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Paly senior quarterback Christoph Bono went 9-16 for 173 yards with an interception and two touchdowns, one to junior full back Dre Hill and another to senior wide receiver Maurice Williams. Junior running back B.J. Boyd also ran for two touchdowns and 72 yards on 7 carries and senior tight end and linebacker Michael Cullen led the Vikings with four catches for 58 yards as Paly overcame a rough first half to roll to a commanding victory.
The Vikings’ offense started out slow and went scoreless in the first quarter. In the first four minutes of the game, Bono threw an interception on a pass that was intended for Williams. Then, with less than a minute left in the first quarter, the Chargers sacked Bono in the endzone for a safety, giving two points to Wilcox. At the end of the first quarter, the Vikings trailed 0-2.
“We played all right,” junior tight end Nathan Hubbard said. “We [have] got a lot of stuff to clean up, though. We’re [number] one in our league, [and] that’s good, but there’s definitely a lot of stuff we [have] got to clean up … We played [the second half] better than the first half, but we need to play better in the first half, otherwise it’s not going to happen.”
In the second quarter, the Palo Alto offense started clicking. With less than eight minutes left in the second quarter, Bono threw a 17-yard pass to Williams, who had three receptions for 45 yards on the night, for the Vikings’ first touchdown of the game. Heading to the locker rooms for halftime, the Vikings were ahead 7-2.
“We played pretty well, but again we were a little sloppy in the first half,” Bono said. “A lot of penalties, especially on the first drive. We had a good drive and then two penalties in a row hurt us. But I think the key was that once we got the run game set up it was fine because they were bringing the blitz early, and they knew we were going to pass, so that was good to get the linemen — they got it figured out and we got the run game going.”
[[nid:23981]]At the start of the third quarter, the Chargers surprised the Vikings with a touchdown on a 56-yard dash up the middle. However, Williams blew by the Wilcox line during the point after attempt and smothered the ball for a blocked kick. Wilcox nosed ahead, 8-7 but the Vikings took over the game with a 14-yard touchdown rush by Boyd and a 31-yard touchdown pass to junior fullback Dre Hill to make the score 21-8.
Head coach Earl Hansen said the team’s offense improved throughout the game.
“We got better as the game went on,” Hansen said. “We got more physical offensively. Overall, defensively I think we did pretty well until the fourth quarter and we just didn’t get the consistency that I like on the offensive side. We still [have] got to work hard on that. [There were] too many penalties.”
Throughout the game, the Paly defense managed to smother the Wilcox passing attack, holding the Chargers to only two completions and forcing Wilcox to pound out yardage on the ground with assorted running and option plays.
With less than four minutes left in the game, Wilcox scored another run, making the score 21-15, Paly. During the ensuing kickoff, Boyd burned the defense for 63-yards for a dazzling kickoff return for a touchdown. Paly’s defense then forced a fumble and recovered the football, slimming the chances of a Wilcox comeback. The Vikings punted the ball at the end of its drive with two minutes remaining. With 1:20 left in the game, senior cornerback and wide receiver Davante Adams acrobatically intercepted a Wilcox pass to seal the victory for Paly.
Adams said the Vikings were able to hold onto the victory by cooperating with one another and giving their best effort.
“We came out strong and a lot of different people stepped up when we needed them to step up, so everything fell into place,” Adams said. “We had a little breakdown in the fourth, but we got through it. Basically, we just go in there every down and know that we can go home to rest, so [there is] no time for rest on the field — just go out there and give it all we have every play and that’s basically what we did all the game.”
The Vikings hope to remain undefeated after their next game against crosstown rival Gunn.
“We won the first league game,” Bono said. “It was pretty good to get that win … we play Gunn next game so I’m sure we’ll be fired up for the crosstown rivals. [I’m] looking forward to it, but besides that we’ll probably have the same game plan, same schedule and stuff like that. [We have to] stay on the grind every day and get better.”
The Vikings will take on the Gunn High School Titans at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 8 at the Paly football field.