While the passing of Travis Brewer affected most everyone in Palo Alto this week, the Palo Alto Vikings Football (2-0) team was especially in-touch with the situation. It was only a week ago that Travis had been working the sideline along side the players for the Viking’s season opener.
“When Travis passed away, football seemed kind of unimportant,” senior team captain Will Holder said. “The least we could do for everyone who felt his loss was come out here and win tonight.”
Wearing “TB” stickers on the back of their helmets, the inspired Viking squad powered through the Archbishop Mitty Monarchs (0-3) Friday night, 41-27, utilizing the return of senior quarterback Will Brandin to put on an impressive offensive show. In the team’s inaugural game on the new Fieldturf, the Vikings flashed speed and dominance from the get-go.
On only the second play from scrimmage, senior running back Sam Tompkins-Jenkins broke out a 31-yard run to put the Vikings into Mitty territory. After Brandin passed to Holder for 11 yards, the Vikings quickly took a shot at the end zone when Brandin passed to senior receiver Harry Woolson on a play-action fake. Woolson reeled it in for the touchdown and a 7-0 lead.
The Monarchs quickly went four-and-out and punted to the Viking’s 45-yard line. After Brandin passed to Woolson for 19 yards, Tompkins got loose again. The senior running back took a handoff up the middle and broke to the outside. When two Monarch defenders collided, Tompkins was left with an open left side of the field and ran in for the score, putting the Vikings up 13-0.
The Monarchs drove the field on their next possession. After a long pass to the tight end put them at the Viking 23-yard line, the Monarchs ran to inside the 5-yard line where the quarterback snuck in for the score. A bad snap on the extra point set the score at 13-6.
The Vikings scored twice more before half. After the Vikings survived a 4th down attempt with a pass to sure-handed junior receiver Joc Pederson, they immediately went after the end zone. Woolson celebrated his own score for the second time of the night, bringing in a perfect pass from Brandin in the corner of the end zone.
After missing last week, Brandin finished with 170 passing yards and 4 passing touchdowns on the night. At one point he completed 12 passes in a row, a laudable feat at any level of the sport.
Brandin’s finest pass of the night put the Vikings up 27-6. With a defender trailing him on a quarterback roll-out, he threw on the run, complete to Pederson. Pederson dove for the pylon for the 14-yard score.
With only seconds before half, the Monarchs threw a 28-yard bomb to make it 27-13.
It is not every year that the Vikings get to play a West Coast Athletic Leauge powerhouse like Mitty. While the Monarchs did enter the game 0-2, they had to play Gilroy, one of the area’s best.
“It’s always fun playing private schools,” junior safety Scott Witte said. “Everyone plays with the feeling that they have something to prove.”
Private schools such as Mitty have the ability to recruit players, an advantage which does not hold true for public schools, whose players are defined by boundary lines.
The Vikings may have gotten over-confident at half time.
The Monarchs looked like a different team in the third quarter, scoring twice to tie up the score, 27-27. Monarch running back, sophomore Rocky Meszaros, broke out multiple long runs to aide their scoring efforts.
“They were a good team,” Viking head coach Earl Hansen said. “They didn’t quit.”
With momentum clearly in the Monarchs favor, the Vikings needed a score on their next possession. Starting at their own 32, Brandin passed to Holder to put the ball on the 50. Tompkins ran the Vikings to inside the 40, but a 20-yard blocking-in-the-back penalty on the ensuing play set the odds against them. On third-and-14 from their own 42-yard line, facing another punt situation, the Vikings offense got just what it needed.
Junior wide receiver Maurice Williams burned the Monarch secondary and caught Brandin’s pass in-stride for the score.
“They had everything going for them,” Witte said. “Without Maurice’s catch I don’t know how the game would have turned out. That was huge.”
The Vikings tacked on the game-sealing score when Brandin passed to senior tight end Steven Gargulio for 24 yards, putting the Vikings on the Monarchs four-yard line. Junior fullback Terry Beasely ran it in for the score.
“Give them credit for overcoming,” Hansen said. “A lot of teams just fold in that situation. They just got back into the rhythm towards the end.”
The Vikings will be up against Gilroy, one of the area’s most explosive offenses. Gilroy quarterback Jamie Jensen was named Northern California offensive player of the year as a junior and has helped Gilroy score 89 points in their two wins. Palo Alto plays at Gilroy on Friday, Oct. 3.