Vikings falter in NCL contest

Missed tackles. Breakdowns in pass protection. Too many penalties. The loss to injury of a standout playmaker.

These factors plagued VASJ on Oct. 10, as the Vikings suffered a hard-fought but still disappointing 28-20 loss to visiting Warren JFK at Sparky DiBiasio Stadium.

Although VASJ was never out of the game, and led for a while in the second quarter, critical mistakes combined with some big plays by the visitors in the second half sealed the Vikings’ fate.

Sophomore standout running back/defensive back Jerry Higgins left the game in the second quarter with what looked to be a shoulder injury while defending on an extra-point play. Vikings coach John Storey said Higgins “would be all right” after the game, with the injury appearing not to be too serious, although Higgins did not return for the rest of the contest.

Evan Boyd carried 20 times for 117 yards and two touchdowns for the visiting Eagles, while Bobby Jefferson passed for 124 yards and a score.

“They’re a good team,” Storey said. “They’ve been playing well all year. They’ve got some good, hard-nosed kids. We practiced against their scheme every day. We just didn’t make the plays (tonight). We’ll have to see on film who missed the tackles. They didn’t do anything that we hadn’t seen.”

VASJ (4-3, 1-1 NCL White) did get a nice spark from its passing game. Sophomore QB Aubrey Shabazz completed 14 of 29 passes for 272 yards. Shabazz had a nice connection with 6-foot-3 junior WR Danny McGarry, finding him six times for 146 yards and a touchdown. McGarry made several outstanding catches for first downs, giving the Vikings a downfield option. McGarry also filled in for Higgins on punt returns.

VASJ fumbled the ball away at its own 8-yard line leading to an early JFK score. The Vikings battled back to take the lead in the second quarter, scoring on a 26-yard strike from Shabazz to McGarry, and then on a 14-yard jet sweep by Higgins after a fumble recovery by Howard Hill.

JFK (6-1, 2-0 NCL White) drove 67 yards to score on a 3-yard Boyd run, and took a 14-13 lead with the extrapoint kick. That was the play that Higgins sustained his injury, and when he left a lot of the Vikings’ momentum seemed to go with him.

After four punts to begin the third quarter, the Vikings let Jefferson pick up 11 yards on a third-and-10 play, and then Boyd caught a short pass on yet another thirdand-10 and slipped several tackles on his way to a 59-yard scoring play and a 21-13 Eagles lead.

Boyd broke free for a 50-yard score early in the fourth, putting JFK up 28-13. Though Shabazz was able to connect with McGarry a few more times, and also with Jacob Stauffer twice for 68 yards, VASJ couldn’t build any real momentum thanks to penalties, a lack of a rushing game (68 yards total), and the Eagles consistently being able to break through and sack Shabazz.

Football