Second Place Sports News, 2015
Originally Published Dec. 04, 2015
The 2015 season was the year of the Viking.
It started with a 49-18 victory against Fieldcrest – in a game which Tri-Valley actually trailed twice in what became a great rarity for the ’15 campaign – and ended in a 41-8 victory against the Auburn Trojans for the first state championship in Tri-Valley history.
For those around the program, two words were the rallying cry: ‘unfinished business.’ Behind those two words was another pair that usefully sum up the Vikings’ dominant 2015 campaign: ‘determination’ and ‘hunger.’
“I think (2014’s early playoff exit) made our guys hungry again,” Viking head coach Josh Roop said in his annual August preview with the Press. “We know how close we were to doing some damage in the playoffs and I think they feel like they have some unfinished business.”
They finished it Friday, in a big way. The 41 points tallied by the Viking offense brought the total up to 648 scored on the season. The defensive tally was as stingy as the offensive one was gaudy: 114 points allowed in 14 games – just over eight per game.
But the Vikings didn’t keep track of those totals and Roop didn’t know the stat when asked post-game. The numbers – as impressive as they were – didn’t drive this team.
“The thing that amazes me about this football team is just how determined they are,” Roop said. “There is no perfect players on this field but everybody does their job. As a coach, when you get that, that’s when you know you got something special.”
Prior to last week’s 20-12 semifinal victory, the only team to remain within three scores of the Vikings was the LeRoy Panthers in a 21-0 loss.
Friday’s championship game mirrored the season as the Vikings racked up 337 yards of offense and held the Trojans to just 210, most of which came with the game well in hand in the fourth quarter.
By halftime, it was 28-0 Tri-Valley with four different backs finding the end zone to punctuate long scoring drives.
Jake Steiner opened things up, finding the corner from seven yards out in the first quarter. Next came a 4-yard Hayden Long plunge, followed by a 14-yard scamper from Brock Danko. Peyton Roop’s 7-yard run punctuated the half with 33 seconds remaining, and Jake Ward hit his fourth extra point of the day to extend the lead.
“That’s our offensive line. We’ve got incredible backs. These guys are blessed and they’re talented and I don’t want to take anything away from them,” Roop said. “Our offensive line has done it for us all year and they haven’t gotten the glory to score a touchdown, but these guys know who paves the way for them.”
Six minutes into the second half, Tom Kinsella – whom the coach described as the quarterback of the defense – picked off a Drew Chance pass and had a highlight-reel 81-yard interception return for a touchdown in which it looked like he would be stopped by a handful of different tacklers before he broke free.
“He’s an amazing athlete. That play just shows the kind of determination and leadership he has shown all year,” Roop said. You’re going to ask him a question about it here in a minute and he’s not going to say much about it because that’s just the kind of kid he is.”
Kinsella obliged: “I was looking for the end zone,” he said to chuckles from his teammates and the press.
Roop would get his second score from four yards out with 2:53 left in the third.
The Trojans cracked the Vikings defenses just once as Ryan McLoughlin crossed the goal line with 2:46 remaining and followed it with a two-point conversion.
For All-State lineman Matt Sorensen – a senior that was part of 2013’s runner-up team – there was never a time to relent.
“We came in at halftime and we just said we gotta keep going because Auburn is here for a reason,” Sorensen said. “They’re a great football team. We just had to keep going and had to keep focused on our goal.”
Sorensen was part of the defensive and offensive lines that drove the Vikings and had Auburn reeling for solutions.
“I’ll be honest guys, I did not think they would take it to us like they did up front on both sides of the ball,” Auburn head coach Dave Bates said. “I was most surprised after the game that they handled us up front, and they did.”
Roop credited Bates – who currently coaches Roop’s nephew – for their gameplan and strength as a program.
“Today was something. I don’t want to sit here and take anything away from Auburn. They’re a well-coached program. But these guys were just determined today.” Roop said. “Our DLine…We’re sitting up here talking about backs, but what did our defense just do out there?…Up front I feel like we just played possessed today.”
His son and senior quarterback, Peyton Roop, was a big part of that success as well.
“We are blessed with a quarterback that can look at what the defense is giving you... and make adjustments,” Coach Roop said. “That’s one of the reasons our offense does what it does.”
On the season, Peyton Roop tallied 1,440 rushing yards and 17 touchdowns and 752 passing yards with
12 touchdowns. He finished behind Hayden Long, who tallied 1,473 rushing yards with 20 touchdowns.
Brock Danko rushed for 1,182 and 17 scores as well, while Jake Steiner – a junior – compiled 676 yards and 9 touchdowns while notching 349 receiving yards to go along with 7 touchdowns.
While crediting his senior class, Roop acknowledged it will be tough to duplicate this record-setting squad.
“I can’t imagine getting another group of guys like this to come through here, but we are going to try,” he said.