Local team caps perfect season with a national title
They’re all under the age of 12 and weigh less than 105 pounds,
but they’re giants among children when it comes to Junior Pee Wee
football.
Local team caps perfect season with a national title
They’re all under the age of 12 and weigh less than 105 pounds, but they’re giants among children when it comes to Junior Pee Wee football.
Last week the Hollister Vikings capped off a perfect 16-0 season by ousting Connecticut’s Fairfield Giants 18-6 to capture the city’s first-ever national Junior Pee Wee football title.
“I can’t even put it into words,” said Vikings head coach Gino Andrade. “They’ve done everything we asked of them for 16 games. They gave it 110 percent at every practice and gave us 40 minutes of solid football every game. I’m so proud of the whole team.”
The game took place at Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, FL and marked the first time that a Hollister Junior Pee Wee team laid claim to a national title. In 2000, the city’s Pee Wee (9-11 year olds) won a national title as well.
“We win or lose as a team so I don’t want to single anyone out,” Andrade said. “But I will say that our defense played absolutely unbelievable. Two or three times the team from Connecticut got inside our 10 (yard line) and we held them with goal-line stands.”
In winning the championship, team members received medals as well as a national championship trophy that the team got to take back from Florida with them.
“This was a great season. We thought we’d make the playoffs but to wind up going 16-0 and win the national championship was totally unexpected,” Andrade said.
The Vikings got to the national championship game by defeating Florida’s Orange Park Cyclones 14-6 in the semifinal game of the tournament.
Last season, the Vikings finished third in the national championship. That experience in Pop Warner’s “Super Bowl” tournament proved vital as the championship game wore on.
The Vikings were first to put points on the board on just their second possession of the game when quarterback Tyler Fhurong handed the ball off to Chris Cook, who burst 25 yards into the end zone to give Hollister a 6-0 lead. The Vikings quick score in the opening quarter came against a team whose defense had given up six points the entire season.
In the second quarter both teams tightened up on defense and neither team was able to find the end zone. Play went back and forth until the Giants managed to find the end zone on a pass play late in the third quarter that knotted the game at 6-6.
In the fourth quarter and in do-or-die mode , the Viking offense caught fire. The first score came when Fhurong hooked up with Josh George, who made his way into the end zone untouched in what would turn out to be the game-winning play.
Leading 12-6, the Vikings defense took the field, and so did Fhurong, who was now in the high-profile safety slot. And after burning the Giants with his touchdown toss to George just minutes earlier, Fhurong burned them again after picking off a stray pass and returning it 30 yards for the score.
“The defense played well and the offense buckled down and moved the ball when it had to,” Andrade said. “They all played a great game.”
Hollister Vikings Junior Pee Wee National Championship Roster:
Buddy Barrientos, Dustin Borba, Jose Bustillos, Austin Cascio, Isaiah Caudillo, Phillip Castro, Chris Cook, Cody Freitas, Russell Enz, Tyler Fhurong, Marcus Flores, Saige Freitas, Josh George, Kyle George, Shraee Harrison, Joseph Horn, Andrew Huaracha, Juan Juarez, Kenny Lee, Donavon Mahler, Angel Martin, Marc Martindelcampo, Bryan Noble, Isaias Perez, Matthew Rabago, Brady Robles, Enrique Rodriguez, Jonathan Sanchez, James Sanchez, Evan Weatherly and Manuel Zuniga
