November 5, 2009
Charlo Vikings lay it all on the line
By Aaric Bryan
Valley Journal
The Viking coach put Saturday’s playoff game against Power-Dutton-Brady Titans in his defense’s hands — they were good hands to put it in.
The gutsy Viking defense forced a potent Titan offense to turn the ball over on downs four times inside the red zone, including twice in the final five minutes with the Titans threatening to tie the game at 16. That effort delivered Charlo its first playoff win since 2001.
In the 16-8 victory, the Viking defense bailed out their offense that went almost silent after a 55-yard scoring drive to open the game. In a game between two evenly matched teams, where only 15 yards separated the teams in total offense, the Vikings’ defense proved to be the deciding factor.
“I told them in the timeout defense was going to win the game,” Charlo coach Steve Love said. “I put it in our defense’s hands to win the game and they took care of business.”
Battling injuries and the flu all week, the Viking defense sucked it up for 48 minutes and seemed to test the Titans’ resolve with hard hit after hard hit. As the game wore on, the much bigger Titan team shifted away from the physical running game and relied much more on the pass.
“Our kids love to hit. Charlo kids are always tough,” Love said. “When you have eight guys out there that keep coming with hit after hit I think it starts to wear on you.”
The Viking defense played most of the second half with their backs against the wall, but never blinked. After moving the ball 49 yards, the Titans had a first-and-goal at the 4-yard line with only 6:26 remaining. But after two incompletions and two tackles for losses, the Vikings took over at the 6 with 4:49 left to play and still holding onto the precarious 16-8 lead.
A Viking three-and-out and a shanked punt later, the Titans took over at the Vikings’ 17-yard line with 2:37 left to play. After completing a 9-yard pass on first down, the Titans had a chance to tie the game on second down, when 6-foot-3 running back Hayden Vick broke away from Austin Bauer in the end zone. But Vick couldn’t hold onto the pass and Bauer forced Titan quarterback Travis Somerfeld to throw it out of the back of the end zone on third down.
When Somerfeld’s fourth-down pass dropped to the ground, it ended five agonizing minutes for Love and advanced Charlo to the second round of the playoffs for the first time in eight years.
“...There are so many things going through your head and then we just stepped up and stopped them. I can’t even explain how it feels,” said Chico Stipe, who led the Vikings with 20 tackles.
Stipe, a junior linebacker, broke up two fourth-down passes in the first half. In the first quarter after the Titans got the ball on the Vikings’ 20 after a bad punt, Stipe broke up a pass in the corner of the end zone on a fourth-and-nine to keep the game tied at 8-8.
The Titans’ were threatening to take the lead again early in the second quarter and were facing a fourth-and-goal at the 5, when Stipe broke up another touchdown pass.
“I think the biggest thing in the game was we were able to put our mistakes behind us. After the kids made a mistake they didn’t let it affect the next play,” Love said.
The Titans started four possessions inside the Vikings’ 30-yard line after a bad punt or turnover and didn’t come away with any points on any of them. The Titans averaged more than 40 points a game entering Saturday’s contest, but Charlo’s bend-but-don’t-break style of defense held them to single digits for only the second time this season.
The Vikings’ offense was stagnant for most of the game, except for three big plays, but those three big plays were enough. Two of Charlo’s big plays came on their opening drive, where they moved the ball 55 yards to take an 8-0 lead. Facing a third-and-nine at their own 35, Stipe, who finished with 85 rushing yards, broke free for a 36-yard run on a QB keeper to move the ball down to the 9 yard-line. From there the Vikings were pushed back by the Titans and were facing a fourth-and-goal, when Stipe connected with senior Jame Petersen for a 16-yard touchdown pass. The two also hooked up on the two-point try to give the Vikings an 8-0 lead.
After Stipe’s long run on third down, the Vikings had only converted one other third down, and that was on a facemask call, when they were facing a third-and-five at their 38-yard line with less than five minutes to play in the third quarter. Then Stipe and Petersen connected for a 40-yard pass down the middle of the field to move the ball down to the 2 yard-line. They would score two plays later on a 2-yard pass to Bauer and take a 16-8 lead when Stipe ran in the two-point conversion.
“It was wide open. The offensive line did their job and gave me time and that’s all I needed. It was a great route that’s for sure,” Stipe said of the game-breaking 40-yard pass to Petersen.
“It’s hard to miss a perfect pass,” said Petersen, who earlier told coach Love the play would be open.
Lineman Colt Nagy set up the big pass play by forcing a fumble on a sack. It was the senior’s second sack of the day. He also sacked Somerfeld on a third-and-seven in the second quarter. Nagy finished with five tackles to go along with his two sacks and epitomized the Viking toughness.
“He (Nagy) was throwing up Thursday ... We didn’t know how much gas he would have in his tank, but he came out and sucked it up for 48 minutes,” Love said.
The Vikings will travel to Sheridan to take on the Panthers at 1 p.m. Saturday. The Panthers played in the Western C before moving to the Southern C conference this year. The Vikings lost a 12-6 defensive battle to the Panthers early last year.
Summary
Charlo 16, PDB 8
PDB 8 0 0 0 – 8
Charlo 8 0 8 0 – 16
C - Jame Petersen 15 pass from Chico Stipe (Petersen pass from Stipe).
P - Willy VandenBos 50 pass from Travis Somerfield (VandenBos pass from Somerfield
C - Austin Bauer 2 pass from Stipe (Stipe run) |
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