It was announced Saturday at the Homecoming dance that the football team had won their game and would be moving on to playoffs. On Friday night at 7:00pm the football team is going to their first playoff game against Sterling High School in Sterling, Illinois.

It’s going to be a tough game for Phoenix. According to Maxprep.com Sterling’s National rank is 950 while Phoenix is 12,453. They are also ranked 30 in the state, while Phoenix is ranked 477.

“I’m nervous because one loss can be our last game and the seniors won’t be able to pad up again,” senior Luciano Alvarez said.

“I’m happy because we have never made it this far before,” said senior Jose Alarcon.

This will be the first time the football players will be going to state in Phoenix history, which makes this year different than the rest.

“This year we had a better team chemistry,” said senior Aloisius Arellano.

The team has had some setbacks throughout the season. One of them being the loss of some of their original coaches. The team also had a setback with their record. In the beginning of the season, the team held a record of only 1-4. However, they did have a comeback and won four games in a row. They now hold a record of 5-4

If the players lose this round of playoffs then this will be their last game, but if they win there will be another round. If they continue to win, they will get state rings.

“We need five games to win state,” said Arellano.

The football players are spending a lot of time preparing for this game.

“We are preparing ourselves by going over to Hope field and practicing like if it was a regular game and not thinking of it as playoffs so they won’t get nervous,” Alvarez said.