In Saturday night’s LBCC Vikings’ Homecoming game, The Vikings aimed to win this special game against the Golden West Rustlers, which ended in disappointment for the Vikings when the final score read 41-17, with The Rustlers taking the victory.
The Vikings elected to receive the kickoff, and on their opening drive they committed two false start penalties along with freshman quarterback Will Madona throwing an interception on the third play of the game, giving the Rustlers great field position at the Vikings’ 37 yard line.
The Rustlers implemented their option offense from the start of the game running over the Vikings and marching into the redzone. The Rustler’s freshman running back Sam Lybeer punched in a 4-yard run to give the Rustlers an early 7-0 lead.
The Vikings seemed to get themselves going with a few comeback routes that were successful, but they could not keep this going as a sack from the Rustler’s freshman linebacker Jordan Palomino stifled their momentum.
With the option proving to be effective for the Rustlers, they drove down the field again and freshman quarterback Ui Ale capped off the drive with a 1-yard run on a read-option keeper.
The Vikings got the ball back and were advancing down the field until Madona threw his second interception of the day, this time to the Rustler’s sophomore defensive back Justin Hintze, who returned it 31 yards for a touchdown, putting the Vikings down 21-0 after just 9 minutes.
With Madona struggling, he was replaced by fellow freshman quarterback Qeanu Campbell-Caldwell in hopes of sparking the Viking offense.
LBCC would end up punting on Campbell-Caldwell’s first drive, but the defense finally showed up.
On third down, freshman defensive lineman Luke Toomalatai found his way through the Rustler’s offensive line and sacked Ale, forcing a punt.
Toomalatai, who was also on the punt team, bulldozed a Rustler lineman on his way to the punter, stuck both hands out and blocked the punt with the ball being scooped up by freshman linebacker Alonso Person and taken 20 yards into the endzone for the first Viking touchdown.
When asked how it felt to have his block returned for a touchdown Toomalatai said, “Beautiful, I looked up and saw my teammate pick up the ball and go score, we needed those points.”
As things were starting to go well for the Vikings, freshman defensive back Jalen Duncan forced a fumble and recovered it, pushing the Vikings’ momentum and returning the ball to them once again.
The momentum would not carry forward as The Vikings failed to convert on a fourth down, giving Golden West possession of the ball once again. The Rustlers took this opportunity to drive down to a goal-to-go situation, but a drop in the red zone would force them to settle for a field goal from sophomore Jake Cipres, extending their lead to 24-7.
The Vikings struggled on offense all night only gaining 242 yards, and being held to 69 yards on the ground by the stout run defense of the Rustlers.
“The defense wasn’t the problem, it was the offense,” said head coach Brett Peabody.
After another empty Viking possession, the defense would come up big again with three straight sacks.
The Vikings quickly found themselves back on defense with the clock running down in the first half after a 60 yard run from Lybeer.
This pressured the Vikings to look for a goal line stop, which they would get, forcing a field goal that would be blocked by freshman defensive lineman Elijah Bradley, keeping the score 24-7 at half.
The second half was not nearly as eventful as the first half, but the Vikings did put together a 10 play drive for 65 total yards that resulted in a 28 yard field goal from sophomore Mario De la Torre.
After two more touchdowns from Golden West, the Vikings finally scored a touchdown as Will Madona came back into the game and threw a 4-yard touchdown pass to sophomore wide receiver Trennel Ridgely.
The final score was 41-17 in favor of the Rustlers.
The LBCC Vikings look to use next week’s bye week to regroup and prepare for their next game which is at home against Ventura on Oct. 15 at 6 p.m.