Vikings working to get all cylinders firing at right time

By JAMES TUBB on October 20, 2022.

jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb

The Crescent Heights Vikings are ready and hungry for the playoffs.

The Vikings ended their Rangeland Football Conference season with a 24-6 loss to the Hat High Hawks on Oct. 14, putting them in second place in the league. Head coach Scott Wendell says his takeaway from that loss was how his team hung with the Hawks and powered through any adversity throughout the game.

He says that matchup against the Hawks was a preview for what he hopes is a rematch come the RFC finals.

“Next week is a really important game to get through, so we’re not looking too far ahead, but we’ll have to play McCoy or Brooks and those guys are hungry,” Wendell said after the lost. “So just get through next week and then we’ll regroup, reload and hopefully meet Hat High in the finals.”

The Vikings will matchup against the Brooks Buffalos in the semifinals Friday night for a 5 p.m. contest at the Methanex Bowl. Wendell says their approach to the game will be to forget their 49-0 win over Brooks early in the season and just play ball.

“We’re all high school students, and any given drive anything can happen. We’re going to prepare as best we can, come out ready and hopefully get a little bit more momentum coming into the week after that,” Wendell said. “Then we’ll push ourselves into the playoff run, which is our ultimate goal and has been our attitude since late August when we first got together as a team.”

It will be Wendell’s first RFC playoffs at the helm of the Vikings, something he is excited for.

“It’s that second season when you hit the playoffs and it’s do or die. That’s when everything is heightened. The emotions are higher. The physicality is brought up an extra notch,” Wendell said. “You really rely on your best players, you tire them out and you lean on those seniors especially. It’s the playoffs, that’s when it gets most exciting.”

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