Last Friday night’s crosstown game between the Vikings of La Jolla High School and the Bucs of Mission Bay High not only lived up to the hype but gave folks watching perhaps even more drama than they asked for.

Fortunately, if you were in the stands watching and wearing red and black, you headed home and into your bye week, feeling good as the Vikings reeled off a much-needed 14-7 victory over undefeated Mission Bay. Pushing their record to 3-2.

“It was a huge win on Friday night for us versus a super talented team,” said Vikings head coach Tyler Roach, “A lot of credit has to go to our defense who played their tails off at all three levels.”

Coming into Friday night’s heavyweight bout, Mission Bay’s offense was the embodiment of explosive; any play can be a TD, as the offense averaged a whopping 33 points per game. But as Roach mentioned, the Vikings’ defense would get the last laugh, holding the Bucs to seven points.

Perhaps the most pivotal play from the La Jolla defense would come from their front four/pass rush. On the night, the Viking defensive line would get three sacks of Bucs QB Charlie Hutchison while also tallying 12 total hurries on the night. Leading the way for the D-line was Sawyer Moseley.

The senior recorded 11 tackles, and one sack, batted two passes at the line, and registered three QB hurries on the night.

“Sawyer is a guy who we’ve been super high on and who has played great here at the start of the season,” commented Roach, “We challenged him going into the matchup, and he responded with a huge night for us.”

Along with Moseley anchoring the D-line, La Jolla would also get a jump start from LB Wyatt Boczanowski. The man with the most classic LB last name in San Diego County would match Mosley’s stats, as he also recorded 11 total tackles and one sack.

“We’ve asked him to do some different things this season, like playing some on the end, and while it’s taken some time to adjust he’s really started to settle in,” said Roach. “He presents a challenge for offenses because he can be an LB one play and then come off the edge the next.”

For the La Jolla offense, it wasn’t one of their banner nights. But that was assumed going on, as the plan of attack was more about picking their spots to find big plans and capitalize. For La Jolla, while there weren’t many options there, they still found a way.

The first blow would come in the late second quarter when junior running back Aidan McGill would take a draw play 57 yards to the end zone. It was a huge play at the time and a confidence booster for this offense.

“We came into the game saying we needed to set the tone up from, and we felt that if we could establish a run game, stay consistent with it that eventually, we could get one to pop,” said Roach, “An Aidan popped that big one for us. It was a huge run when we needed a big play.”

The presence of the La Jolla run game was a key factor all night, as while star QB Jackson Diehl was under center, he was hampered with an ankle injury limiting his mobility and passing prowess.

Even still, the La Jolla QB would go 9/15 for 116 and step up when it mattered most, connecting with WR Nick Sebro in the waning minutes of the game on a 26-yard TD pass to give the Vikings the lead and eventual 14-7 win.

“Nick made a fantastic play for us in the slot on that catch. He’s been an outside guy for us, but we told him Friday we were gonna slide him inside because we felt we could get some favorable matchups there,” said Roach. “In that high red zone area, we got some of their main coverage looks and got that isolated matchup we’d been looking for and Jackson had a good ball, and Nick made a spectacular catch.”

At 3-2, La Jolla entered their bye week and will prepare for their first conference game of the season vs. Mira Mesa on Sept 29.

PHOTO BY DAVID FRERKER