High School Sports

Vikings victorious over Lakers

ANDOVER -- LaBrae's second half surge was too much for Pymatuning Valley to handle, as the Vikings earned their second win in as many weeks under first-year coach Christopher Marsco, downing the Lakers, 40-30.

"We felt in the first half we really were starting to beat ourselves a little bit. We didn't tackle very well, I feel like we didn't have our wits about us in terms of alignment. A lot of self-imposed things," Marsco said. "That's nothing to take away from Pymatuning Valley. We knew it was going to be a bare-knuckle brawl when we came up here. It always is, but I think that's the fun part of this team we've got this year. It's a little bit different of a LaBrae team than I think people are used to seeing.

"I just got done telling them, tonight was like taking cough syrup as a kid. We had to do a dose every couple minutes, and you don't learn to get through adversity until you're faced with it and you find out how good your habits are. We think tonight was a good reflection of the habits we're creating in practice."

LaBrae drove down the field with its opening possession, culminating with a 13-yard run from quarterback Car'ter Box.

The Lakers punched back, eating much of the remaining first quarter clock on a scoring drive that ended with a goal-line touchdown by Kasen Bailey. The Vikings didn't need much time to respond, however, returning the ensuing kickoff for a score.

On Pymatuning Valley's next possession, the Vikings stalled them out on fourth down at the goal line, but the Lakers quickly got points, forcing a safety soon after.

Pymatuning Valley happily re-took possession after the safety, and drove down the field again. This time they got six points for their effort, with a second rush by Bailey, and the seventh point came after the kick.

Later in the quarter, LaBrae stifled its opponent's momentum and forced a punt. They had two minutes to drive down the field. The Vikings got inside the red zone, but time was running out.

With one second left on the clock, it was either score or go into the locker room trailing.

Box found Brennan Harness over the middle in the end zone and the sophomore completed the catch. Box ran in the two-point conversion.

On their first possession of the second half, the Vikings added to their advantage. This time, Ty-Meir Boyd shoved his way in from the 1-yard line to earn six points.

After forcing a Lakers' three-and-out, Boyd struck again from the same distance, extending the LaBrae lead to 33-16 after the failed point-after attempt.

Just past the halfway point of the fourth quarter, Boyd went for three in a row, rushing into the end zone on a 9-yard scamper.

"He's a special kid," Marsco said. "It's yes sir, no sir. He comes from great stock, and he runs angry, you know? Always got a smile on his face, but plays with relentless effort and attitude, and he's a joy to coach. He's one of the things that we could hang our program on and make him the face of it right now, and he does everything that we would hope he would."

If Pymatuning Valley was going down, they were going down swinging. Bailey broke through the trenches and ran his way to six more points for the Lakers. They then proceeded to block LaBrae's punt on the ensuing possession, setting Pymatuning Valley up just outside the red zone.

"Normally I wouldn't call a timeout at the end when we were down, but I thought (this could be a teachable moment for the young team)," Lakers coach Neal Croston said. "We went after the punt with six guys. It's something we saw on tape. That was more of a statement for us. We need to keep fighting for four quarters, and our guys know that it's going to be four-quarter games from now on."

The Lakers capitalized, with quarterback Justin Britton connecting with Padraig Ferrie on a 28-yard pass. But LaBrae got the kickoff and kneeled down to run the clock to zero.

The Vikings, who hope to take the Mahoning Valley by surprise this season, have a great chance to do just that with their Week 3 matchup as they square off with area power McDonald.

Pymatuning Valley will make the trek down Route 11 next week for a showdown with Valley Christian.