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The Paly Voice

The Student News Site of Palo Alto High School

The Paly Voice

The Student News Site of Palo Alto High School

The Paly Voice

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JV Vikings drop season opener

In a game of vast momentum swings, the Paly junior varsity football team showed that they still have much to work on before competing with rivaling league football powerhouses.

In their season opener against Burlingame, the JV football team was pummeled 30-7.

"The errors were more physical, and not so much mental, which is promising," head coach David Duran said.

The Vikings could not reach the line of scrimmage on their first offensive possession. A fumbled snap, a screen dropped for a loss, and a sack forced the Vikings to punt and set the tone for the Viking’s anemic effort.

The Vikings struck first when sophomore running back Roger Villanueva took an outside pitch 30 yards to the house.

Yet their success was short-lived. On the ensuing kickoff Burlingame returned the ball for an 80-yard touchdown. This score was followed by 23 unanswered Burlingame points, putting the game out of reach.

The Vikings staged a comeback attempt, but Burlingame’s tenacious goal line stand shutdown the Vikings threat. The Panthers went on to score on the next series, just before halftime, taking a huge momentum advantage with them and rolling to an easy victory.

"We played adequate, but we made some mistakes early on," Burlingame JV head coach Dernadini said. "
It was the first game of the season so we expected mistakes."

Burlingame will have to eliminate all mistakes to be able to compete in their new, more competitive league, the Peninsula Athletic League Ocean division, which is similar to the move from Santa Clara Valley’s El Camino division to the De Anza division, which Saratoga and Homestead underwent this year.

"This was the first game for a lot of the players," Duran said. "We need to improve on the fundamentals of blocking and tackling,"

A bright spot evident in the Viking loss was the few penalties marked off against the young players. Mental discipline has proved to be a bright spot so far this year.

For their upcoming games, the Vikings plan to make some changes on defense, moving sophomore Tim Curry to defensive tackle and sophomore Teddy Jones and sophomore Nick Rosas to defensive end.

The JV Vikings must forget their brutal loss to Burlingame and look forward to the opposing schedule that looms ahead. Next up is Sequoia on Sept. 18, as the JV team squeaked by last year with a three point victory.

Duran will make sure his young team is comfortable with the preparation for each week’s game. "Preparation will be the same, but this week we have gotten to see the team play in game situations, and can evaluate that," Duran said.

"If we execute and play well we’ll beat them," Duran said. But executing has proved to be difficult for the young Viking team so far this year.

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