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Vikes snare Fredonia
Williams’ football looks to playoffs

<br>Scott Warren/Williams Color Lab<br>
The Williams High School Vikings football team, seen above in their recent Homecoming game, will head to the playoffs Friday when they take on St. David.

<br>Scott Warren/Williams Color Lab<br> The Williams High School Vikings football team, seen above in their recent Homecoming game, will head to the playoffs Friday when they take on St. David.

The Williams High School (WHS) Vikings football showed what they are made of when they went up against Fredonia Oct. 17. The Vikes poured on the effort for the game, which was also Senior Night for WHS parents. Coach Phillip Echeverria said the young players put forth a tremendous effort in the recent game.

The Vikings came out to start the game by scoring 22 points in the first quarter of play.

"I was real proud of our kids," Echeverria said. "We came out and kind of played like we've been preaching and practicing all week about executing and holding onto the football and doing those little things perfect. I think it paid off for us. They've got an outstanding quarterback that's a really tough football player. He broke a 59-yard run for touchdown and they made the two point conversion. They were leading 7-8. We came back on the next two possessions and made it 22-8 at the end of the first quarter."

The Vikes came on strong in the second quarter of play, scoring an additional 22 points for Williams to end the first half with 44 points. The Vikes came back in the third quarter by scoring two more touchdowns early on, making the score Williams 57, Fredonia 8. The Vikes pulled another touchdown in the fourth quarter of play as well. The recent Vikes win honored Senior Night, where the parents of senior athletes were honored. There are currently eight seniors on the WHS team.

"I asked my offensive linesmen to really step up this week and the remainder of the season and dominate the line of scrimmage like they're really capable of doing and they did that," Echeverria said. "That's the tale of the story is finishing the line of scrimmage and that's what our boys did and it paid off with a really big win. The JV kids gave up a touchdown to that same running back. He hit it hard up the middle and went about 78 yards for a touchdown."

Overall, Echeverria said it was an outstanding game for the Vikes and gave the Williams team the distinction of having an undefeated home season.

"The kids earned their playoff berth into the state playoff. We had a lot of good things that took place. I think we rushed for over 400 yards, somewhere around there, so I was real proud of the boys up front that did that work all week and it paid off in the game," Echeverria said.

The Vikes will travel south of Tucson next for a game against St. David Friday, who recently lost to Valley Lutheran.

"We're looking at a tough ball game down there at St. David, traveling some eight hours to play a football game. We'll prepare all week for what we expect them to attempt to do against us and I'm hoping our kids stay on track. We want to control that line of scrimmage and execute and hold onto the football. We had no turnovers against Fredonia and that really tells a story. When you don't give the ball up generally you're scoring or you're punting and we didn't punt, so we put a lot of points up on the scoreboard," Echeverria said.

The Vikings finished their regular season 5 and 3 and stand at 3 and 2 for the region. The Vikes will head into the playoffs as the number three seed, with Joe City as the number two seed and Mogollon as the number seed from the north.


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