Their time to shine, Holtville seniors carry Vikings to undefeated record to start season
Holtville seniors Chad Goodsell and Zephan Duarte power Vikings past Zorros
HOLTVILLE, Calif. ( KYMA, KECY-TV ) - For three quarters on Saturday night at Birger Field, The Holtville Vikings had a hard time sustaining drives and trailed CETYS Ensenada 8-0 heading into the final quarter.
"We had out chances," Holtville AD CJ Johnston said. "We threw an interception in the endzone once. Then ran out of time on another drive right before the half."
CETYS Ensenada looked to deliver the knock out blow early in the fourth quarter. The Zorros, on third and goal inside the Viking 10, chose to pass and Vikings senior Elliott Ortiz got to the quarterback for a sack fumble. Smith Hilfiker recovered and the Vikings had new life.
During the celebration in the stands, a streamer hit the light fixture, causing the lights to shutdown. Despite the darkness, the high school band continued to cheer and the stands continued to rock.
"I had to find a bolt cutter to cut the lock," Johnston said. "I had to get in to reset the breaker, it took a little time."
When the lights came back on the Vikings marched down the field and inside the Zorros 10 yard line with under six minutes to play. A holding call forced the Vikings back near the 20 yard line. On third and 16 from the Zorro 18, junior quarterback Bryce Buscaglia rolled to his right then reversed course to the right eluding defenders and found Griffin Garcia wide open and pushed out at the Zorro none yard line.
With the game on the line, head coach Jason Turner gave the ball to the speedy Chad Goodsell. Goodsell ran off the right side and plowing through to defenders near the goalline for the nine yard score.
"That was a play we practiced a coupe times, Chad is pretty raw, it's only his first year playing high school football," Holtville head coach Jason Turner said. "We have a couple tosses for him on the outside because it's late in the game and people get tired so, he has the speed to get to the outside and that's all it was."
Goodsell proved again to be reliable by scoring on the two point conversion to tie the game at 8-8.
"It was amazing, the best feeling ever," Goodsell said. "I loved it. I can't wait for it again. All I knew is when we got that, we were winning."
The Vikings defense would force a punt putting the ball back in the hands of the Vikings offense with 1:31 left in regulation on their own 45 yard line.
On third and nine with 70 seconds left in regulation, again Goodsell got the call in crunch time and the senior delivered again on a toss sweep to the right for a first down at the Zorro 44 yard line.
On first and 10, the call was to another senior, Zephan Duarte and mighty mouse weaved his way through defenders before bouncing back out to the left and outrunning defenders for the 44 yard game winning score.
"I heard Bryce say 24 counter [in the huddle] and we executed," Duarte said. "All my coaches said when we were watching video, it's outside, the play is outside. I went outside on this one, then trusted my instincts on this one, I saw the cut inside, I took it and it was right there."
The Vikings made the extra point and held on in the final seconds to secure the 15-8 win and improve to 3-0 on the season.
"It felt good to fight back," Turner said. "Sometimes we need those games especially to fight through the adversity, to stick together and yeah, just play together."
The Vikings will play their fourth straight home game next Saturday and will finish their three game series with CETYS when they welcome the team from Mexicali.
