By AJ Lee
Coach Mark Hodge and the
Spartanburg Vikings made the hour-long
journey down I-26 to take on the Silver
Foxes. These two teams met last year at
Viking Stadium where Dutch Fork would
win with a field goal on the last play of the
game.
Last year was a high-scoring affair,
but this year was much different as nobody thought this game would turn into a defensive slugfest. The head coach of the Spartanburg Vikings, Mark Hodge, told me pregame that his team had a great week of practice and the game from last year was still on their minds.
The first quarter of this game started a little weird. On the first play from scrimmage the
Vikings would cough up the football and Ron Di Pietro would pick it up for the Foxes. Two
plays later Ethan Offing would throw an interception to Demario Bookhart. With 7:05 left to
play in the first quarter the Vikings would strike first. Will Love would make a 27-yard field goal to give the Vikings a 3-0 advantage. An entire quarter later, the Foxes would finally get on the board as Justin Welch would make a 36-yard field goal to tie the game. And yes, it would happen again as 5 minutes later Welch would make another field goal to give the Foxes the lead. 6-3 was the score and it remained all the way to halftime.
No scoring at all would occur during the third quarter. When the fourth and final quarter rolled around the Viking offense seemed to turn it around. Halfway through the fourth, TJ Johnson would throw a beautiful lob to Justin Rice for a 12-yard touchdown to put Spartanburg in the lead again 10-6. Dutch Fork and Spartanburg’s next drives would both be three and outs. After a phenomenal punt by Will Love that went out of bounds at the one-yard line, Dutch Fork was forced to try to go 99 yards in 45 seconds. After Dutch Fork had three plays that got one yard total, it was fourth and nine. Ethan Offing would step up in the pocket and get blindsided by a Viking defender to knock the ball in the air. Damion Coates, a defensive lineman, would grab the football and take it into the endzone to make the final score 17-6 and cap off a special night that Viking fans will remember forever.
TJ Johnson for Spartanburg went 10 for 16 for 77 yards and a touchdown. For the Silver Foxes, Ethan Offing went 16 for 28 for 145 yards, while throwing two interceptions including one in the red zone. The leading rusher tonight for the Vikings was freshman, Trenton Lynch with 51 total rushing yards on 8 carries. For Dutch Fork it was Trent Lodge with 49 yards on 12 carries. And of course, the leading receiver tonight for the Vikings was Justin Rice with 47 yards and a touchdown, while Jacob Hamilton for Dutch Fork had 84 yards.
I mentioned to Coach Hodge post-game that the offense and defense came alive in the fourth quarter, and he said, “I’m super proud of my kids. We were frustrated at halftime, but I told them this is where we wanna be.” He continued to say, “The way we set the program up is to win in the fourth quarter, and we have had chances the last couple of years and failed, so I was super excited to see us on both sides of the ball to come down the field on offense and turn around and make some stops on defense.” I asked him how it felt to come into Irmo and beat Dutch Fork, especially after being so close last year. He responded with, “Tommy, man he’s the best, their program is the best, we would play them every week as they bring the best out of you as coaches and players, and I feel like we will run into them again.” He continued, “The kids have worked very hard and a blessing to me and the coaches is to see them get a return on their investment.”
Tonight was a night that the city of Spartanburg will be celebrating for years to come. Next week Spartanburg will host Broome back at Viking Stadium as Dutch Fork will host a North Carolina powerhouse in Hough High School back at the friendly confines of Dutch Fork High School.
コメント