Ever since former Cincinnati Bengals player Tremain Mack took over the Thomas Jefferson High School head coaching job, he had been waiting for nights like this. Nights where his Raiders put on a start-to-finish performance and win football games.

Thomas Jefferson and Todd Beamer High School both entered Thursday night’s game (Oct. 23) searching for their first wins. The Raiders (1-6) defeated Todd Beamer 38-20 for their first win of 2025, as Todd Beamer fell to 0-8 this season.

“What I know about this group is no matter how much I am on them, they are always bouncing back. They are resilient, fighting and working hard. We hold the kids accountable for what they are supposed to do. When each week goes by and we fall short, it’s tough on the kids,” Mack said. “I am just so happy for them. They deserve it and they work hard. We have been so close in a lot of games this year. It’s good to see the kids perform like they did tonight.”

Scoring has been difficult for the Raiders on the gridiron in recent years, but with a wide receiver with the talent of DJ Smith, the points were flowing. The junior pass catcher hauled in four touchdown passes and was all over the field against Todd Beamer, who just had no answer.

“I can move him anywhere I want to move him. The kid is just special. He works hard and believes in the game and himself. He brings everything that I would want in a player to the table every single night. He never comes off the field,” Mack said.

Thomas Jefferson players celebrate their first win of the season. Ben Ray / The Mirror

Smith gave all credit to his quarterback, senior Mabin Guillen. Thomas Jefferson has won four games in his career and for many, that is cause for leaving the program or quitting football in totality. But Guillen stayed true to his cause and has stuck it out — the 5’7” quarterback is a tough as they come. He is able to scramble and can make off-schedule throws, but having a weapon like Smith makes his job that much easier. The wide receiver and quarterback combo have put in a lot of extra work and were finally rewarded with a win.

“Mabin is great, he can run and he’s a great thrower. I feel like we have a great connection,” DJ Smith said.

The Raiders were coming off a 41-point loss to Sultan on the road, a game that truly got away from Thomas Jefferson. Guillen struggled against the Turks, but against Todd Beamer, he responded to the challenge.

“Every time he bounces right back. He’s a kid that stuck through four years of building. He’s going to be the reason this program is good in the future because he stuck with it and stayed here. He didn’t transfer like other kids did. He works hard and believes in everything I coach,” Mack said.

Thomas Jefferson’s 38 point performance is the most points the Raiders have scored since 2021, in the first game back after the pandemic. Especially after the Sultan game, finding growth in failure was a key message to his team this week.

“Failure a lot of times is where growth lives,” Mack said. “All the issues we’ve had in terms of close games and last week where we didn’t play well. At the end of the day, grow from it and keep building that foundation so our future will be better.”

Mack and his players took a lot away from that Sultan loss a week ago, especially when it came to stopping the run.

“What we put on film the last two weeks showed we were gonna get the run all day long. We had our moments (tonight) where it wasn’t that good. To keep fighting and have the defense get a stop and stop the run was something I was proud of,” Mack said.

The Raiders scored the first points of the night on a 32 yard pitch and catch from Guillen to Smith. Todd Beamer went three-and-out for a total of -8 yards on its first drive. But on the second play of the following drive, Thomas Doty just flat out ran by the entire Raider defense for a 64-yard touchdown run.

Guillen and Smith linked up for a second time,on the ensuing Thomas Jefferson drive. It was very clear early on, Smith was going to be open with relativity and Guillen would find him.

“I owe it all to my dad, he’s the one who has been training me,” Smith said. When asked if there is a ball he can’t catch, “I don’t think so, I’m not going to lie,” he said.

Smith caught a screen pass for a touchdown and Todd Beamer went down the field and answered with a touchdown of their own in the final seconds of the first half as the two sides went to the locker room separated by one score, 19-13.

TJ running back Gabriel Lemelle scored his first touchdown of the night, but the Raiders failed on the extra point and the lead was just 12 at 25-13.

Steven Turner stands over Jeremy Tay of Todd Beamer after a tackle. Ben Ray / The Mirror

Todd Beamer cut that lead to five on an impressive 60-yard drive capped off by Jeremy Tay rushing it in from a yard out. What was most impressive was Tay ran the ball every play. It was either quarterback power, sweep or some iteration of an outside zone run. But Tay was able to fall forward at the end of every run and with 3:40 left in the third quarter, Todd Beamer was in the ballgame.

The Titans’ defense just could not stop Thomas Jefferson. Smith caught his fourth touchdown and later in the fourth, Guillen rushed in for his first rushing touchdown of the night.

In the fourth quarter, the Raiders forced a fumble and stopped the Titans on a fourth down run to put the game on ice.

“I was like ‘finally.’ We finally did something good against the run,” Smith said.

Jeremy Tay with the ball in his hand for Todd Beamer against Thomas Jefferson. Ben Ray / The Mirror

The Raiders take on Federal Way (5-3) in week nine and will play Kentridge in week 10. Todd Beamer takes on Decatur in week nine, with a week 10 game yet to be scheduled.