I just told the kids about having great faith, no matter what we have. ... They did what they were supposed to do.

I have to hand it to Manchester, they played a super second half. I told the kids it's not the end of the season. We have a great season to look forward to. We just need to bounce back and play our game. I'm confident we'll do well.

Are we the No. 1 team by default because Manchester lost, or are we the No. 1 team because we really are? I think we still have something to prove.

This is new territory for us. I always wondered what it would be like to be here and now we're here. It's all new even for me in trying to think about how to go about our season. We'll try and keep our focus and keep trying to improve. We want to be No 1 at the end of the season. It's a realistic goal in our division, in the state, in our league.

That's probably the best game I've coached in 20 years in terms of performance, the way the kids came through. Going down 10, that's the kind of team they are, right from the gut. They dug in. I'm really proud of them for coming away with a win like this.

I think it's just neat for the kids, to finish that climb to the top. I'm really glad to be able to rest. It was our first time playing always as the favorite instead of moving up, trying to knock someone off. We really felt the pressure of teams coming after us. It was tough, to keep working hard and not get complacent.