The Paly varsity football team lost to the Burlingame Panthers, 20-31, on Sept. 16 in their second game of the young season.

Coming off a 33-7 drubbing of the Carlmont Scots last week, the team came out strong when Paly junior defensive back Dennis Pruzan intercepted a pass by Burlingame senior quarterback Drew Campbell and ran it 37 yards to paydirt with 8:30 left in the first quarter.

Helped by a fumble recovery by Paly junior tackle Will Elmore, the Vikings struck yet again with a touchdown pass to Paly senior tight end Teddy Jones to make it 14-0 with 1:29 left in the first quarter.

And that’s when the tide of the game shifted for good.

"We just made too many mistakes like dropped passes, fumbles, and penalties," Paly senior fullback and linebacker Roger Villanueva said.

The Panthers took advantage of a fumble and a kickoff return error by the Vikings as Burlingame senior running backs Rodney Hampton and Gabe Weisbarth combined for three touchdowns giving themselves a 24-14 cushion at the half.

However, the Paly Vikings, knowing they had a chance to come back, kept their hopes high in the locker room during halftime.

"We knew we needed to pick it up," said Paly junior running back and defensive back Roy Williams. "Our spirits were pretty good, and we got fired up."

Unfortunately, the halftime break was to no avail as Burlingame continued its strong running game behind Hampton and Weisbarth and ran down the clock while scoring another running touchdown behind Weisbarth.

"We knew we had to stop [the run]," Paly head coach Earl Hansen said. "We just couldn’t do it."

Paly junior quarterback Nick Goodspeed found Jones again in the end zone with 2:34 left in the fourth quarter, but it was too little too late.

The Burlingame defensive line harassed Goodspeed all night with pressure and four sacks.

"We need to block better on the offensive and give Nick more time to pass," Hansen said.
"[Burlingame] did a good job."

The last play of the game resulted in a Burlingame interception, which served to epitomize the Vikings’ struggles that night.

The Vikings will travel to Gunn to face their cross-town rival on Friday, Sept. 23.

"We really need to kick it up in practice," Paly senior guard and defensive end Tim Currie said. "Playing Gunn will be good motivation for us to win, and tonight’s loss will only help us grow as a team."