You might know the matchup between the Fort Worth Country Day Falcons and the Trinity Valley Trojans as BOBI: the Battle of Bryant Irvin.
However, FWCD varsity head football coach Keith Burns likes to call it something else. He calls it the Halloween game, because the loser will be “wearing a mask” for the whole year after.
For the past year, and the past two years, in fact, it was FWCD wearing that mask of shame. In 2024, the Falcons’ defense was torn up by the Trojans’ run game, and TVS won 42-28. The previous year the game had been much closer, but the Falcons still fell short as TVS won 23-19.
This two-year BOBI win streak for the Trojans came to an end Friday September 19th, as the Falcons won the game 21-20. It was Burns’ third win in the rivalry in the five years since he’s been at FWCD. It brought the all-time record since the rivalry started in 1998 to 16-12, with FWCD ahead.
The rivalry matchup this year was much anticipated, being deemed the Texas private high school football game of the week by Texas Private School Media. Burns himself had been anticipating the rematch since last year’s disappointing result.
“I went ahead and watched film on these guys before the week of the game, which is something I don’t normally do, but I wanted to be honest with you guys,” Burns said during his postgame speech after a 46-26 win over Colleyville Covenant, addressing the upcoming game. The win over Covenant was the Falcons’ second win of the season, the first being a 44-14 blowout of the St. Mark’s Lions. “I’ve been studying [TVS] all summer,” Burns said.
As the players began to prepare for the BOBI week, the extra study became apparent. Burns had drawn up over 400 “play cards” on TVS. Nearly every formation and concept the Trojans had in their playbook was run by the scout team offense during practice.
The extra preparation paid off Friday night. While holding TVS to 20 points, the FWCD defense forced two turnovers and two punts. Burns’ secret weapon, the special teams, came into play with a blocked extra point. Had the kick not been blocked, the game might have gone into overtime, where the outcome might have changed.
“You think special teams isn’t important? Look at that game right there,” Burns said.
It wasn’t just the Falcons making plays on special teams. TVS also blocked an extra point late in the game that gave them a chance at winning.
Offensively, the Falcons had some struggles moving the ball, but were still able to get it done when it mattered.
“We need to work on executing the little things,” offensive coordinator TJ Millweard said. “We could’ve beaten these guys by much more.”
Quarterback Cooper Paul ’27 excelled. Paul, returning from an offseason injury, got his first snaps of the year and got his first win as a QB. Paul went 17/22 for 228 yards, one TD, and one INT.
Notably, the offense was missing a big piece for the game: Owen Bloemendal ’27. As the team jogs out of the locker room each game, lineman Esteban Gomez ’26 has the superstition of always being the very last player in line. Bloemendal managed to sneak behind Gomez without him noticing. As the team ran out onto the field, Bloemendal stumbled on the concrete, rolling his ankle. The superstition had hit him. Athletic trainers soon decided Bloemendal would have to at least miss this game, although he will be returning soon.
A big part of the offensive gameplan, the coaching staff had to quickly adjust for this huge change minutes before the game started. Owen’s brother, Will Bloemendal ’27, was put in his place as wide receiver.
The FWCD offense stalled out on their first drive, forcing them to punt it away. TVS scored quick, scoring a 49-yard TD on a run play. The Falcon defense had been confused about which way to align to the offensive formation, and the Trojans took advantage of the confusion to score. However, this is where the special teams came in; Will Bloemendal blocked the extra point, meaning TVS was only up 6-0.
The Falcons quickly struck back, though. Early on their next drive, Paul threw a deep pass to Major Factor ’28 which was caught for 56 yards. Now down to the two-yard line, Paul was able to scramble before finding William Stadler ’28 wide open in the end zone for a touchdown. The Falcons went for two, and Fox Burton ’26 got in the end zone for a successful conversion. The Falcons now had the lead, 8-6.
From there, the two teams traded possessions until early in the 2nd quarter. TVS was beginning to mount a drive and was in Falcon territory. The defense misaligned, leaving a TVS wide receiver uncovered. Only a diving tackle from Will Bloemendal was able to save a touchdown, but it was still a 30-yard gain. Now deep into FWCD territory, the Trojans were able to run the ball into the end zone for a TD. Their two-point attempt was good, giving them a 14-8 lead.
The FWCD offense was determined to rally back and built up a drive, but threw an interception because of a miscommunication between the QB and WR. TVS tried to run up their lead more, which would’ve made it hard for the Falcons to come back, but a big sack by Factor forced them to punt. Factor had no experience playing defensive end prior to the season but has hopped into the position for several snaps during the last several games and made many big plays. His two sacks currently lead the team.
The Falcon offense had now been given another chance at a last-minute drive. Two big strikes to Factor and Stadler set them up at the goal line, where Burton was able to lower the shoulder and get a TD. The extra point by kicker Luke Vincent ’26 was good, and it gave the Falcons the lead heading into the half.
The team walked back to the locker room for halftime, careful not to jog to avoid more freak injuries.
“Offense, the only team beating us is us,” Millweard said in his halftime speech.
Burns’ halftime message was short and simple. “Cal, what’s the score?” he asked Cal Neubauer ’26.
“0-0,” Neubauer said, as he had been taught… every half, it’s a new game.
“Right answer, but no,” Burns said, getting a chuckle out of the team. “The score is 15-14. That means if our defense doesn’t give up another point, we win.”
This message seemed to inspire the defense, as they didn’t allow a single point the entire third quarter. On the first play of a TVS drive, James Hanson ’28 forced a fumble that set the offense up deep in Trojan territory. From there, the Falcons were able to get in the end zone with a two-yard Burton TD, his second of the day.
Then, the extra point was blocked, shocking the home crowd. After the block, Burns said, “I was this close to going for two, this close, because I didn’t want to end up in the situation we are in now.” The Falcons were now up 21-14, with the 3rd quarter about to come to an end.
The Trojans continued to try and strike back, but were repeatedly stopped by the defense. Fulton Weaver ’26 had an interception that didn’t result in points for the Falcons, as they ended up punting it back, but it drastically dropped the amount of time TVS had to take the lead.
Near the beginning of the 4th quarter, TVS was finally able to mount a drive. After a grueling 19-play drive, the Trojans were finally able to punch it from the one-yard line for a TD with 4:48 left on the clock in the 4th quarter. This made the score 21-20 with FWCD ahead. The Trojans could either kick the extra point to tie, or they could go for two to take the lead. They decided to go for the latter.
When the Trojans lined up for their two-point play, the Falcon defense recognized their “wildcat” formation, which meant they were likely going to run a sweep play. Sure enough, the wildcat player took the snap and began to sweep right. Safety Scottie Huffman ’27 crashed down, corralling the run inside. From there, Will Bloemendal came flying from across the formation, laying a big hit on the TVS player and stopping the two-point play. The Trojans kicked the ball off back to the Falcons, who were now up by a point with, roughly, 5 minutes left in the game.
Now, the Falcons were able to lean on their powerful run game, starring Burton. The Falcons ran the ball 9 straight times, bringing the ball to the TVS 34-yard line before being held to a 4th & 8. From there, the Falcons took a delay of game penalty, backing the ball up 5 yards and draining the clock down to just 21 seconds. From there, Weaver punted the ball into the endzone for a touchback. TVS now had just 21 seconds to score from their own 20 yard line.
On first down the Trojans ran a deep out play, designed to get a big chunk of yards and then stopping the clock by getting out of bounds. However, pressure forced the ball incomplete, leaving 8 seconds left on the clock. With, likely, only one more play before time expired, the Trojans got desperate, attempting a lateral play in an attempt to create confusion and somehow make a miracle happen. The ball was lateraled once… then twice… then again… then Hanson jumped in front of the ball carrier and forced a fumble, the ball rolling out of bounds as the clock read 0:00.
The Falcons had won BOBI.
“Now that was a good game,” a sweaty and out-of-breath Aidan Fuller ’28 said, walking off the field after the game.
Cotton Dull ’28 turned to him and said, “That’s the first serious thing I’ve ever heard you say.”
Burns firmly stated that they could’ve beaten the Trojans by much more.
“Our defense gave up two big plays. On the first one, we couldn’t get aligned and didn’t have an edge setter. On the second one, our corner lined up wrong and left a receiver wide open. The first play was a score and the second play led to a score. If we aligned right, that’s two scores for them gone,” Burns said.
Millweard summarized the team’s feelings best by saying, “The only team that beat us was wearing red and blue.”
The coaching staff insisted that those small mistakes can’t continue to happen if they want to win a championship. The Falcons will have a chance to prove they can get the little things right when they face off against John Cooper School this Friday, September 26 in the Woodlands.
“We’ll focus on John Cooper next week,” Burns said in his BOBI postgame speech. “For now, enjoy this win. There’s not many teams that are still 3-0.”
It turns out FWCD players and fans weren’t the only ones enjoying the big win.
“I got a text from someone this weekend,” Burns said. “Their mother lives at [Mirabella Assisted Living] across the street from our stadium. They said their brother went to go check on their mother this week. When he got there, everyone was out on their balconies cheering and clapping. They said it was the loudest they’d ever heard the stadium.”
