After a tough loss to Park’s football rival Benilde in the 2017 season, junior Jacob Brown said the team can succeed with an improved attitude as a whole.

“I mean we got beat pretty bad (last year), so we want to go out and continue to — every play continue with a new mindset,” Brown said.

Assistant coach Rob Griffin said he thinks beating Benilde will give the players motivation and confidence to play the rest of the season out strong.

“I think beating Benilde is all they need as far as motivation goes. There’s always going to be the public versus private school thing,” Griffin said. “It’s always going to make it a heavy competition.”

Griffin said the close proximity of Benilde and Park make them a bigger rival, but Park is working to close success rate gap over time.

“They have a really good coaching staff over there, they develop their players really well. It’s been a couple of tough years but I feel like we’re closing that gap and we’ll have some good battles this year and the years to come,” Griffin said.

With an 2-2 season so far, Brown said the team has been determined to improve and have a strong season.

“After a few loses we just want to come in and be more focused each and every day coming in and taking it more serious and being more focused,” Brown said. “I’m really confident, I’m really excited each and every day to go out there and compete with my friends and focusing on getting better each and every practice and game.”

The game against Benilde will take place at 7 p.m. Sept. 28 at the Benilde-St. Margaret’s School’s stadium.