The girls’ annual football game, which will take place on November 17th, is a tradition for Hopkinton High School and the community.

Starting quarterback Nina Brookes helped lead the juniors last year, but her team was ultimately defeated by the seniors.

“When it’s seniors versus anyone,  seniors win,” Brookes said. “It’s their senior year; it’s supposed to be fun. When you’re seniors, you get to experience that, so that’s what I was looking forward to.”

With high hopes for her squad this year, Brookes reflected on what makes the current seniors such a promising group.

“There are so many great athletes on our team who play various sports, who are fast, who are strong, who have a lot of agility. The individual strengths of everybody built together is really good.”

Johanna DuPont was one of the notable players in last year’s matchup. The wide receiver, who scored the first touchdown of the game for the juniors, was quick to praise her team’s quarterbacks and defensive line.

“Each of those positions can be hard to execute,” she said, “but everyone that plays [there] did a really good job.”

Brookes didn’t expect to be scouted as a quarterback when she entered her first football practice as a junior.

“I just wanted to have somewhat of an influential role, and when I went into practice, I threw a ball and Mr. Prescott said, ‘Okay, you’re quarterback,’ and I said, ‘Okay, that works.’”

Prescott served as one of the junior coaches last year alongside Coaches Webb and Karner, all of whom had experience coaching football. But despite the knowledge of their coaches, there were still inevitable challenges the juniors faced on the night of the game.

“The biggest challenge of playing was the unpredictability of how each play will go because we hadn’t really practiced many plays with a defense we weren’t aware of,” Brookes said.

Although the seniors had more experience, the intensity of the juniors couldn’t be matched on game day.

“The juniors seemed very ready to go,” Brookes said. “We were just there to have fun.”

DuPont describes the atmosphere in a similar way.

“There are definitely some nerves but [we were] mostly excited,” she said. “Everyone was in high spirits.”

Both players described how their team went in with more excitement than the seniors, energized for the game despite the unlikelihood of victory.

On the opposing side, junior Avery Michaud is looking forward to her first year participating in the tradition.

“I am most excited to cheer on my friends and watch others play,” she said.

After just one practice, Michaud doesn’t yet know what position she’ll be playing. She hopes to play an important role on the field, either combatting the seniors’ offense or opposing their defenders.

“I have heard their team is pretty good and has some standout players,” Michaud said. “I would expect the seniors to dominate the game.”