Throughout the offseason, the Castaic Coyotes had one goal in mind for the 2026 season: Win. The Coyotes hadn’t won since 2024, and a win would be the team’s first in two years. Following a 40-27 win over the Buena Bulldogs of Ventura, the Coyo tes were victorious under the lights Thursday at Valencia High School and began the season 1-0. “We played with 25 guys tonight. I just couldn’t be prouder for them,” Castaic head coach Sirr Guy Shakir said. “It’s never going to be easy for us just because of the sheer numbers. And we got to find a way to give in to each other.” Although the Coyotes came out with the win, the team didn’t start the game as they’d liked. In the first quarter, the Bulldogs scored first off a 6-yard Isaiah Coert touchdown and led 7-0 in the opening frame. The early deficit didn’t stop the Coyotes and Castaic faithful from showing their willingness to win. Especially for Castaic sophomore quarterback Cody King. With three minutes remaining in the opening frame, King threw his first touchdown of the game to Tristan Gray and tied the game at seven apiece. King threw for a total of two touchdowns in Thursday’s win with his second coming off a 37-yard pass to Takai Bogan in the fourth quarter. After the game, King spoke on his performance and need to start the year off with a win at home and connection with his teammates that led to the success on offense. “We want to shock the world and will do whatever it takes to do it,” King said following the game. “We’ve been working all summer, and it finally paid off.” While King found his receivers all over the field, senior running back Justin Priestly and sophomore Ryan Ortega kept up the scoring for the Coyotes. Priestly ran in for two touchdowns and, with a 33-20 lead, Ortega punched in another touchdown following a 21-yard run late in the fourth quarter for the final score of the game. Skakir spoke on the success of his two running backs and credited the offensive line for giving the space and time for his offense to score. “Those guys are undersized but tough,” Shakir said of his offensive line. “And the guys in the back that carried the ball, they’ll tell you they did what they did because of that.” Defensively, the Coyotes’ secondary brought fireworks of their own. Throughout the night, the Coyotes forced two fumbles from Buena’s offense, including a pick-six from Isaiah Galvan that brought Castaic fans to their feet. With the defense playing well, Shakir said there are still things that need to be worked on. The Coyotes still gave up 27 points and a late score in the final minute in the fourth quarter by Buena’s Christopher Slate. Shakir said that the defense giving up 27 points is a product of the team suiting up 25 players, but as the season goes on, he expects to clean up the mistakes. “We did a good job attacking the football and creating some turnovers and taking advantage of balls that weren’t placed in the right place,” Shakir said. “But we’ve got to be able to sustain drives a little bit more.” “It was important that some of the things that we want to use to evaluate our players, we got to see it during the game,” Shakir said. “That fourth-down situation, that third-and-long situation, that situation on defense. Like now, they’ve got kind of a comparison to that. So, it was all about just getting that experience under our belt with a young group of guys.” The Coyotes will look to build upon their momentum next Friday with a road matchup against the Littlerock Lobos at Littlerock High School with kickoff scheduled for 7 p.m. The post Castaic football opens 2026 season with win over Buena appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal. ...read more read less