The sound of the crowd became deafening. All the hard work. All the sweat. It all came down to one play.
From less than one yard out, senior quarterback Nick Goodspeed handed the ball off to junior fullback Sione Mataele, who gloriously scrambled into the end zone for the Vikings’ winning touchdown.
Regulation play ended in the semifinal match against the Palma Chieftains (10-2) with a 14-14 tie, pushing the game into overtime. By the new California Tiebreak rule, each team is given four downs from the opponent’s 10-yard line to score, similar to college overtime. If one team is not ahead after a round of this play, then another round is started. Both the Vikings and the Chieftains scored three touchdowns and three extra-points consecutively.
In the fourth round of overtime, the Vikings stifled the Chieftain offense on the five yard line, forcing a Chieftain field goal. The Viking offense took the field and three plays later, Mataele dragged the pile across the goal line and into the end zone securing the win, 41-38.
Matele rushed for 120 yards on 20 carries, scoring a total of five touchdowns.
"I don’t know how Sione did it," said Goodspeed after the game. "He just stepped it up."
The Vikings (11-1) were pumped up coming into the game, fueled by last week’s late