Offense sells tickets. Defense wins championships.
Offense sells tickets. Defense wins championships.
The Hollister Vikings, back in Title Town, celebrated their Pop Warner Super Bowl triumph with a rally Wednesday night at the Veterans Memorial Building in Hollister.
They received certificates on a blustery cold evening on San Benito Street, while they donned their jerseys and showed off their winnings in the form of four trophies.
One for winning the Peninsula Pop Warner Conference, two for winning the Pacific Northwest region, and one more (just one!) for winning the national championship last week in Orlando, Fla.
I was able to view the game film from last Friday’s title bout against the Fairfield Giants of Connecticut, and despite the two teams knotted 6-6 at one point in the fourth quarter, the Giants almost never stood a chance.
That’s because, well, like I said before, defense wins championships, and Fairfield struggled to break through.
The Giants had an average field position of Hollister’s 45-yard line, which doesn’t sound as great as it is. They had 10 offensive drives for the game, with six of them starting in Hollister’s zone. And three of the four drives that started in Fairfield territory began at the Giants’ 44-yard line or better.
In other words, Fairfield’s field position, for pretty much the entire game, was unbelievably fantastic. To make up a word, it was unbelievablytastic. And Hollister bent, but never broke.
Only their first drive, which began at the their own 23-yard line, was Fairfield deep in their zone.
And after the Giants went three-and-out on their first drive, the Vikings capitalized on the field position they were given.
Starting from Fairfield’s 24-yard line, in what would be Hollister’s best positioning of the entire game, quarterback Tyler Fhurong threw a perfect strike to Cody Freitas for a 21-yard gain on the left side. Three plays later, Chris Cook followed the right tackle into the end zone for a 2-yard rushing touchdown, a play called I-Right 34 Pop.
From there, it was an epic defensive battle with little give or take. But any time Fairfield was near Hollister’s end zone – like they were late in the first half with the ball at the Vikings 35- and 33-yard line – the Purple People Eaters seemed to pick up a key sack.
Just like the Minnesota Vikings of the 1970s, Hollister’s motto just may have been, “We’ll meet at the quarterback.”
Late in the first half, Cook sacked Fairfield’s QB on a third-and-nine play, while on the following possession for Fairfield, Hollister’s Enrique Rodriguez did the same for a loss of four yards on third-and-three.
Fairfield got as close as the 23-yard line, but couldn’t pound it in before the half.
In the third quarter, Fairfield had another shot at the end zone on their first possession of the half. Starting from Hollister’s 23-yard line, the Giants rushed the ball seven straight times and got inside the 5-yard line. But on a fourth-and-four from the 5, they ran it an eighth time and only got three yards.
It was only 6-0 at this point, but if you can’t score from inside the 5, well, you just might not score at all.
You only have so many chances in a game to find pay dirt. Hollister capitalized on their opportunity on their first possession. Fairfield couldn’t.
The Giants did, however, find the end zone just three plays into the fourth quarter on a 6-yard rushing touchdown to tie the game.
The Vikings went ahead with a little more than four minutes remaining in regulation with Double Wide Right Special. This play can only truly be appreciated in person.
The play called for Cody Freitas and Joshua George to line up on the right side, run a criss-crossing pattern to knock the defensive backs out of position, and find a wide-open receiver between the two of them.
When watching the video, both receivers may have been open because the two defensive backs – due to the criss-crossing pattern – not only knocked each other out of position but knocked each other on to the ground.
Fhurong’s pass to George was on target, and George ran 31 yards for the go-ahead score.
Fairfield got the ball back with a chance to score, but on first-and-24 after a penalty, a leaping Fhurong picked off the ensuing pass. With key blocks from George and Austin Cascio, Fhurong went 46 yards to the end zone and the clincher.
Indeed, defense wins championships.
Congrats to the Vikings.
