The Palo Alto High School boys’ basketball team will play its first non-league game of the year against Woodside High School at 7:30 p.m Thursday at Piedmont Hills High School.

The Vikings ended last year with an outstanding record of 23-4 overall, and a 12-0 record in the De Anza league, according to maxpreps.com.  This year, the Vikings look to replace their leading scorer, Aubrey Dawkins, who graduated last spring. Dawkins, who averaged 18.3 points per game, was a vital part of the Vikings’ success last season.  This year, the squad returns with three seniors in Noah Phillips, Clark Schmutz and Matthew Fogarty. Senior Keesean Johnson will join the squad after taking his sophomore and junior years off.

“We have practiced with our full roster for a couple weeks now so everyone is getting familiar to the system,” Phillips said. ” I think between our focused practices and challenging pre-season schedule, we’ll prepare and expect to do well.”

The Woodside Wildcats ended last season going 5-7 in the Peninsula South League and 12-14 overall.  The Wildcats have played 3 games this year, winning one and losing two.

Phillips believes the Vikings has the ability to go far in the section this year.

“A goal of ours is to win our league, which we were picked sixth in the preseason poll in,” Phillips said. “We are also looking to pull off some upsets in tournaments against strong teams from the West Catholic League and other parts of California. We are more than capable of doing that.”