Vikings fall to 5-1 in a hard fought affair.

 Samo’s bid for an undefeated season in 2023 met its cold and silent demise on Friday's league opener in their home game against Palos Verdes. The Sea Kings shut out the Vikings by a score of 27-0, handing Samo their first loss in 336 days. It was also the first time in the same amount of days the Vikings have gone scoreless, as they were last shut out by the Centaurs in the final game of the 2022 campaign.


 Despite several long drives against the Sea Kings' defense, the Vikings' offense could not capitalize on their opportunities. The connection between Wyatt Brown (QB Class of 2026) and Griffin Seals (WR Class of 2024) still proved to be lethal with Seals making multiple acrobatic catches down the sideline. Unfortunately, each drive ended in utter heartbreak and devastation, most specifically with Brown throwing two costly interceptions in the red zone.


“Play calling was good but our offense needs to be better,” Brown said. “We’ll take care of that in practice and we’ll come back strong next week.”


Ultimately, the final score doesn’t tell the entire story of how this game played out. The Vikings defense held the Sea Kings to only seven points until late in the third quarter. However, Sea Kings' quarterback Ryan Rakowski (QB Class of 2027) also had stellar performance, including a special connection with his wideouts:  Luke Gayton (WR Class of 2024) and Niko Tsangaris (WR Class of 2024). Both caught streaks down the field on the Vikings as Rakowski found Gayton on the opening drive to score a 38-yard touchdown. Later Rakowski connected with Tsangaris catching deep touchdowns in the 3rd and 4th quarter to put the game away. These key connections netted Rakowski the DailyBreeze’s performer of the week in the South Bay. Although, those were the only errors for Samo’s defense on the night as they rarely allowed the Sea Kings to run the ball and their secondary held their ground aside from the aforementioned deep balls. 


Asking Wyatt Brown after the game about the defense he said, “The defense did great. Obviously, everyone makes mistakes but they’ll keep doing their thing.”


The Vikings have four more games left in the 2023 league season. Next Week they travel to Palos Verdes Peninsula to play the Peninsula Panthers in their homecoming game. Looking for their first win in league since the 2019 season, the Vikings will look to trounce Palos Verdes little brother in what will hopefully be a bounce back game. As Wyatt Brown said, “We just gotta keep our heads up, This game was a turning point for us and everyone needs a loss that they can learn from and come back from.”


Written by Declan Ney, Staff Writer.

All Photo Credits to David Hunzicker, you can find all of his photos here: https://deh.crevado.com/football

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