Junior Vikes stung 42-8 by Medina Hornets
ONE HANDED CATCH – Junior Vikings receiver, Braxton Johnson, grabbed this ball in the middle of several Hornet defenders. Johnson ran for 50 yards for the only TD on the night for Humboldt in the 42-8 loss to Medina Middle.
Everything that could go wrong went wrong on Tuesday night at Medina as the Hornets swarmed the Humboldt Junior Vikings and rolled to an impressive 42-8 over Humboldt. The Junior Vikes are a young team and will take their lumps this season but they will improve as the season rolls forward. Humboldt’s first possession ended after only two plays as the Hornet secondary intercepted an Isaiah Agnew pass. Five running plays later Medina Middle had an early 8-0 advantage.
Turnovers hurt the young Junior Vikings all night as the ball was stripped from a Humboldt runner on the next possession and Medina once again had a short field. The Hornets need just five plays again to score. The pass on the two-point conversion was incomplete and with 1:40 left in the first period, the Hornets were up 14-0.
Humboldt returned the kickoff to the 50-yard line on possession #3. The Vikes Agnew ran for five yards on first down but the drive would stall and Medina took over on downs as the second quarter got underway. The Hornets quickly got into Humboldt territory with a pass play plus a face mask penalty moved the ball to the Humboldt 28-yard line.
After a 20-yard run, an incomplete pass and a fumble set up third and goal at the eight-yard line for the Hornets as the Jr. Vikes defense tried to make a stand. Humboldt forced a fourth and goal at the two but a quarterback sneak made the score 20-0 with five and half minutes to go in the first half.
Humboldt started their next possession at the 35-yard line and finally got on the scoreboard. Agnew hit Braxton Johnson with a 15-yard pass and Johnson did the rest as he outran the Medina defense. Johnson broke a would be tackler at the two-yard and fell into the end zone for the score. Agnew ran in the conversion and the Junior Vikes trailed 20-8 with 5:07 on the clock.
Medina wasted little on getting that touchdown back as they scored in four plays. With the conversion, the lead went back to 20 points with 3:07 left in the half. Humboldt immediately turned the ball over on the next possession as the ball was stripped and bounced right into the hands of a Hornet defender and he ran 48 yards for another quick TD for Medina Middle. Down now 36-8, the Junior Vikings needed to run out the clock but couldn’t and Medina had one more chance to score. Adrian Mendoza had a big night defensively and made two TD saving tackles in the last minute to keep Medina out of the end zone as the Hornets led 36-8 at the break.
Coach Heath Moore showed a lot of class in the second half as he pulled his starters and played several younger players against the Junior Vikings. The Vikes defense gave up one first down on the initial drive of the second half and then forced the Hornet offense to punt. It was a huge punt as the ball went 44 yards and Humboldt went on offense at the nine-yard line. Tobias Broyles had a big run of 46 yards to get the Jr. Vikes out of the shadows of their goal posts. A holding call set the Humboldt offense back 15 yards but Agnew had a big run of 13 yards to get most of the penalty back. Agnew was sacked two straight plays and the ball went over on downs to the Hornets.
Medina Middle took over near midfield as the third period was getting close to ending. With seconds left, a Medina runner was hit and dropped the ball as the horn sounded ending the third quarter. Humboldt’s defense relaxed hearing the horn. The Medina runner scooped up the ball and ran it the last 20 yards for a touchdown.
With the clock running continuously, the fourth period ran off quickly. Humboldt committed their fourth turnover of the game as a fumble gave Medina the ball back. Humboldt’s defense did force another punt as Mendoza had yet another tackle in the game on third down. The Jr. Vikes had one more shot to score but time ran out as Humboldt lost 42-8. Mendoza had a huge game defensively with seven or eight solo tackles and several assists. Offensively, Agnew played great with some hard-nosed running and had the one long TD pass to Braxton Johnson for the only score for Humboldt. The Jr. Vikes will play their first home game on Thursday September 7th against TCA at 6:30.
