Left: Defended by Noah Warren (62), Viking quarterback Leo Johnson fired a pass to Jack Wieben who turned and caught the ball for a short gain while Andy Farley (81) ran a deep route. Below: Slipping one tackle, Jack Wieben lowered his shoulder to run over this would-be Marshall tackler and scored on a long touchdown run in the third quarter. Wieben powered in for another touchdown on a short yardage play late in the game. Below left: Breaking a tackle after a nice catch, Owen Anderson ran the length of the field for a touchdown on this play.
The bright lights of Friday night high school football were on at Lyle Anderson field on Friday, August 29 when the 1-A Cook County High School Viking football team hosted the 3-A Marshall Hilltoppers.
It was the first game for each team and Cook County hoped it didn’t go as it did last year when Marshall put up 49 first half points and coasted to a 49-0 win.
And, thanks to the big arm of Viking quarterback Leo Johnson, who looked sharp in Head Coach Mitch Dorr’s revamped offense that features the pass over the run, and some great catches by his wide receivers, the Vikings were able to score on the bigger, stronger Marshall team. Still, the Vikings fell 42-24 in the contest.
Johnson ended his night going 10 for 16, throwing for 227 yards and two touchdowns. Owen Anderson had 5 of those receptions, gaining 128 yards and scoring one touchdown.
Using a strong running game, Marshall was able to put up 3 touchdowns before the Vikings got on board with an early second quarter 55-yard touchdown from Johnson to Anderson. The Vikings failed on their 2-point conversion, leaving them two touchdowns down.
But, after holding Marshall the Vikings got the ball back late in the second quarter and moved it to midfield before punting with less than 30 seconds to go. If they could have scored a touchdown at that juncture they would have been one TD down going into the locker room.
Instead, running behind a perfect wall of tacklers, the Marshall return man ran uncontested to score a touchdown just before the clock ran out, leaving the Vikings three scores down as they headed into the locker room.
In the third quarter, Marshall scored two more touchdowns, one on a nifty 20-yard pass play of its own, but the Vikings came right back on a deep throw by Johnson to Andy Farley, who showed his speed after he caught the ball, running away from the Marshall defensive backs, and a nifty long run by Jack Wieben for a touchdown.
Jack Wieben rushed 15 yards for a TD in the fourth quarter to end the Vikings scoring. The Vikings failed on all of their extra point scoring attempts.
Wieben finished the game with 12 rushes for 83 yards and 2 touchdowns.
After the game head coach Mitch Dorr said, “I thought we had way too many missed tackles and blocks. While our experience in some positions was the case, overall, we need to get tougher on both sides of the ball.”
But he added, “I was very encouraged by the play of two gutsy sophomores. Will Lamb came into the game and played very physical. Sam O’Phelan sprained an ankle early and played through some pain. Football is a tough sport and we had two gutsy sophomores out there Friday night.”
As far as the team’s defense, Dorr said, “We simply need to tackle better. We had guys in position; we had good schemes, now we need to finish off plays. That takes courage. I thought Noah Warren and Frankie Miller played great on the defensive side of the ball. They tackled well and showed good aggression.”
Warren ended with 15 tackles while Miller was right behind him with 14 tackles.
Marshall runners had a field day, rushing for 336 yards on 57 carries. The Hilltoppers gained 13 first downs to 6 for Cook County, and Marshall had the ball for 33 minutes while the Vikings had it for 15 minutes.
“Offensively, Leo Johnson was extremely accurate throwing the football,” said Dorr. “Our passing game looked fairly good for this time in the season, but we really need to get back to work up front and work on establishing our running game so we can get Jack free.”
The Vikings travel the next three weeks before coming home. This week they play 2A Hinckley- Finlayson, which figures to be an easier game than the one against Marshall.
Go Vikings!
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