Gales Football in Review

Season highlights outweigh losses

2022-2023+LHS+Varsity+football+team.

2022-2023 LHS Varsity football team.

Peyton Scarbro, Staff Writer

The Lancaster High School varsity football team finished with two wins and five losses in the league and fifth in the Ohio Capital  Conference.  Regardless of the statistics, the Gales made significant gains that weren’t reflected on the scoreboard.  LHS debuted its first female kicker and won its hundredth game over its rival Newark.

Head coach Bryan Schoonover said that the team is young and without many senior athletes and that the underclassmen need more experience to build their Friday night gamesmanship.  He said he was proud of what the team accomplished.

“Everything we do is for growing.  We’re always trying to find ways to get better and get ready for next season. Day in and day out, they had every chance in the world whenever they wanted to quit, every chance to stay I don’t want to do it anymore and they didn’t.  They kept going and getting better,” said Schoonover.

Quarterback and senior player, Trace Vangundy said he and the other seniors knew the expectation that the coaches had for them, and they worked tirelessly to prepare for the season.

“We truly gave all we had for our last year. We focused on giving our best effort in every drill, every practice, and every game because we knew it was going to be our last run together as Gales. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get the job done,” said Vangundy.

Trace Vangundy, LHS Gales quarterback.
Photo courtesy of Golden Gales Touchdown Club Facebook.

One of the most memorable highlights of the season included the game against Groveport.

“We played a very good game against Groveport for the second year straight, while coming out on top and ultimately dominating them from start to finish,” said Vangundy.

“We had a blocked punt during that game and returned it for a touchdown. That was a pretty cool moment for us as a team after having a very rough start to the season,” he said.

Vangundy also said the game against Newark was especially rewarding for the senior athletes because they were slated as the underdogs.

“This definitely lit some fire in us during the practice week leading up to the game. When it came down to it, we dominated them in fashion and had a very commanding victory. This win was also on Senior Night, so it was incredibly special to all of us seniors who got a great win on Fulton for the last time of our careers,” he said.

Another advancement was the first female kicker for the LHS football team and the first female to score points in the history of an LHS football game.  Senior Avery Westbrooks said being a female on the team was a great experience.

Avery Westbrooks First LHS female kicker. Photo courtesy of Westbrooks.

 “I would like to believe that they knew I could hold my own and that they could just do their thing whether I was there or not,” she said.

Of all of her accomplishments on the football team, Westbrooks said one really stands out for her.

“I would definitely say being on the field for the Pickerington Central game and scoring the extra point. I had gone to practice for weeks and finally got to show that I could actually do it.” 

Senior Tyler Holland said that Westbrooks was a great addition to the team roster.

“I absolutely loved having Avery on the team it shows that women can really do anything a guy can. My second favorite memory of the season would definitely be watching Avery kick field goals. The whole sidelines loved it win or loss.”

“By week nine, we as coaches knew she was ready to perform. She took the field with her teammates for a point after touchdown (PAT). With rumbling applause, she sent the ball through the uprights for her first High School football field goal, described assistant coach Andrew Cline.

“The following week she put five more through the uprights against Newark for a total of six points on the season and her high school football career.”