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The win was marred by high emotions among players and coaches over a slew of Viking injuries that happened during the game. Paly received many “unsportsmanlike conduct” penalties from the referees after taunting and bickering with Homestead because the Vikings thought the Mustangs were committing illegal fouls..
Paly junior defensive tackle Sam Moses, sophomore defensive tackle Spencer Drazovich, and senior linebacker Michael Cullen suffered suspected knee injuries, as reported by Ben Sneider of the Viking in the above article. Emotions ran high as the Vikings believed the injuries were caused by illegal “chop blocks” by Homestead’s offensive line. However, Hansen’s coaching kept Paly focused on winning.
“Our key to success is coaching,” junior linebacker Brennan Miller said. “I think Coach Hansen drives us every day to be professional. To stand up. We represent Paly every time we step on the field, and I think Paly has a reputation of being a stand-up school with good kids and good people, and I think our key to success is playing classy.”
However, the Vikings were caught unprepared on the first play of their fifth league match, allowing a 78-yard kickoff return touchdown to start the game. Just 15 seconds into the first quarter, Palo Alto trailed, 7-0.
Paly rebounded on its first possession of the game, driving down to the one-yard line before senior quarterback Christoph Bono snuck in for a touchdown on the next play.
“We’ve had a little bit of trouble with the kickoff,” Bono said. “I think we’ll get it figured out. The coaches will probably make some adjustments, but I’m glad we got hit early and we were able to respond right back after them and score on the first drive, so that was big for us.”
Bono’s quarterback keeper made the score 7-7 with 5 minutes left in the first quarter. The Vikings defense picked up its game and held off the Mustangs to force a punt. During the Vikings second possession, Bono threw a 60-yard touchdown to senior wide receiver Maurice Williams for the go-ahead score. Paly would not relinquish its lead for the rest of the night.
The Mustangs generally looked to run the ball on offense. However, they coughed up a fumble with 1:51 remaining in the first quarter; Paly senior linebacker Michael Cullen quickly recovered the loose ball and rumbled 30 yards for the Vikings third touchdown of the quarter. At the end of the first quarter, Paly led 21-7.
Paly’s offense cooled down with a scoreless second quarter and Homestead rallied, scoring a touchdown with less than two minutes remaining in the half. However, the Vikings managed to battle through the Mustangs’ offensive line to block the extra point attempt. Heading into the locker rooms, the Vikings held a 21-13 lead.
“I think our kids played real well,” head coach Earl Hansen said. “They [Homestead] had that one drive in the second quarter that was very well done. We did a good job the rest of the time.”
The rain and wind picked up as halftime closed in. At the start of the third quarter, the weather conditions worsened: the light rain transformed into a mild storm.
“The weather makes some changes [to the game] obviously,” Bono said. “The refs were not very good, and we had a lot of injuries. Things like that can definitely change the game, but we responded to it pretty well.”
Paly managed to rack up 14 points in the third quarter. Bono threw a 67-yard touchdown pass to senior wide receiver Davante Adams for the first touchdown. Junior running back B.J. Boyd then ran for a 29-yard touchdown to extend the lead to 35-13.
“Our kids hung in there and played hard,” Hansen said. “Davante played well. We had a lot of guys today that stepped up and played well.”
Both teams played strong defense resulting in a scoreless fourth quarter. With 6:24 remaining, Viking senior defensive end Kevin Anderson sacked the Mustang quarterback. Less than 50 seconds later, the Vikings forced another Mustang fumble. Palo Alto recovered the loose ball to seal the victory.
“We won,” Bono said. “I’m glad we came out on top, but it was kind of an interesting one.”
Despite the rain and high tension on the field, Miller thinks the team responded as well as it could have despite the adverse
conditions.
“I think that Paly played classy despite all the unsportsmanlike conduct penalties,” Miller said. “Football is war. In this type of weather, in this type of environment, you have homecoming, when stuff happens out there like that, that’s war.”
The Vikings main concern is improving its kick-off coverage.
“We got a lot [to improve],” junior tight end Nathan Hubbard said. “We gotta go 100 percent and practice. We gotta go all out to win.”
Unsatisfied with their performance in this game, the Paly hopes to channel its energy into practicing for the next game.
“Next week we’ve got Mountain View,” Bono said. “I’m sure we’re gonna come out with a lot of fire, since we weren’t too happy about this one. They better be ready; we’re going to have a good week of practice and hopefully stick it to them.”
The Vikings will face Mountain View at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 5 at the Paly football field.