Samo Vikings see Homecoming victory over Beverly Hills

Elizabeth MebaneStaff WriterThe Santa Monica College (SMC) field's bleachers were completely filled on the night of Friday, Oct. 12 as Samo students supported their Vikings at the annual Homecoming game; Samo emerged the victor against Beverly Hills High with a score of 24-0.Samo had prepared for this game by displaying a sea of white shirts worn by many of the students that read, "Keep Calm and Beat Beverly." They were based off the World War II posters from England that read "Keep Calm and Carry On." These shirts were sold during spirit week prior to the game by the Associated Student Body (ASB).ASB member and varsity cheerleader Kate Story believes that the sale of these shirts helped increase school spirit.“It was a cool, well-known design, which influenced many people to buy the shirts,” Story said.The shirts were particularly popular because they solely focused on defeating Beverly Hills.“Playing Beverly always unites the school because they are our biggest rival,” Story said. “It’s always fun to beat Beverly.”The shirts gained popularity among the students and approximately 250-300 shirts were sold.“We picked that particular slogan because the ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ posters are popular on social-networking sites like Facebook, Tumblr and Instagram,” Story said. “We decided that it would be a good idea because hopefully everyone would think it was clever.”According to Story, the creation of the shirts was designed also to help inspire the Vikings and display school pride.“Football has their own motives about the Homecoming game, but hopefully the shirts got the team excited that the whole school was getting pumped for the big game,” Story said.Senior running-back Yachal Butler scored the first touchdown during the first half. The halftime score was 7-0, with the Vikings in the lead. In the second half, senior running-back Russel Revis came through with the second touchdown and senior corner-back Tramaine Taylor scored the winning touchdown from an interception. Junior kicker Denicio Gonzalez-Drake scored the three-point field goal of 32 yards.According to Gonzalez-Drake, coach Travis Clark encouraged the team to go hard at the Homecoming game.“Coach Clark told us ‘Never lose your homecoming game,’" Gonzalez-Drake said. “He also encouraged the non-seniors to really step it up and help the seniors win their last Homecoming.”Going into the game, the team was 100 percent confident that they would see a Homecoming victory over Beverly Hills, according to Gonzalez-Drake.However, during the game, Beverly Hills used a line-up formation that confused the Vikings, according to Gonzalez-Drake.“Their formation was confusing at first, but we figured out how to manage it quickly,” Gonzalez-Drake said.Gonzalez-Drake noted the positive encouragements from the students and the community present at the college.“We knew we had the support from our fans and our school had our back,” Gonzalez-Drake said.emebane@thesamohi.com