Progress is a process. No one knows that better than Northeast head coach Roger Franks.
Trailing by less than two scores with 49 seconds left in the second quarter of its season-opening home contest against Cameron, Franks elected to have his quarterback kneel on the ball to run the clock out.
“We were having so many problems with inconsistency on offense,” Franks said. “Let’s lick our wounds and come out in the second half and that’s what we did.”
The veteran coach needed his Vikings to regroup a bit at halftime. The strategy seemed to work. Franks switched signal callers after the break and Northeast came out firing, taking the ball to Cameron’s 12-yard line after a lengthy drive to start the third quarter.
But the Vikings imploded, losing yards on three consecutive plays including back-to-back false start penalties that left them facing a 4-and-22 from the 27-yard line.
Northeast came up empty, and the Dragons rolled from there, using a ground-and-pound approach to simply wear out the host team.
The Dragons ran the ball relentlessly during the 34-0 shutout win. Northeast’s defense was formidable enough to keep the game close for two quarters. But two quick touchdowns to open the second quarter gave the visitors enough cushion to rely on its counter-run game for the remainder of the game.
“We’re a counter team,” Cameron head coach Jeff Wallace said. “That’s what we do. I bet you we ran it about 50 times tonight in different ways.”
Actually, the Dragons ran the ball 37 times as a team for 214 yards and averaged nearly 6 yards per pop. Dom Hurst, a four-year-starter for Cameron, led the attack, rushing for 157 yards and three touchdowns on 22 carries.
Hurst wasn’t totally satisfied with the victory, though. The Dragons made way too many mistakes that could cost the team in a close game, Hurst said.
“We definitely should have had a better game,” he said. “There were way too many penalties. That was outrageous.”
Last year, the Vikings were buried early in its season-opening loss at Cameron, trailing by five touchdowns after one quarter.
On Friday, in 2021's debut, the teams were scoreless at the end of the first.
“It was 35-0 at this point last year,” Franks reminded his team. “Keep grinding.”
The Vikings struggled during a winless 2020 campaign. This year is different, but the results were the same. Cameron buried Northeast behind a bruising rushing attack.
The contest was paused for nearly 30 minutes early in the fourth quarter after paramedics were summoned to attend to a Vikings player, who left the field on a stretcher. The player’s condition wasn’t immediately known after the game.
