ off to Brock tonight,” Antone said. “He played a great game, especially since this is his first time on a football field.”

Antone realizes that there is a lot of work to do for his team to win more games this year. There were a lot of mental mistakes, which resulted in a whole lot of penalties that slowed down a lot of drives for the Hornets.

“We were flat,” Antone said. “We struggled in all phases. We have to get back to the drawing board this week. Conditioning will still be a big focus for us this week too.”