 
FHSC @ Vikings
Sunday, Sept 14
Won 38-35
As of: end week 3
 |
| Standings |
W |
L |
T |
| Sonora |
3 |
0 |
0 |
|
| New Orleans |
2 |
1 |
0 |
|
| Atlanta |
2 |
1 |
0 |
|
| Tampa Bay |
1 |
2 |
0 |
|
|
 |
| 
| WEEK 3 -- FHSC at Minnesota Vikings |
| FHSC barely dodges a purple bullet to go 3-0 |
 | Runningback Ian Thorpe goes for 185 yards and 2 touchdowns on 23 carries during Sunday's win |
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Minneapolis, MN - This Sunday, the Vikings were able to uncover a chink in the FHSC defensive armor, and if not for a late game injury, they may have stolen a victory from Sonora.
As it turned out, the top ranked FHSC just barely avoided losing their first game of the season, to the 14 point underdog Vikings, in a 38-35 thriller.
As in the first two games of the season, the FHSC jumped out to an early lead when their opening drive led to an Ian Thorpe touchdown.
However, unlike the last two weeks, the Vikings were able to repond and came right back down the field with a 70 yard 3 play drive that was capped by a Bennett 36 yard touchdown.
The two teams traded blows in the first half, including Shane Washburn's second punt returned for a touchdown this season, and were tied at 21 with a minute left in the half.
Working out of the shotgun, Jeff Roberts exectued the FHSC two minute drill to near perfection and got the ball into Kevin Messer's field goal range.
Having earlier missed a 53 yard attempt, Messer drove home this 39 yarder to give Sonora the lead going into half time. "I thought I hit the first kick pretty well, but it just came up a littlee short. I had to make the second one to regain the momentum for the second half" commented Messer.
Minnesota's game plan was clear: Throw the ball and throw it a lot. Culpepper was 13 of 22, exploiting the FHSC secondary for 270 yards and 2 touchdowns.
"Watching the films on these guys, we knew that we could create some mismatches in their secondary and really take advantage" said Viking head coach Mike Tice.
And take advantage the Vikings wide outs did, with Randy Moss leading the teams effort with 136 yards and a touchdown on 6 receptions, all of this while being covered most of the day by FHSC's highly touted CB Nick Kam.
It was towards the end of the third quarter with the Vikings trailing the FHSC by three 28-31, that Sonora received what was perhaps their biggest break of the game.
On a third and long, Viking quarterback Dante culpepper dropped back then delivered the ball out to Alexander for a short gain, but as he released Mikey Cunningham got to the thrower and slammed him to the turf.
Culpepper hobbled back to his feet and then was helped off the field by team trainers, not to return. It turned out that Culpepper had suffered a sprained knee and looks to miss the next three Viking games.
With Culpepper out, the Viking passing attack slowed considerably during the fourth quarter.
Even without one of their leaders the Vikings made an attempt to steal the game from a reeling FHSC squad. Late in the fourth quarter, the FHSC defense had a chance to put the game away when they had the Vikings facing a fourth and five situation from the FHSC 33 yard line.
But back-up quarterback Shaun Hill found runningback Michael Bennett wide open on the left side and hit him for a 33 yard touchdown, and closed the Sonora lead back to three points.
The comeback attempt however, was a little too late and the Sonora offense picked up two key first downs and ran out the clock to secure the victory. "We needed a first down or two because they still had all three timeouts,
so I got into the huddle and tried to really fire up the line to hunker down for just a few more tough yards, and we got em" said runningback Ian Thorpe.
Next week the FHSC looks to go 4-0 at home against the Green Bay Packers who are now 2-1 after a 19-7 victory in Detroit.
Sonora will look to shore up their battered pass defense in preparation for Brett Favre's appearance at Norman J. Faber field. Kick off is this Sunday at 1:00pm.
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