Vikings roll over Patriots
The Vikings claimed their second victory of the season over the Peoria Heights Patriots Friday night, Oct. 10. The team made the trip to Peoria expecting a win and win they did.
As games go, the Vikings could not have fared better. It was a monumental night for many key players.
With Viking’s offense putting up numbers like 140 yards rushing, 206 yards passing and a defense that held the Patriots to a mere 30 yards rushing the team easily owned the night.
Cambridge controlled the ball and the flow of the game from the first tick of the clock with a stingy defense and a lot of offensive opportunities. The first opportunity came at the beginning of the game with ten minutes and 39 seconds left on the clock. Steven Lenertz intercepted a Peoria Heights pass. A nice carry from Patrick Morey and a well caught pass to Ryan Prevost from quarterback Clayton Carr put the ball at the four yard line. Morey then charged through the Patriot line and scored the first touchdown of the night. Mikel Miller’s kick made it 7-0 where it remained for the rest of the quarter.
The first score of the second quarter was carried in by an unexpected host, lineman T. J. Kane. From the three-yard line, Kane, who was placed in the backfield, pounded his way in for a touchdown with only 10:56 on the clock. Peoria Heights finally got on the board at 8:51 from a miss tackle and a long run of 40 yards. Four minutes later Morey countered with a long run of his own, 29 yards. This resulted in another Viking touchdown and another good kick from Miller for the extra point. A little over a minute later, Austin Root intercepted a Patriot pass which lead to another Viking opportunity. With a Patriot penalty and a classic Morey run, the Vikings scored again with three minutes remaining. At halftime, Cambridge lead 28-6.
The Viking explosion continued at the beginning of third quarter with a Morey kick off return of 84 yards resulting once again in another touchdown. Peoria Heights was down but not out when just a minute later, a little Patriot "skullduggery", broke loose with a 45-yard touchdown run. The Viking passing game returned with 4:00 minutes left when Carr connected with Lenertz for 30 yards and another Viking touchdown.
When the fourth quarter started, substitution opportunities arose for the underclassmen. The only score that would come for the Vikings in the fourth was Miller’s 24-yard field goal. With the field goal and his perfect 6 for 6 extra points Miller finished the evening having the Vikings second highest points scored.
With time running out the Patriots scored making the final score 45-20.
Besides Morey’s outstanding offense production of over 174 yards, and Carr’s 11 of 19 passes for 206 yards, several other players were keys to this victory. With Lenertz and Daniel Walsh’s receiving, and Greg Evans and Ben Smith leading the team in tackles with eight each, this was a whole team effort.
Next week the Vikings will take on the Galva Wildcats.
1 2 3 4 Total
CHS 7 21 14 3 45
PHHS 0 6 6 8 20
Team Statistics First downs: CHS 16/PH 5; Yards Rushing: CHS 140/ PH 30; Yards Passing: CHS 206/ PH 114; Total Yards: CHS 346/PH 144; Penalties-yards: CHS 5-40/PH 4-40; Fumbles lost: CHS 0/PH 0; Interceptions: CHS 2/PH 4
CHS individual statistics Rushing: (attempts, yardage, average) Morey 17,111,6.17; Kane 2,4,2; Carr 5,17,1.6; Prevost 7,26,3.28; D. Johnson 3,4,0; Passing: ( comp, att, int, td) Carr 11,19,4,2; Receiving: (pc, yds, td) Root 1,1,0; Lenertz 3,55,1; Prevost 2,34,0; Walsh 3,47,0; Morey 2,69,1
Tackles: Morey 6, Prevost 3, Walsh 2, Miller 2, Lenertz 3, Anderson 1, Kirlin 5, Lavin 6, Fritch 5, Brown 2,A. Johnson 2,G. Evans 8, Roden 6, Banovitz 3, Smith 8.