“There’s not a lot of spirit out here tonight,” observed one announcer, as Friday’s junior varsity football game against Lynbrook High School wound to a close. Any indifference vanished, however, when 2014’s homecoming court members began making their way down the red carpet laid in the middle of the field.

The crowd erupted when the names of this year’s homecoming queen and king – Dallol Woldu and George Kovacevic – were announced. The two were crowned by their predecessors, Mary Rasooli and Damont Hardnett, as the marching band stood at rapt attention on the field.

Kovacevic said he was dazed by his win, which came as a surprise. “Just – thank you,” he said. “Everyone on court is awesome. Everyone in the school is awesome.”

The bleachers were brimming with SCHS alumni who had turned out to watch the game, including Hardnett, who captained the football team last year. Hardnett flew home from Pennsylvania, where he attends college, for the festivities.

“I love that we have this tradition of the past homecoming king and queen crowning the new ones. I really wanted to be a part of that,” said Hardnett. He added that he would be watching the varsity game from the sidelines.

The Bruins and the Lynbrook Vikings took the field shortly after sunset, and played a slow first quarter, which ended with the Vikings leading 6-0. However, during the last few minutes of the second quarter, the Bruins scored three touchdowns in quick succession and left for halftime leading 21-6.

Homecoming queen Dallol Woldu took to the field along with her dance teammates as they prepared for their performance, still sporting her homecoming dress and crown and carrying a bouquet of flowers. She also joined the cheer squad in leading chants during halftime.

“It felt like a story I’d want to tell later, like something I should do,” Woldu said.

Watching her son, junior Hadkeem Watts, score a touchdown, Monica Chenoweth grinned. She said that watching him improve as a running back on the team was “like watching him grow from a boy into a man.”

Watts has been credited as an MVP by Bruins coach Hank Roberts, who was buoyant during the second half as the Bruins scored a series of touchdowns, while the Vikings scored just two more.

“I’d been thinking that we weren’t going to use Hadkeem a lot, that we weren’t going to lean on our running back. Holy crap – I need to stop thinking. I need to give that son of a gun the ball,” Roberts said

The Bruins ended the game winning 54-14, a season record. Roberts said the 40-point win showed that his team “is not nearly as bad as the scores from the past two weeks would tell you.”

“This right here is indicative of what our team is,” he said.

The remains of floats lay strewn around the track as spectators began exiting the field, to a rendition of SCHS’s “Alma Mater” song. Woldu, meanwhile, said she was eager to go home and rest.

Reporting contributed by Tomás Mier.