Tackling by committee, a group of Viking defenders stopped the Silver Bay running back in his tracks as he received the hand-off from the quarterback. Assisting on the tackle are Patrick Pierre (78) Kole Anderson (44) and Vaughn Swindelhurst (34). Staff photo/Brian Larsen
The rugged Silver Bay Mariner 4-4-1 defense once again shutout the Cook County Vikings, and the Mariners won 26-0 in the first round of the section play-offs.
In a harbinger of things to come, two weeks ago the Mariners beat the Vikings 18-0 in a game played here.
While the Vikings’ offense had trouble sustaining drives, Silver Bay used some big plays to score. The Mariners scored their first touchdown on a 48-yard pass from Luke Stadler to Derek Thompson. The extra point kick was good and it was 7-0 in favor of Silver Bay.
During that first period the Mariners gained 21 yards on ten carries and the Vikings 19 yards on ten carries. Patrick Pierre made some big bone crunching tackles, as did Kole Anderson, Ryan Christianson and Vaughn Swindelhurst. However, for two teams who know each other inside and out—many kids play baseball and hockey together the biggest difference was holding onto the ball during pass plays.
Late in the second quarter, the Mariners used a nice mixture of runs and passes to take the ball to the Vikings’ eight-yard line. From there Stadler rolled out and flipped the ball to Elijah Blank who scored. The Mariners missed the extra point but went into the locker room up 13-0.
The Vikings took the kick-off in the third quarter and moved the ball to mid-field before punting on fourth down. Unfortunately, Silver Bay’s Ero Wallin blocked the punt and ran it to the Vikings’ 12-yard line. Next, Wallin, who normally plays center on offense, lined up in the backfield and ran the ball across the goal line to make the score 18-0.
Late in the third quarter a Paul Dorr pass was intercepted and taken to the 37-yard line before Ryan Christiansen tackled the runner. Stadler once again went to the air and found Derek Thompson for a touchdown. The extra point kick was good and the scoring ended with the Mariners up 26-0.
The Vikings had their chances in the game. With just a few ticks left on the clock in the third quarter Aram Falter took the kickoff and ran 25 yards to the Mariners 50. Dorr handed off to Falter on the next play and Aram picked up ten yards for a first down. However, the Vikings were stopped on a fourth and three when Paul Dorr was held to a one-yard gain on fourth down.
All in all the Vikings played hard to the end, but on this night, Silver Bay was the better team.
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