Successful season ends with Hollister’s 26-6 win in Florida
By Tom Vivian and Eric Yamasaki
Special to the Free Lance
Hollister’s Pop Warner teams wrapped up a successful season and a successful trip to the nationals in Orlando, Fla. Friday as the Junior Pee Wee Vikings routed the Blue Springs (Miss.) Gators 26-6 to take third place in the national tournament.
The Vikings established their dominance early as quarterback Tyler Fhurong launched an aerial strike that was hauled in by Cody Freitas for a 40-yard gain. Having set up the Gators for the pass, Hollister went to the run, and Fhurong, Chris Cook and Mikey Koroluk all found success, chewing up big chunks of time as well as yardage.
Fhurong also completed three more short passes, and by the time the Vikings reached the Blue Springs 10-yard line, the first quarter had ended, and the Gators didn’t know what Hollister was going to do from one play to the next.
The Vikings called a run and Cody Cameron took the ball into the end zone to give Hollister a 6-0 lead.
It didn’t take long for the Vikings to get the ball back again as Junior Munguia recovered a fumble on the Gators 40.
Three plays later, Hollister scored again as Koroluk swept in from five yards out, set up by his 35-yard run two plays earlier. Angel Pasillas kicked the two-point conversion and Hollister was up 14-0 early.
The score remained the same until early in the third quarter when Blue Springs broke an outside run for a touchdown to make the score 14-6.
The Vikings didn’t let the momentum shift last for long as fullback Dylan Yamasaki powered his way up the middle for several Hollister first downs. Koroluk then took a handoff at the Hollister 40 and swept outside, breaking several tackles on his way to a 60-yard touchdown run and a 20-6 Hollister lead.
The Gators were desperate to get some points on the board and went to the air. Josh George intercepted a pass at midfield to get the ball back for the Vikings, who capitalized immediately as Fhurong hit Freitas again for a 40-yard TD strike to give Hollister a 26-6 advantage.
Blue Springs continued to try to fire up its offense, but Nick Volore made a touchdown saving tackle on a breakaway run. A desperation pass moments later was intercepted by Freitas to end the game.
Hollister’s coaching staff was extremely proud of the way their players had dominated a nationally-ranked team. The defense led the charge all day long as Cameron, Koroluk, Fhurong, Yamasaki, Freitas, Munguia, Cook, George, Aaron Martinez, John Canes and Dominic Padilla all stepped up to make many tackles.
Additionally, quarterback Fhurong put up numbers almost unheard of at the Junior Pee Wee level, completing 10 passes for more than 100 yards on the day.
Hollister’s Junior Pee Wee football team wasn’t the only one from Hollister going home with a trophy. The Pee Wee Viking cheerleaders took fifth in the nation with a spectacular performance on Wednesday as well. Hollister’s Junior Pee Wees also competed, finishing ninth, the same as last year’s Junior Pee Wee team.
For Hollister Pop Warner, the season is now officially over, but Hollister fans can look forward to having nationally competitive teams for several more years to come as the kids that made up these two teams have several years left in Pop Warner uniforms before heading to high school.
