The Pop Warner Football playoffs began Oct. 29 at Gilroy High School and saw the U12 (under 12 years) Hollister Vikings team advance to the next round with a 28-8 victory while the U10 Vikings were eliminated after a 28-0 loss.
The U12 Vikings played the Coast Side Cougars from Half Moon Bay. The game began badly, with a 14-play drive by the Cougars ending in a touchdown followed by a successful field goal, putting the score at 8-0 against the Vikings.
In Pop Warner, field goals are counted as two points and conversions at one point to encourage players to learn to kick the ball instead of running plays.
The Vikings encountered a disparity in the size of the players—one very large Cougar player effectively acted like a juggernaut continually plowed through the Viking defense. But head coach Gil Perez trained his team well and they knew how to respond.
“They were hard to tackle but we just started going lower on them,” said player Michael Hubbard. “They started getting worried so we just hit them harder in the legs and we stopped them.”
The Cougars tried to repeat their success in the first part of the second quarter, but the Vikings were ready for them.
“In the beginning, yes, we were thinking this big boy is going to run us down,” Perez said. “It took a little while for the flow to get going, but I knew if our kids kept their heart into it, we will get them eventually.”
Once they got their minds set, the rest of the game was easy. Stephen Seymoure was a key player, seemingly everywhere on the field at the same time and contributing with three touchdowns.
“They scored points on us but we came back,” Seymoure said. “The team blocking was amazing and we put points on the board. My touchdowns felt great but you can’t stop. You have to keep moving.”
The game ended 28-8 and guaranteed the team a shot at the championship.
“I know I could not have done what I did without help from players like Michael Hubbard,” said player Matthew Perez. “It is a team sport and I think we showed our dedication. We played hard and when we started feeling the win, it got everyone pumped up.”
U10 Vikings
The U10 Vikings faced the East Bay Warriors, a team they had already lost to once this season. The game began with the Vikings’ offense getting knocked back by the Warriors, then finding their defense challenged by a drive down the field that ended up in a confused scuffle in the Warrior end zone.
It’s not every day that you see a play in football that begins on the one-inch line, but the referees struggled to decide whether the previous play was a touchdown, a recovered fumble, or some odd combination of both.
“Nobody knew what had happened,” said head coach Dustin Franco. “It became a compromise, with two people saying to take it to the one-yard line, and two saying it was a touchback.”
Under these strange conditions, the Vikings took possession of the ball but could not gain any ground. The next play saw them pushed back from the one-yard line with a tackle behind the goal line ending with a Warrior safety, giving them a 2-0 lead and the momentum in the game. Before the end of the first quarter, the Vikings were down 28-0.
Some high school teams would give up in that situation, but the Vikings defense kept the Warriors from scoring in the second half. Quarterback Cadence Smith led the team to some serious advances but the Vikings were unable to score.
“The refs told me after the game they had expected our kids to bow down after the half,” Franco said. “They said that was the most heart they had seen in a team all season. You can’t ask for something better than that.”
This loss eliminated the team from a run at the championship after a 6-3 season. There were some tears, some comforting words from the coaches, a Viking hammer awarded to player Reese Kaplansky for his efforts on the field, and some reflections from the players.
“I did my best,” Smith said. “My favorite moment was when I got a first down by running right up the middle. It was a rough one but we stayed in there and we never gave up.”
Mateo Rogish, 10, was awarded a flag for his leadership over the year and summed up the game saying, “We came out pretty flat, then the coach gave us a talk and we didn’t let them score again. We lost, but it doesn’t matter what that score says. In my opinion, we won because we played as a team.”
The U12 Vikings will continue to the second round of playoffs with a game at Soquel on Nov. 6 against the South Valley Grizzlies.
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