The boys’ football team (6–5) fell short against the Blake Bengals (9–2) in Thursday night’s second-round playoff game.
With the temperature around 40 degrees and the rain falling, running games for both teams would be important, considering the difficulty of the field conditions. Blake opened the game with the ball and hit a big play for a 50-yard touchdown. They then attempted an onside kick but it was recovered by the Vikes to set them up with good field position. Unfortunately, on the first play of the drive, the Vikes fumbled the handoff giving the ball back to the Bengals. Blake was penalized multiple times on their ensuing drive but still found a way to score through the penalties, taking a commanding 14–0 lead as the first quarter came to a close.
To open up the second quarter the Vikes showed their most promise of the game thus far, running the ball play after play and getting decent chunks of yardage on their way down the field. But, on 4th down in the redzone senior Connor Werkman was sacked and the Vikes were stopped again. Riding the momentum of the big stop, on the first play of their offensive drive, the Bengals launched a 75-yard touchdown pass to stretch their lead to 21–0. The Vikes weren’t able to generate any more offense to close the half and trailed 21–0 going into the break.
The Vikes opened the second half with the ball, needing a score to stay in the game and make it competitive. On 4th and 11 from midfield, Blake returned a punt for a touchdown that was then called back for a roughing the punter penalty that instead gave the Vikes a first down. Whitman took advantage of the costly penalty and turned the drive into a touchdown, cutting the lead to 21–7. Both teams would get defensive stops as the third quarter ended with the score 21–7.
The fourth quarter began with the Vikes making a huge sack to force a fourth-down punt from Blake. With the season on the line and needing a score, the Vikes were unable to execute on offense after a penalty and good defense by the Bengals gave the Vikes a fourth-and-long. But the Vikes defense continued its second-half success and gave the ball back to the offense, this time, though, with just under six minutes left in the game, down two possessions. As it had been all night, the Vikes struggled to move the ball through the passing game and were stopped on fourth down with about three minutes left to seal a Blake victory eventually.
In a tough game to end the season, the Vikes showed resilience that they had shown all season. After going down 21–0 early in the game, they outscored Blake in the second half, an impressive achievement for a team that dominated in the first half. After going through a mid-season coaching change, and putting together their first winning season since 2016, a tough loss won’t overshadow the incredible run this team put together. Congratulations to all the seniors for their amazing careers and to Coach Prettyman, who is on a winning record and has had a playoff victory in his first season as the head coach.
