Left: Assistant Coach Mike Boomer gathers his team around him and tries to rally them. Below: Rory Bakke scampers for a long run. Bakke scored the Vikings’ lone touchdown against Hinckley-Finlayson. The Vikings lost the game 37-8 and are now preparing to face East Central on Sept. 21 at Sandstone.
Down 20-0 after the first quarter, the Vikings seemed to be searching for answers they couldn’t come up with against Hinckley- Finlayson last Friday night, September 5 at Hinckley.
The Vikings fell behind 27-0 at the half and Hinckley outscored the Vikings 10-8 in the second half to win big 37-8. The Vikings record is now 0-2.
“We are going to have to do some soul searching this week,” said Head Coach Mitch Dorr following the loss. “Our tackling again was very poor and we lacked courage overall in every phase of the game.”
One of the strengths of the team was considered to be their secondary, but the Hinckley quarterback and receivers put up some big numbers.
“Our pass defense was very poor as we surrendered 231 yards in the air. We did not do a very good job of breaking on the ball. We seem to be watching more than playing,” Dorr said.
In the Vikings’ home opener they scored 24 points against the Marshall Hilltoppers, a 3A school with a good football program. But against Hinckley the offense stalled.
“Offensively we could not put a drive together. I was very disappointed with our lack of execution. We had too many mental mistakes and formation errors that really hurt our ability to move the football,” said Dorr.
The Vikings’ lone touchdown came in the fourth quarter on a 35-yard run by Rory Bakke who took a pitch from quarterback Leo Johnson. Jack Wieben ran in the 2-point conversion.
When asked if his club had taken a step forward or backward, Dorr responded, “I’m not sure, but I do know that as a team, we have to find some key guys to lead us out of this valley we are in. I thought Noah Warren and Colton Thompson really stood out in the game. They played hard and played with the ‘nonstop intensity’ that we need from all of our guys.”
At press time the Vikings were set to face East Central on Friday, Sept. 12 in Sandstone. They then travel to play Deer River the following week before coming home on September 26 to play Ogilvie.
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