Each Week following Spartanburg Viking Football games, I’m going to take a couple of days and think about the 3 most important things I saw on the field. This week I focus on 3 things I took away from the 32-29 win over Ridge View.
1-The Spartanburg Vikings have become winners. What I mean by that is this team knows how to battle, they know how to fight, they know how to get to the next play when something doesn’t go their way. I was so impressed with the final drive for the Vikings Friday night. We trialed 29-26 in the 4th quarter and started deep in our own territory after picking up a penalty. We never panicked. QB Raheim Jeter led his offense right down the field and Drek Carter scored his 2nd TD of the night and made some amazing cuts on a swing pass (more on this later). When Ridge View picked up a few first downs on their final drive, LB Judah McJempsey took over and got maybe the biggest sack of his career on the 2nd down play. Plain and simple – This Spartanburg team knows how to win.
2-A healthy Drek Carter is so much fun to watch. I remember watching Damajai Foster cut and make people miss and said it’ll be a while before we see that type of shifting and cutting…it was not long at all. Carter has made defenders look silly but maybe what’s more impressive is his ability to fall forward on most tackles. He gets those extra couple of yards every time. At 5’8’’ that’s incredible. He has become one of the top RBs in the county.
3-There are multiple openings in our area and there may be several more over the next few years. How lucky are we that Spartanburg got Coach Hodge. Mark is one of the best people I’ve come to know over the past few years. He’s taught me a lot about the game of football and more about coaching High School kids than I ever knew. Spartanburg High School is a special place and make no mistake…it’s even better with Mark Hodge. While watching our boys win again in the 4th quarter last Friday Night, it was apparent that Coach Hodge’s influence is all over this team already. Our boys are winners, talented, improved, and becoming better men.
Let’s go Vikings!!!!
