Vikings fall to Oak Grove 46-7

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Skylar Burris

Tony Caballero-Santana celebrates Viking touchdown with his teammates.

Ryan Chang, Staff Writer

 

The Palo Alto Vikings were brutally beaten at home by the Oak Groves Eagles with a final score of 46-7.

“We gave it our all. They were prepared and they really gave it to us. But we just got to come out next week and play our game” defensive back Ty Wilcox (‘17)  said.

The Vikings only scored one touchdown which was a 43-yard pass caught by senior Eli Givens (‘16) in the first quarter from quarterback Justin Hull (‘16). The rest of the game was all Eagles. Oak Grove immediately responded with a touchdown drive, but the extra point was missed. The score was 7-6. Oak Grove then scored another touchdown in the same quarter. However this time the extra point was blocked by senior Tonga Latu (‘16) making the score 12-6.

“The first half went well I thought. We allowed the fewest points of all season in the first half.” defensive back Jordan Schilling (‘16)  said.

The Vikings came out in the second half with a quick three and out and they were forced to punt the ball. The punt by Max Dorward (‘18) was then returned for a touchdown and the Eagles were now up 18-7. Again the Oak Grove kicker missed the extra point. The floodgates were opened in the second half when Oak Grove scored 34 unanswered points. Hull had three inceptions in the second half. One of which was returned for a touchdown.

“The second half we kind of fell apart. We weren’t doing our jobs. It just wasn’t working.” Schilling said.

The Vikings came into the game without their starting left tackle in Mikey Grandy who suffered a knee injury from last week against Archbishop Mitty High School.

“Having to play without Mikey is definitely really tough. He’s dominant on both sides on the field and it’s pretty tough to try to make up for his loss.” lineman Sean Romeo (‘17) said.

The players are already looking ahead to what they can improve on for the rest of the season.

“We need to do better job of tackling and we need to get a better push on the defensive line. as far as offense we need to run the ball better and pass more efficiently.” Schilling said.

The next game the Vikings will play is at home against Saratoga at 7 p.m. “We’ve got to stop the run. We know that Saratoga is a running team. They’re fast and we have to give it our all” Wilcox said.