— by Ed Sutton —
Forget about the Seahawks and the Washington Huskies, the exciting football is here, on Orcas Island.
After soundly defeating Friday Harbor last week to win the coveted Island Cup, the Orcas/Lopez Viking squad hosted Stellar Prep Academy of Oakland, CA in the second game of the new season. Though the Vikings were able to surprise the visitors with two quick touchdowns in the first quarter, the Stellar Prep Thunder prevailed at the end of the day, 28-18.
The Vikings recovered a fumble on the opening play from scrimmage, and, behind quarterback Miles Harlow drove to a quick score in only five plays. After the Viking defense held on a determined drive by the Thunder, the offense scored again in a lightening strike of three plays to take a 12-0 lead late in the first quarter. The eight players from Lopez have provided a daunting addition to the Viking squad, led by speedster Vinny Kramer.
Interestingly, the Lopez players have precious little time to practice with the full squad, coming to Orcas on the ferry at 4:25, and returning at 6:20. Though the Fall schedule allows a bit more time, there must be a better way to build on the strengths of the joint team. Combined teams are not uncommon, particularly east of the mountains where smaller districts have joined programs and often advance to the playoffs.
The Thunder players seemed to acclimate to the island and bounced back with a touchdown before the end of the first quarter, making the score 12-6. The Vikings responded with a long drive highlighted by a huge catch by Thomas Hobi of the Lopez squad. Regrettably Stellar Prep intercepted on the goal line, and after several possession changes managed to score again late in the first half to take a 14-12 lead into the locker-room.
Stellar Prep Academy is a modest sized private school that does not have its own football field so that all of its games are “on the road”. The Stellar team and its supporters drove the 800 miles from the Bay Area, arriving late Friday. The team members, all of whom had never traveled on a ferry previously, were to make the return trip after the game in order to attend classes on Monday. When asked as to how many students at Stellar were on the football team, the coach responded, “all of them”.
The third quarter began well for the Vikings. After taking the opening kickoff, and trading punts, Quarterback Harlow got the ball to Kramer again and he sprinted over fifty yards to a touchdown and a Viking lead of 18-14. The Vikings were having no success with extra point attempts. A change in fortune later gave the ball to Stellar Prep with a fumble recovery on the Orcas ten-yard line and early in the fourth quarter the Thunder scored to lead again at 20-18. Shortly thereafter, the visitors intercepted again and returned the ball 70 yards for a TD to complete the scoring for the game at 28-18. With time running out, Orcas made several valiant attempts to regain the momentum of the first half with no success.
The Orcas and Lopez fans were very vocal in support of the team and can be expected to return for the other home games this season. Interestingly, many of the fans have been in these stands before, a generation ago. Folks like Stu Stephens, Con Russell, Rob Harlow, and Barry Madan all have watched these games when their own boys were on the team and now they watch their grandsons play for the Vikings. It wasn’t so long ago that those grandparents actually created the current football field, laying the sod by hand with the help of the U.S. Marines SeaBee Company back in the 80’s. Time marches on!
GO VIKINGS !
