With a win over the Bulldogs, the Raiders snapped a 12-game losing skid dating back to 2009 when the team went winless their entire season. They fought hard until the end, making sure that there would be no encore of what happened a year ago.

“The coaches put a lot of pressure on us…they really wanted us to win and not repeat what happened last season,” said Chris Lees, an offensive tackle for Moorpark.

It’s difficult to put up a “W” in the football schedule column. A lot of things have to go right for a sport where so many factors can go wrong. Preparation, effort, execution all come into play. It’s a game of inches.

Wide receiver Leonard Baker, known simply to his teammates as “D” put it in perspective.

“Sometimes you get tired of losing, you got to win, you got to win sometimes,” said Baker.

In any sport, it’s always difficult to take a loss, but it’s how you handle it that makes the difference.

After a crushing season opener defeat to Ventura and dropping a close one to Pierce College, it looked as if the losing stigma from last year had carried over.

However, the one quality that seemed to manifest itself over those two games was resiliency.

Now, Moorpark has a win to show for it.  Of course, it still only is one win and a long season is ahead of them.

“When you get that first taste of finally winning, you want it some more, it gets addictive, so we just try to keep it going,” said Baker.

In the “what have you done for me lately” world of sports, this win could end up meaning nothing if it is followed by another string of losses.  Hopefully, this is a start of a winning attitude and mentality for Raiders football.