The Vikings lost no time impressing upon Darrington that the sojourn on Viking territory would be brief and the prospect of scoring points, minimal. The Vikings trounced the Loggers 26-0, allowing the Loggers only 67 yards rushing and only 29 yards passing.

In the first quarter, the Vikings came out and scored with Michael Langworthy on a four yard run into the end zone after a strong march down the field. And in the second quarter Jacob Hanssen took it from quarterback Robbie Padbury and scored for the Vikings on a two yard run for the second touchdown.

“We went for two after that and Robbie (Padbury) ran it in for a two point conversion, making the score 14-0 at the end of the half,” coach Dennis Dahl said.

By the end of the first half the Darrington Loggers’ defense remained frustrated and scoreless.

“I thought we played well in the first half,” Dahl said. “Our defense did a good job of reading their keys and keeping them off-balance. The Loggers had some good athletes, and if you’re not taking care of your responsibilities, they can get in there and hurt you.”

During halftime the Loggers’ lockerroom was burgled, and most of the young men had their wallets stolen, a sad turn of events for a visiting team.

The Vikings remained unstoppable, and the Loggers failed to build up the momentum they would need to dig up points for themselves. The Vikings came out in the third quarter and, off a 69 yard run by Hanssen, the Vikings took it into the endzone again, but missed the two point conversion.

Then in the fourth quarter while deep in Logger territory with Darrington threatening to score, Viking Josh Griffin intercepted a Logger pass and, with three Vikings covering for him, ran for a 48 yard gain. Then Viking quarterback Padbury, looking to maintain momentum for the Vikings, threw to Henry Bredouw, which resulted in a heart-stopping reception by the senior. At a full-on run, Bredouw got a finger on it and pulled the ball out of the air, lost his grip, turned towards the crowd, bobbled it again, regained his clutch on the ball, and by that time a Logger defender was on him and Bredouw had secured the ball close to his midriff as he went down. The crowd let out a palpable sigh of relief. Then Padbury handed it off to Hanssen on 2nd and 12. The Viking offensive line punched through the Logger defense like it was paper and Hanssen scampered through the hole to score the last and final touchdown of the day for the Vikings.

The Vikings’ stats included 290 yards rushing for the day and 72 yards passing. Padbury threw five out of 16 attempts.

“Padbury has been ill with the flu,” Dahl said. “I expect that the passing stats will improve over the next couple of weeks.”

Darrington, plagued by calls not in their favor, never did quite get the mental focus needed to build up confidence that’s so necessary for scoring.

“We just needed to get our heads in the game, and play man to man,” Darrington head coach Chad Montieth said. “Make our basic plays. But we just couldn’t generate the momentum.”

The Vikings play La Conner at 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 17 at home.