Golden Valley football was throwing everything it had at Valencia on Friday night.
DeGabriel Floyd, usually a receiver, played quarterback and took some direct snaps on offense. Another receiver, Jalin Lewis, ran the ball. On one play, two lateral passes were tossed for a 16-yard gain.
But no matter what happened, the Vikings had an answer and walked away with a 48-7 win at Valencia on Friday.
“Us as a defense, we’re all really tight and we know we’ve got each other’s backs,” said Josh DeNeal, a Valencia defensive end/tight end. “So we know if one of us messes up, another one’s got our backs.”
The Vikings (6-1 overall, 2-0 in Foothill League) scored their first touchdown a little over two minutes into the first quarter. Connor Downs threw to Kyle Quintal for a 92-yard touchdown.
On their next possession, the Vikes scored again when Downs connected with Zachary Semko on a 26-yard pass.
The Grizzlies (3-4, 0-2) sputtered until Floyd threw a 30-yard touchdown pass to Lewis to bring the score to 13-7 heading into halftime.
“They had a great game plan and kind of kept us off balance a bit,” said Valencia coach Larry Muir. “But the other thing is we experienced some adversity, which was really good for us.”
Valencia broke open the second half with a Jayvaun Wilson two-yard scamper into the end zone at the eight-minute mark.
On the next Vikings drive, Downs threw a 16-yard pass to DeNeal over the linemen in front of him for a touchdown.
DeNeal had a fumble recovery later in the game, but the touchdown was the real thrill.
“There’s nothing like the feeling of getting a touchdown with the crowd behind you and everything else,” said the senior.
Luring Paialii rushed for two touchdowns in the fourth quarter, then Downs threw to Mykael Wright for one final score.
“We threw a wrinkle on them,” said Golden Valley coach Dan Kelley. “And it worked … They came out in the power game in the second half and muscled us down the field, but hey, our guys hung in there and played, in my opinion, one heck of a football game.”
