The Palo Alto Vikings’ football team fell to the Milpitas Trojans on Paly’s Homecoming Night, Friday Oct. 25, putting their record at 3-4 overall.

Despite their tough loss, head coach Earl Hansen recognized his team’s effort throughout the game.

“I think they played their hearts out tonight; I was proud of them,” Hansen said. “I knew they played as hard as they could but they made two mistakes that cost them the game.”

The game started off positively with Paly winning the coin toss. However, due to a lack of communication, no one was able to return the punt. Mipitas quickly fired back, sacking Paly quarterback Keller Chryst (‘14) and bringing the Vikings to fourth down. Former Paly player Savion Black (’15) scored the first touchdown of the night for the Trojans with seven minutes left to go in the first quarter.

The Vikings, however, picked up their performance towards the end of the first quarter with a 38 yard complete pass to Keesean Johnson (‘14) from Chryst. Andrew Frick (‘14) carried the ball three yards into the endzone for Paly’s first touchdown with two minutes to spare in the first quarter.

The Vikings increased their lead with a fast touchdown pass from Chryst to Johnson. Milpitas scored their second touchdown in the first half with five and a half minutes to go, but was not able to get the field goal kick. Paly’s offensive lineman was not able to cover of their quarterback, causing Chryst to get sacked for the second time in the first quarter.

Milpitas went for their third touchdown, but it was not counted due to a flag against the Trojans offensive line. Tully McCalister (‘14) blocked the Trojans’ kick, concluding the first half of the game with a score of 14-12 Vikings.

The Trojans came back strong following the halftime break with Black scoring yet another touchdown with a ten yard run.

The Vikings brought back their lead after Malcolm Davis (‘14) ran for a 48 yard return. Chryst was pushed into the endzone, earning a third touchdown for Paly and bringing the score to 21-18 at the end of the third quarter.

 Keller suffered his third sack of the night on the Vikings fourth down shortly after a Milpitas touchdown within the first minute of the last quarter.

Following multiple interceptions on both the Trojans and the Vikings, Frick caught a 48 yard pass from Chryst and charged through the Trojans defensive line to score a touchdown for Paly bringing the score to 28-24. With about a minute left in the game, Milpitas intercepted a pass from Chryst bringing the Trojans ahead, leaving the final score to 31-28 as the Vikings just came up short to the Milpitas Trojans.

Quarterback Chryst commented on both his team’s and individual performance.

“It was a pretty good team effort…Both [interceptions] were bad throws and I put that on myself,” Chryst said.

The Vikings will play the Mountain View Spartans on November 1 at Mountain View High School.