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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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Paly Wins closest game of the season

The Paly Vikings Varsity Football team is 5-0 after winning its first league game 49-40 against Homestead on October 10th. The game on Friday was their closest to date.

The game went back and forth between the two teams. The game started in the Mustangs favor. Homestead opened the game with Eric Dodge running the opening kickoff all the way back for a 99 yard touch down.

Then, during the beginning offensive drive, senior running back Detrich Clay suffered a concussion due to multiple hard tackles during the drive.

"I don’t remember any of the game, really," Clay said. "All I remember was going to school before the game."

Paly’s running game didn’t let Clay’s condition let them down at all, as senior running back Tydus Kiger had a great game as he ran for 125 yards on 21 carries.

After Clay’s injury, the Vikings started to turn things around. Junior quarterback Nathan Ford showed his football talent in other ways than passing, as he scored the Vikings first touchdown on a 1 yard sneak up the middle early in the first half.

The Vikings trailed for almost the entire first half and were down 20-14 with 7 minutes left in the first half when they started their comeback drive.

After Junior Teddy Way recovered an on side kick, Paly had a impressive drive lasting almost 4 minutes. It was capped off by a 5 yard touchdown run by senior running back Lorenzo Garcia.

After an impressive defensive stand ending with a fumble recovery, Paly took over. Kiger had a series of runs and scored with a 7 yard run to the left side of the field for a touch down.

After the Mustangs scored, Paly took over again and Ford threw to his first option senior wide receiver Adam Dexter for a 29- yard touchdown pass to the right side of the field with 53 seconds left in the first half.

Ford was 16 for 16 for 253 yards and had two touchdowns in a fast paced high scoring battle. The Vikes needed a great game out from Ford and the rest of the team to get the close victory and got it. Senior wide receiver Adam Dexter had a great game as he caught 8 passes for 183 yards.

The crucial play of the game took place with 3 minutes left in the second half. The Mustangs had the ball after a Viking score, but Paly’s defense forced the Mustangs quarterback out of the pocket. The quarterback floated a pass to the inside of a wide-open receiver, and the ball was intercepted by senior defensive back Joseph Ashufta.

"I was just at the right place at the right time," said Asufta. "The quarter back made a bad pass to the wrong place, I waited in between two open receivers, saw where he was going to throw the ball, sprinted, jumped and the ball ended up in my hands."

After that play, the Vikings had a scoring drive capped off by another score by Kiger, this time for 35 yards u the middle of the field. The game was out of reach for the Mustangs 49-32 Paly.

The Mustangs had the last score of the game with a kick off return from Chris Morris this time for 73 yards. The Mustangs completed a two point conversion, but it was too little to late and the Mustangs lost 49-40.

The Vikings had a total of 458 yards on offense, with 205 of those yards coming from the running game even with out Clay. Homestead had a total of 242 yards and scored on two kickoff returns for 99 and 73 yards.

The Vikings, who are off to their best start since 1995, feel optimistic about the rest of the league season.

"We ran the train on their defense," said junior tight end Alex Gibson. "We have an optimistic outlook about the rest of league play.”

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