It was unlike any Hoggard football game this year. They were challenged, trailed and needed to show championship character for the first time this season. Being ranked #1 in the state, as the Vikings are, is nice, but ultimately you need to have the heart of a champion to win it all. Before Friday night, everyone knew this team could play football, but it was unknown whether or not Hoggard had the resiliency, courage, and ability to get up off the ground when they were down.
Question answered.
Despite looking very un-Viking-like in the first half, Hoggard exploded in the second half, out scoring Fayetteville Pine Forest 42-3 on route to their 52-23 win. But don’t be fooled folks, the game was closer than the score indicated, and had many faithful Viking fans nervous while Hoggard may have been pressing for the first time all year.
After a great kickoff return from Luke Caldwell to open the game, Hoggard was in business close to mid-field. The Vikings were unable to mount much of a drive and had to settle for a field goal.
Hmm…usually when they have gotten some momentum, like a big return play, Hoggard has capitalized, and with more than just a field goal. Usually a touchdown if not a flurry of touchdowns.
On the resulting kickoff, Casey Barth’s boot, which have often sailed into the endzone forcing the opponents to start deep in their own end, just went out of bounds as it neared the front corner of the goal line.
Hmm…now the opposition is starting with good field position. That’s kind of new and different.
So the Pine Forest offense took the field and with a mixture of their tail back and full back, the speedy Blake Connor and the powerful Marcus Allen, the Trojans drove the ball down the field as they picked up a key fourth and eight along the way, and with 6:35 left in the first quarter, they took a 7-3 lead.
Hmm…this is interesting. Someone has taken a shot from Hoggard and responded. It was the first time all season that a team had comeback after being down and seized a lead against the Vikings.
And that’s how it went during the first half. Hoggard did things that were uncustomary and Pine Forest made them pay.
The Vikes were able to take a 10-7 lead just before the end of the first quarter with the help of a long pass play from Mark Crecco to Caldwell, which gave Hoggard the ball at the Pine Forest 21 yard line. Then the coaching staff pulled out a little trickeration, running a reverse for Caldwell who went around the right end and down the sideline for the Vikings’ first touchdown of the evening.
It appeared at this time, that things were starting to click and that Hoggard was getting in the groove. The defense came onto the field the next series and forced the Trojans to punt, which was partially blocked by Shawn Sidbury, who was all over the field on offense, defense and special teams. However as the kick flailed some twenty yards down field, the officials ruled that it had hit a Viking player and Pine Forest recovered. But yet again, the defense held and forced another punt.
Hoggard, looking to move the ball from the shadow of their own goal posts, hit a pass play over this middle, but the Viking receiver fumbled, and the Trojans recovered on the Hoggard 19.
Connor would bust a nice run down to the two yard line, and from there, full back Marcus Allen plowed his way into the endzone. The point after was no good, but the visiting Pine Forest team had now responded themselves and taken back the lead, 13-10, with 7:33 left in the first half.
On the ensuing kickoff, the Trojans were able to cause and recover a fumble, and just like that they had the lead and the ball in great field position. They were able to pick up a first down, moving the ball the Hoggard eight yard line. On third and goal from the one, Hoggard defense was impenetrable, setting up fourth down from the one.
As Pine Forest sent out the offense to go for it, it felt like a critical point in the game. Hoggard had played poorly, making costly errors. Yet if they held, they would be down only three points, which certainly would have been deflating for Pine Forest who had clearly gotten all the brakes. On fourth down, those brakes would continue as the Viking defense stuffed the runner, who had apparently never reached the goal line with the ball, but an official ruled otherwise as he came in with his hands raised signaling touchdown.
Hoggard went to the locker room trailing 20-10, and things just weren’t going there way. After the game, Hoggard Head Coach Scott Braswell said, “The big thing for us at halftime was keeping our composure…we had a couple of turnovers that were uncharacteristic of us. Things weren’t going our way.”
There was a sense of urgency surrounding Viking Stadium, as parents and fans wondered what was happening. Apparently, it had just taken Hoggard a bit to warm up on this frosty evening.
The second half started, and the Vikings came ready to play. After forcing Pine Forest to punt on a three and out, Shawn Sidbury took the first handoff through a hole on the right side of the line and was gone, fifty three yards for the touchdown, and just like that it seemed that Uncle Mo was back on the Vikings’ sideline.
Pine Forest was able to move the ball on their next drive, as they got several big third down conversions on running plays as they had all night, but had to settle for a field goal and a 23-17 lead. With 5:52 left in the third, it was the last time the game was in doubt.
Hoggard scored on their next possession as Crecco hooked up with his favorite target again, Luke Caldwell, in the front corner of the endzone, and Hoggard had reclaimed the lead, 24-23.
Fayetteville then took over deep in their own end, and fumbled an option play which Hoggard’s Scotty Braswell pounced on at the nine yard line.
Hoggard capitalized with a three yard run by Sidbury, and took a 31-23 lead just like that.
The Vikings continued to create opportunities instead of making uncharacteristic mistakes, and Kiarra Scott’s interception and return down to the Pine Forest two yard line, was indicative of the character and play making ability of this Hoggard football team.
Crecco’s sneak into the endzone with 1:03 left in the third put the Vikings up 38-23, as they were pulling away. They entered the quarter down ten, and exited it up fifteen. But it wasn’t over.
Shawn Sidbury scored his third and fourth touchdowns of the second half, midway through the final quarter. With 7:36 left, he put Hoggard up 45-23, and after Pine Forest went for it on fourth down deep in their own end out of desperation and couldn’t convert, Sidbury scored on a spectacular 24 yard run in which he started left and made a sick cutback to the right, capping the scoring at 52-23.
The fairly lopsided score doesn’t necessarily reflect how close this game was, but does indicate Hoggard’s strength. Essentially, Pine Forest won the first half and Hoggard won the second. Even right? Not so much.
The dominance of the Vikings can be seen in this study of halves. Their good half was so much better than their opponent’s, that they wound up winning by 29 points.
That demonstrates that they are a good football team, but that wasn’t in question. What everyone is wondering is if this team can play a close ball game, since they haven’t been in one all year. Well, it wasn’t close in the end, but the Vikings showed that they can answer the call when they need to and have the resiliency people wondered about. Coach Braswell said, “It is a credit to our players that we took a pretty good shot from Pine Forest and managed to come out in the second half and take charge of the game.”
Jonathan Cooper and Shawn Sidbury played on both sides of the ball and despite missing some players, the Vikings continue to look like the team to beat. Coach Braswell noted that with defensive end Casey Monaghan injured, Cooper has had to play much more on defense, and with Rashad Williams inactive and SaQuan Coggins out with a knee injury, Sidbury has been playing corner while having to be the workhorse on the ground for the Hoggard offense.
Moving forward, Hoggard will next host Durham Hillside who beat Greenville Rose 42-30 on Friday. Hillside took out Ashley in the first round, and Hoggard will be trying to get some redemption for the Mideastern Conference as they try to advance. Coach Braswell indicated that they will need to work on some run defense. They ran some big splits. Our guys were getting off blocks, but instead of a two yard gain, it was a four or five yard gain. Maybe without the big splits, they wouldn’t have been four and five yard gains. The toss sweep was a big play for them, the fullback belly of the toss sweep was a big play for them, so our defense was on the field a lot.”
Braswell noted they would have to game plan for that in the future and despite the fact that Hoggard didn’t play that well in the first half, they learned something about themselves and taught us all they have what it takes to be a championship team.