In Chap­ter 4 of “The Boys of River­side,” titled “A Taste of Vic­to­ry,” the intense prepa­ra­tion lead­ing up to the Cubs’ first game of the sea­son is vivid­ly depict­ed. Fol­low­ing a gru­el­ing Hell Week, the team finds itself ready to face off against Noli Indi­an, a small but for­mi­da­ble oppo­nent from the Sobo­ba Indi­an reser­va­tion. Dressed in scar­let uni­forms, the Cubs enter the game under the guid­ance of senior play­ers who have eager­ly cho­sen their jer­sey numbers—Felix Gon­za­les in No. 1, Enos Zornoza in No. 2, Jory Valen­cia in No. 3, and quar­ter­back Trevin Adams in No. 4.

Noli Indian’s team, coached by Jesse Aguilar, con­sists main­ly of inex­pe­ri­enced fresh­men and sopho­mores, mak­ing expec­ta­tions low as they face the Cubs. His­tor­i­cal­ly, their last encounter saw Noli tri­umph, but this time, the game quick­ly turns into a show­case for the Cubs. They dom­i­nate from the out­set, with Zornoza return­ing the open­ing kick­off for a touch­down, quick­ly fol­lowed by a fum­ble recov­ery lead­ing to anoth­er touch­down from Trevin Adams to Enos Zornoza.

The game con­tin­ues with the Cubs scor­ing on every pos­ses­sion and exe­cut­ing a pick-six, lead­ing to a final score of 68–0. The sheer mag­ni­tude of this vic­to­ry sur­pris­es every­one, rais­ing ques­tions among the play­ers about their capa­bil­i­ty. Key play­ers, espe­cial­ly Trevin and Enos, shine through­out the game, but new play­er Phillip Cas­tane­da steals the spot­light when he scores a touch­down on a notable play despite some ini­tial con­fu­sion.

Fol­low­ing the game, Coach Aguilar prais­es the dis­ci­pline of the Cubs, empha­siz­ing the impor­tance of their team­work to his young play­ers. The nar­ra­tive under­scores the excite­ment and unpre­dictabil­i­ty of eight-man foot­ball, a fast-paced and dynam­ic style that has cap­ti­vat­ed fans since its incep­tion in Cal­i­for­ni­a’s small schools. The chap­ter wraps up with reflec­tions on the nature of the game and the ded­i­ca­tion required to suc­ceed in such a high-ener­gy envi­ron­ment.

This thrilling chap­ter effec­tive­ly illus­trates the exhil­a­rat­ing begin­ning of the sea­son for the Cubs, as well as the chal­lenges and growth oppor­tu­ni­ties for the Noli Indi­an team against their more expe­ri­enced rivals.