Vikings move to 2-1, hand Knights their first loss
The Valencia Vikings (2-1) started off hot, cooled off, but managed to find their rhythm late to hand the Notre Dame Knights (2-1) their first loss of the season on the road on Friday, 30-21.
“It was a really tough environment. I felt our kids played really well,” Valencia head coach Larry Muir said. “They did a good job. We did a really good job of kind of getting the momentum going in the first half, scoring first, did a really good job.
“[Notre Dame] was a real big challenge for us, a really good, great traditional program. Well-coached, very talented. And they were good. It was a great battle.”
Valencia senior quarterback Trey Erickson ran for two touchdowns in the first half and added a touchdown pass to senior Brandon Boateng. Those three scores had the Vikings up 23-8 at halftime.
The Knights scored near the end of the third quarter and then again just two minutes into the fourth quarter to cut the deficit to 23-21.
“Everything seemed to be pretty good, we got a safety, then we kind of lost it,” Muir said. “We gave up a score on a kickoff and then we had a turnover, they end up scoring. So it was still a pretty tight ball game there in the second half.”
Valencia managed to seal the victory on a 30-yard run from senior Daniel Hernandez with just under five minutes to go in the fourth quarter.
“Daniel Hernandez really did a great job for us and it was really just a great, great effort by everyone,” Muir said. “We were in our goal-line package, and it’s our goal line, we want to try to run the ball a little bit. We did a great job. The offensive line did a great job of blocking, and Daniel did a tremendous, tremendous job of running.”
Erickson came off injured on the second play of the second half with what Muir described as a “lower-leg injury.” His status for next week’s game is unknown.
“He’ll get looked at in the morning and start the treatment, do all that stuff,” Muir said. “So we’ll see where he’s at next week.”
Valencia will host Rancho Cucamonga next week in its final non-league game before the start of Foothill League play.
