Viking quarterback Kale Boomer (no. 11 in blue) was willing but not able to help his halfback, Peter Warren, as an East Central tackler took down Warren. So far Warren has amassed the sixth most yards of any running back in the conference. The game was played Friday, October 8.
Sometimes a loss isn’t as bad as the scoreboard makes it look. This was one of those games as the Cook County High School Viking football team fell 35-13 to the top rated East Central Eagles (ECE).
The Vikings trailed 14-7 with less than one minute to go in the first half but gave up a touchdown to the Eagles with a few seconds on the clock to trail 21-7 at halftime.
Dylan Quaife nearly got that touchdown back at the start of the third quarter with his long return on the kick-off, twisting, turning, and weaving his way deep into East Central’s territory. Despite his shifty running and nearly breaking the final two tacklers’ grasp, he was knocked down at East Central’s 12-yard line.
As good as things looked then, two plays later the Vikings fortunes were reversed when they fumbled the ball back to the Eagles.
With the turnover East Central’s big front line and ball control offense took over and ground much of the third quarter away.
Assistant coach Mike Boomer gathers his defense around him and tries to work out a strategy to stop the East Central Eagles. Despite the score the Vikings did a good job on defense and made the Eagles work hard for every yard they picked up.
The Eagles scored two touchdowns in the fourth quarter. The Vikings sandwiched a 7-yard Boomer scamper into the end zone. The kick failed and the score ended up 35-13.
“Despite the score, I thought it was probably our best game of the season. We really did get better and the competition level may have drowned out the fact that we really did play pretty well,” said Head Coach Mitch Dorr.
Dorr said that a key fumble and, “our inability to get some first downs in the third quarter really hurt us.”
One of the biggest improvements was in the defense’s ability to stop long runs, especially around the ends. Most games have been marked by some long dashes for touchdowns by Viking opponents. This was an area the Vikings worked hard on in practice and made appropriate corrections.
“We knew we ran the risk of being over-powered and for three quarters we really did a nice job, especially defensively,” said Dorr, adding, “In really tough games like that, you have to make some big plays and we just didn’t make some key plays.”
Once again the Vikings received outstanding play from quarterback Kale Boomer, running backs Peter Warren and Dylan Quaife, two sophomores and a junior.
After five games Quaife led the conference with 846 yards rushing, averaging 169.2 yards per game. In second was Barnum’s Josh Hogun, who tallied 741 yards for a 148.2 average. Sitting in sixth place on that list with 435 yards and 87 yards per game average was Peter Warren. The last game will be factored in this week and the new tallies will be available next week.
“I thought Kale Boomer really did a nice job in our spread offense (shotgun set) considering we had practiced it very little. Stein Jacobsen had a great game for us on defense. I thought he played his heart out from his defensive tackle position. I am really proud of him,” Dorr said.
Theteam is now 3-3 on the season. On Oct. 15 the squad traveled to Ogilvie.
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